All Quiet

It's noticeable that I haven't posted much recently, for the very good reason that not much has been happening.  Continuing wet weather spells have made going out looking for birds on spec unattractive. Usually there are one or two winter rarities turning up in the North East and staying around, but this year not very much at all is getting reported - a couple of fleeting appearances of little auk flocks at least capturing my interest briefly.

I had hoped to see a few waxwings sometime but it's clear there hasn't been a major irruption this year and for the most only single birds have been reported.  Apparently there haven't been any hawfinches either, except a good deal further South.

Anyway I participated in the Big Garden Birdwatch again this year. The scores were:  Blue tit 5, long-tailed tit 5, 3 each for jackdaw, wood pigeon and collar dove, 2 for coal tit, great tit, nuthatch and bullfinch and just 1 for robin, blackbird and dunnock.  There were no sparrows or starlings, which is mostly the case.

I was pleased with the five long-tailed tits, as they've only appeared sporadically this year and a bit surprised that coal tit didn't outnumber great tit, which it might have done on any other day.  An odd number of collar doves was interesting, since I invariably see them in pairs. 

This was probably the most successful Big Garden Birdwatch I've had here, as in the past they've produced few simultaneous sightings.

Today I got out for only the second lengthy bike ride this year, as the rainy day forecast did not materialise.  As a first sign of better times, I saw my first few clumps of snowdrops this year and later a whole bank of them - as well catching a rare hour of sunshine.

Snowdrops

Much ado about Sparrows

Since being mislead by the pale starlings last week, I've experienced a good bit more uncertainty - this time about sparrows.

It struck me that there was something slightly odd about a bird I thought was a sparrow. It spent a good long time sitting in the plum tree before finally feeding for a long while at the bird table - not too sparrow-like in itself.

Dunnock

It's the head pattern that troubled me, the rather dark head and white neck band and bib. Anyway google lens thinks it's a dunnock, which surprises me as there's not much flecking on the breast.  I wouldn't normally have much trouble spotting a dunnock.

I'm please to say that a female nuthatch has visited my new caged bird feeder several times over the past few days.  However it makes sure it lands so it's mainly obscured and flies off as soon as I point the camera at it.

Also still at it is the grey squirrel, so there must be more nuts buried somewhere under the lawn.

Where are my nuts?

The sparrow fixation continued when I finally got to Holy Island yesterday, on a day when people generally agreed not much was going on.

The first bird I saw was again motionless in a tree, as if resting, and appeared at first sight to have a yellowish sheen, suggesting perhaps a female yellowhammer or even an exotic warbler...  So I took more photos and tried to get closer.

Sparrow?

Sparrow

Yes, it's actually the same bird.  The yellowish tinge on the first bird is a trick of the low sunlight, the erect posture somewhat untypical and the apparently large beak an illusion.

After a quiet spell, I got another shot of a bird in a tree, largely facing away from me, wasn't sure what it was but thought "Probably sparrow."

Linnet

So google lens thought linnet - entirely possible.

There was however no mistaking the sparrows that decided to assault the remains of my coffee break.  Not many species learn to be so cheeky.

Definitely Sparrows

After the lunch/coffee break - I wasn't sure which - I got what were some quite pleasing results with the camera.

Heading towards the harbour, a call of nature diverted me to the nearby cliffs where a kestrel was hovering.  I tried to video it but it kept moving and then started hovering at more or less head height no more than five yards or so to my left.

Kestrel

So, if you like, I got a bird's eye view of a bird.

In the harbour area I caught up with another ring-necked plover and was particularly satisfied to pick out one of a pair of rock pipits from a well-camouflaged background.

Ring-necked Plover

Rock Pipit

Google lens however thinks the rock pipit is a corn bunting - oh dear, I don't think so!

But probably the best was this pale-bellied brent goose, because of how far away it was:

Brent Goose

You can't see much of the neck stripe because of its head position.  Incidentally that isn't blood in the water but the reflection of the paintwork from a nearby boat moored at the water's edge.

There was just the one.  However the chap at the crab sandwich stall (I was still hungry) reckoned there had been as many as 6,000 but most had gone inland.  Sure enough, when I ventured further towards the causeway, there were 20 or 30 more, including I think some of the dark-bellied variety.

Brent Geese

Home Sweet Home

A curse upon Chopwell Woods!   I keep visiting in the hope that it will produce some reasonable sightings and invariably come back disappointed.

On my last attempt about three weeks back, the main notable event was the almost total flooding of the southern path into the woods from Blackhall Mill. 

I only managed to start the walk at all by scrambling through the puddles next to the bushes and the best thing I actually saw were a few clumps of snowdrops by the River Derwent after getting off the bus.

In spite of wandering around fairly extensively through the western part of the woods, it was pretty much like a desert with hardly a thing to be seen and precious little to be heard - just a couple of blackbirds, the odd pigeon and a few blue tits.

Even when I strayed into Chopwell East Field during a burst of sunlight, the only change was a slight increase in the amount of bird song.  You would usually reckon to see a squirrel or two somewhere, but absolutely zero - just our canine friends and their captive humans.

A couple of bike rides - to Bolam Lake and yesterday to Corbridge produced nothing at all either.

So once again my interest has been tied to what happens in the garden and nearby.

Red kites have been active over the village and on one occasion right over the house as I drove into the front drive.  Coal tits and long-tailed tits have been doing well, the latter being the second most-spotted tit visitor and interestingly both are more prevalent than great tit, which seems to have dropped down the rankings for some reason.  A pair of blue tits inspected the nesting box, but as in previous years, did not pursue their interest.

Robins have visited frequently and I noted that two of them were untypically tolerant of each others' presence.  Then it became apparent that some mating behaviour was starting and one day I suddenly spotted THREE robins on the gravel within an area just one metre square - but of course it only lasted a couple of seconds or so.

As well as the regular dunnocks, a wren has been seen twice. 

Marsh tits have been past occasional visitors - meaning literally once or twice a year - but last week one actually turned up on three days out of four.  After several attempts when it proved nervy, |I finally managed to get a reasonable photo of it on its last visit.

Marsh Tit

It hasn't been seen since, but of course that doesn't mean it hasn't been back.

Overall though, my campaign to up the level of bird sightings this winter hasn't been a great success and I'm now looking forward to the return of butterflies and bees over the coming weeks.

Which reminds me that at by this time last year, I had already seen my first red admiral.  What a difference a year makes!

Butterfly in February

The next time we played tennis, the teal were still on the weir and afterwards we stopped to watch a group of long-tailed tits messing around in the trees and spotted a treecreeper - my first for some considerable while.  I was also sure I heard a bee buzzing around my head at one point but couldn't see it.

Temperatures were rising and the day after (21st February) they were up to 14C so I went for a longish bike ride inland along the Tyne after dropping my car off for a service.

There was another goosander on the Derwent just upstream from Derwenthaugh but it dived for a long time once it saw me and didn't resurface anywhere nearby.  

Then came a big surprise just behind Blaydon station when I got a clear view of a red admiral flying over the track.  I had wondered if there would be any insects but was thinking more of bees rather than overwintering butterflies.  So I notified it to Butterfly Conservation North East and got a message back saying it was the first report they've had this year.

I didn't see any bees but got momentarily excited by a drone fly on ivy while I was having a break at Wylam Bridge.  After midday it clouded over and my attention turned to food.

On a less fortunate note I have decided to stop putting the peanut feeders out in the garden for a while as a number of brown rats have been visiting lately.  A pity as I recently had a one-off visit from a chaffinch and even the dunnocks had started using them.

Festive Famine

Not much to report over the Christmas period…

Having told someone I don’t see any chaffinches in my garden, one typically turned up two days later and another, a female was in the plum tree on New Year’s Day.

I spent Christmas at my son’s, where a damaged fence has been caused by a badger breaking into their garden to get at the bird food, exciting much interest from their cats. We did a short walk up Galahill where I briefly spotted a flock of bullfinches, otherwise there were several woodpigeons. 

Last Wednesday, I did a seasonal self-guided walk at Weetslade Country Park, which was quite interesting as it covers a far larger area than you see from the cycle track. We got a good view of a kestrel hovering but a visit to the bird feeder area was disappointing as the feeders were all virtually empty. You’d have thought they’d have filled them especially.

However we did get a nice view of a little egret on one of the wee ponds.

Little Egret

Later it proved there was a pair of them. There is now a nature conservation area and it is apparently possible to find otters and water voles.

The garden has continued to be a haven for tits of all four main varieties when the jackdaws aren’t around, with occasional robins, blackbirds and dunnocks.

Tits

In fact I’ve now run out of bird nuts, so quickly have they been disappearing.

A pause in the action...

I'm not too sure why but I've seen remarkably little of note recently.  Perhaps the mild weather has meant that local birds are still finding plenty of food without visiting my garden.  Also I'm maybe just not so tuned in to looking out for birds above as more in the habit of looking down for bees and butterflies.  That's not to say there aren't plenty of interesting visitors stopping off on the Northumberland coast and makes me think that I must time my visit to Holy Island a little later next year.

Having failed in an attempt to see the subalpine warbler at Tynemouth on a bike ride two weeks ago, I thought things would change in the garden when I started putting out suet balls again but there was virtually no response when I hung them in the same location as last year.  Even yesterday I noted there were still a couple of bees around but various attempts to find an ivy bee have failed and only produced wasps.

One more promising note is that, for the first time in a while, I have seen an occasional coal tit coming to the feeders, and a robin has started to investigate the suet balls.  Otherwise it's been hedge-to-hedge jackdaws with the occasional blue tit, great tit or dunnock.

A brief walk at Chopwell Woods two days ago produced the usual - i.e. virtually nothing heard or seen apart from three grey squirrels.  

I had been lined up to go on a U3A visit to St Mary's Island today but had to cancel because of a domestic issue.

Slightly better was a bike ride yesterday.  Having got to Hexham without finding in the countryside except a rabbit and a big roost of chaffinches near the Tyne, I decided on a detour via Whittle Dene Lakes on the way home.  Here, alarmingly, two waters were closed because of blue algae, which seems remarkably late in the year.  However, there were a few cormorants, a single lapwing in flight and a kestrel hunting as well as a few canada geese and tufted ducks.

Unfortunately none of these resulted in a successful photo.

Which reminds me that I did very nearly get a good picture of a young kestrel perching in a nearby tree  last Tuesday - until it saw me! 

A Cold Snap

The fine weather at the end of March was not to continue and occasional snowfall and hailstorms meant that summer species have since been slow to emerge.

Snow was still on the ground in patches when I cycled up to Parkhead on the Waskerley Way last weekend, naively hoping to see the odd bumblebee queen or butterfly.  Instead there were plenty of skylarks on the way plus a few lapwing in semi-display mode and a grouse was clearly audible on the moors.  One thing that was surprising is that I was sure I heard a cuckoo calling on the fringe of Consett on the way back. It seemed remarkably early although there are odd records of them turning up in late winter in Southern England.  Turning into my street at the end of the day there was a single buff-tailed bumblebee queen.

In the garden, the dunnocks have continued to help somewhat in getting rid of some of the nyger seed from the bird table and a squirrel has been taking some of the peanuts that seem to have become less popular with the birds.

Dunnock

Squirrel

The other day I thought I might have spotted my first non-bumblebee of the year but it turned out to be a hoverfly, probably a drone fly.

Drone Fly

Today was similarly quiet when I went on a bike ride to the Princess Anne Park near Washington Centre.  On the way back it perked up somewhat.  Chiffchaffs were singing everywhere and there were a small number of buff-tailed bumblebees lclearly looking for nesting sites.  At one point there were even some rather strange-looking cows wandering along the side of the track.

Cow

Spring is Sprung

When I experimented by offering a nyger seed feeder to the local birds a couple of years or so ago, I was a bit surprised that it was all gobbled up by jackdaws and none of the fancy species I had hoped for got anywhere near it.  So when I was offered a bag of nyger seed surplus to requirements in Moffat, I had little doubt that it would quickly go the same way.

In fact the heavy sprinklings I put down on the bird table were totally shunned for weeks and interest could only be aroused by adding other titbits amongst the glut of uneaten tiny black seeds.

Eventually a pair of dunnocks and the odd blackbird have latched on to the permanent free lunch and at least some of the pile is getting shifted.  I would have expected the coal tits to love it and at least the odd goldfinch to take a look, but not even the jackdaws have shown much enthusiasm.  Perhaps the birds just have other things to do at this time of year.  The feeders haven't produced much either.

Finally emerging from Covid confinement, I took a trip to Edinburgh last week for cultural purposes.  I did manage to slot in an hour's walk in Princes Street Gardens but there was nothing around apart from a couple of magpies and pigeons in spite of a nice, sunny day.  The only other animals I saw were the stuffed ones in the National Museum.

On returning home, there was a little more on offer.  On Friday, I briefly saw a small tortoiseshell from the summer house as well as a bumblebee and a female woodpecker paid a rare visit to the peanut feeder.

Greater-spotted Woodpecker

On a bike ride yesterday there was another bumblebee and any number of skylarks singing, giving a strong sense of Spring.  Then today, single small tortoiseshell was resting on the laurel in the front garden.

Small Tortoiseshell

There seemed to be some staining on the left lower wing that looked a bit like bird lime.  As the temperature was around 9C I was surprised to see it at all and hope it has managed to take cover.  It's forecast to freeze tonight.

After a slight delay..

Unfortunately nature activities have been suspended over the past month due to a bereavement followed by a loss of broadband connection, broken boiler and lengthy powercut in the wake of Storm Arwen.

As a result I've seen very little beyond what has turned up around the garden.  I only got out on one trip, a bike ride to Corbridge when, after seeing a single low-hovering kite early on, I spent some time peering into someone else's garden.  Apart from trying to transform a chaffinch into a brambling as someone once amusingly put it, there was nothing of any significance.  

There hasn't been that much in my garden anyway.  A couple of weeks back I glimpsed a queen wasp

Long-tailed tits

passing by the mahonia but no early bumblebees, which might have been a possibility.

I've spent some time thinking about the long-tailed tits and how gregarious and shy they are.  I moved the suet balls they obviously like onto the plum tree to see if they would come closer.  Apart from one occasion they didn't so I put them back near the fence and about six visited shortly afterwards.  It's a case of feast or famine though.

For a while a dunnock with no tail visited the bird table, moving uptypically slowly. The first time it even stayed there motionless for about an hour.  Presumably it had been attacked.

A wren has also visited on a couple of occasions.

My occasional visitors have sometimes noticed tawny owls calling from the trees by the stream.  I don't usually but there was one evening, quite early, when there was one calling from fairly close by.

A sighting of a furtive jay in the same area had me wondering if one would visit the garden again, but nothing so far.

Tuesday 22nd December

It continues to be a period when I'm seeing more activity in the garden than on my trips out.

A trip to Holywell Dene only revealed a few tits and a walk at Wallington Hall some more tits and a single nuthatch.

Long-tailed tit

However my garden nuthatch still visits the bird table often, and several long-tailed tits often appear though generally just for short raids.  Coal tits are still the most frequent visitors, ahead of blue and great tit and the larger birds.  Wren, dunnock and blackbird have all turned up plus the 'not quite right' greenfinch (see previous two posts).  The long-tailed tits have started feeding a good deal on the fatballs, which have been neglected right through the autumn period for whatever reason unless I had removed them from the feeder and put them somewhere else.

There has also been a surprising first - a goldfinch.  Although common locally, I've never seen one in the garden before.  Overall, it seems the shorter days and the need to feed intensively around the middle of the day is the main cause of the increased traffic.  

On Saturday I did take a trip to Swinsty Loch in North Yorkshire for a socially-distanced walk with daughter and fiancé with slightly better results, starting with a good view of a red kite over the village as I set off.

The walk around Swinsty Loch is advertised as a gentle stroll on a gravel path.  Unfortunately the youngsters had decided instead on a hike through the moors to Badger Dyke Loch, which unbenown to them proved to be a tour of the local swamp grounds and quite hard on both lungs and legs.

However we did happen on this couple of peacocks on the way.

Peacocks

They were wise to shelter in the little hollow as a full-scale pheasant shoot was underway at Badger Dyke Loch.  Apart from dead pheasants we managed to see several score of wigeon at the peaceful end of the water and a handful of tufted duck on the way back down the other side.  In the fields a few fieldfare and redwing were around without showing too well.

To be honest I was slightly disapponted by the wigeon as I had thought I had spotted some pochard in the group.  At least I felt well-exercised and wholly justified in not doing any exercises at home the day after.

Wednesday 9th September

I was nearly fooled into misidentifying a dunnock as some sort of warbler this week.  In fairly bright light there was very little sign of brown making it look almost totally pale and it's habit of sitting in the hedge looking nervously around didn't seem a particularly dunnock-like behaviour.

Nervy Dunnock

However the camera showed clearly that it was definitely a dunnock.

I don't know if the birds and butterflies were out partying on Saturday night but there was little sign of them on Sunday when we walked from Corbridge up past Aydon Castle.  Then on the way back around 2.00 pm on a cool, dull day they started to reappear.  I was pleased to spot a jay and a woodpecker at considerable assistance in my new binoculars.  A few whites showed up and even a red admiral of which I got a poor shot but it was large and looked and in pristine condition, like the others I've seen this year, albeit few enough of them.

Red Admiral

Reaching the river again at Corbridge there were grey wagtails, a couple of male goosanders and a little egret.

Also noted were a couple of dung beetles, several fungi including this massive one and an example of robin's pincushion on a dog rose.

Fungus

Robin's Pincushion

The buddleia has struggled on and still attracts the odd small tortoiseshell or peacock.  One or two small blooms are still developing but I'm not optimistic they'll reach any size.

Thursday 23rd April

 A fellow member from the Prudhoe U3A Naturewatch group thinks that the speckled wood I saw last week (see previous post) may have been variant specimen.  I did consider this possibility on writing the entry but dismissed it as far-fetched.

As it happens I saw my second speckled wood of the year on a bike/hike trip to the Spetchells two days ago.

Somewhat More Speckled Wood

Here we can see that, while the speckles are pretty much 'out', some are still not as clear as the others.  Assuming this one has been on the wing slightly longer than last week's, I'm still inclined to think that it's a case of more colour showing up with wear as happens with some bird species. It would be nice to see what an expert says though.

The main reason I went to the Spetchells was in the hope of seeing an ashy mining bee as I've started doing a bit of bee recording for the North East Bee Hunt  There weren't any but there were rather lot of buffish mining bees...

It was like that pretty much everywhere, including the odd one that landed on my scruffy trainers.  They weren't aggressive except towards the odd buff-tailed bumblebee that occasionally turned up. I'm glad I didn't have to count them as my nearest estimate would have been in the range 10,000 - 1,000,000!

On the way back I also finally managed to get a snap of one of this year's chiffchaffs in full song. 

Chiffchaff singing chiff-chaff

The same thing happened last year. I heard loads before I actually saw one to photograph.

There were also a few butterflies by the Tyne, including one small tortoiseshell where I saw several last August.

In the garden, there have been one or two tree sparrow appearances plus also a lot of orange tips and the odd peacock and a few other whites that tantalisingly won't settle.  It's also clear that the dunnocks have mated successfully and I suspect a pair of blackbirds have too, having several times seen the male entering a gap in the conifer hedge looking somewhat furtive.

Wednesday 10th April

I happened to revisit Whittle Dene Reservoir last Monday week on a bike ride and  there were now 30 or 40 sand martins flying low over the Southern Reservoir.  Another group member had to go back to retrieve a lost item and reported the same thing, except that she was lucky enough to see a little owl as well.

Wary chiffchaff

Last Wednesday turned out sunny so I again ventured off over the hills on the bike to Stocksfield.  Returning along the Tyne Valley, there were a number of chiffchaffs showing in the lower bushes and trees between Prudhoe and Wylam. I got the camera out a couple of times before capturing this slightly wary-looking fellow.

More surprising since temperatures were no more than 11 or 12C was to glimpse a couple of butterflies going down a steep path - one brown and one white but impossible to identify.  However, on the way back home from Ryton a couple of red admirals clearly flew across the road.

There was another trip to the Whittle Dene itself this Monday, but frankly last year's visit, a couple of weeks later in the year produced more interesting results.  Apart from a few long-tailed tits, the main event for me was actually managing to see a skylark singing fervently above until it slowly disappeared into the low cloud as it rose.

The most interesting changes have occurred around the garden.  The jackdaws have pretty much disappeared and the smaller birds have taken over. A siskin (a young female I suspect) frequently visits the nyger seed.  A nuthatch and even a jay (first time) have been seen passing through the silver birches and a chiffchaff briefly inspected a bush in flower. I wonder if the jackdaws are finding more to intyerest them in the farm fields round about.

The idiosyncratic features of the garden are still apparent.  Plenty of dunnocks (often chased away by a robin) but no sparrows or starlings.  It was typified when I was surprised to see a chaffinch on the lawn.

Meanwhile the two magpies are still lolloping around the place without any obvious sign of producing offspring or having laid any eggs.

Magpie pair

Monday 16th April

I have now been installed in my new home for three weeks and have been keeping a keen eye out to see what turned up in the garden, which is a good deal more rural than the one I had in Dumfries.

I put some fatballs out in a feeder at an early stage and attracted all three common tits, a couple of robins and a blackbird that managed to get its head through the outer cage.

Once unpacked, I started putting food out on the bird table, which attracted more or less the same plus a regular dunnock, a wood pigeon and a magpie.

Log-tailed tits

On going for a walk around the area, I saw a couple of red kites circling and on a bike ride to Newcastle, I saw a grey squirel run across the road and heard a skylark above the hills and a chiffchaff next to the Tyne near Newburn.

More recently I acquired a caged peanut feeder and, gratifyingly,  the first observed visitors were a pair of long-tailed tits that were not part of a larger flock.  Then a jackdaw turned up.

It seemed to me that the bird table was emptying rather quickly and after a couple of days, the peanut feeder was lying on the path spilling its contents, so it was getting clear that there was an intruder of some kind.  Something was also splitting open the striped sunflower seeds on the bird table and leaving the husks around.

I suspected Squireel Nutkin and was not surprised when one turned up digging in one of my pots before surrying off at speed.  The day after it turned up again, shimmied up the stem of the bird feeder and scoffed most of the food. Mystery solved!

That's where all the bird food went!

The day after I saw a red kite quite clearly from my kitchen window.  I think they like to circle over Garesfield Golf Club, which is nearby.

So far I have seen one or two bumble bees and a moth but no butterflies, though one or two small tortoiseshells have been reported on nature websites.

Thursday 28th December

A long lapse has been brought on by an outburst of househunting and so no nature activity.  The one thing I did notice was a casual visit to the garden by a wren.  I'm sure this must have happened before at some point but I can't remember the last time I saw one there.

But yesterday I needed to get some fresh air after Christmas and set off to Mersehead following a couple of reports of bramblings in the area, notably on the feeders at the Visitor's Centre which seemed a good idea on a chilly day.

Greenfinches

I duly arrived and found a profusion of birds around the feeders, the first being a yellowhammer that was not to reappear later.  It was nice to see a couple of tree sparrows quite quickly too. The low, bright sunlight made it difficult to see colour and I at first thought there were some bright, small birds that might be of some note. The photos showed some birds obviously had a yellowish tinge and on finally using the binoculars I could see that they were female greenfinches and almost all the others were tree sparrows.

This was in itself interesting as I would never have expected the scene to be dominated by these two species and have never seen either bird in such large numbers.  There were some tits, dunnocks and blackbirds plus a fair few chaffinches but at times every second bird was a tree sparrow or a greenfinch.  It also seemed to me that the female greenfinches were a bit smaller than the males, something I hadn't observed before.

Meanwhile I scanned the chaffinches for anything that looked a bit different, i.e. a brambling but no brambling did appear.

After some time I set off for a wander towards the hides.  Apart from the barnacles, various flocks of which were honking all around the pace, there was a big cluster of birds motionless in one of the bushes on the path to Bruaich Hide.

Linnet

Again the light was difficult but I took them to be linnets.  They sat motionless as I gradually approached as if saving their energy on such a cold day.  In the end they did reluctantly fly off apart from one, presumably their PR Officer who stayed on his/her perch and allowed me to get a close up. 

Apart from that there was precious little to be sighted in the distance on the wetlands and I was having a bit of trouble focussing my binoculars, which got steamed up with the change of temperature on leaving the visitor's centre.

So I decided on a yomp across the beach before returning to the feeders just before dusk.  It was all very enjoyable in the sunshine, very still and quiet but again nothing to be seen (apart from a single heron over the wetland).  The reason in my view was that the tide was extremely far out, and so all the waders, birds of prey etc. move out with it.

Mersehead - very pretty, but no birds in sight!

At the end of the day I spent a good hour watching the feeders until the sun started to disappear.  Still no brambling...

Thursday 3rd March

It's really been a case of little to report over the past ten days.  Last week's bike ride was a 'saw nothing, heard next to nothing event' and, to my surprise, so was the walk I went on at the north end of Ae Forest last Saturday.  After four hours all I had seen was a couple of blue tits and a robin and was left wondering whether the new windfarm had anything to do with it.  Then, on the way back to way back to the car, a couple of dippers showed themselves briefly on the Ae Water, which was incidentally incredibly clear so that you could see straight down into a pool about 10' deep - and that it was totally empty of fish.

Yesterday I decided on a long bike ride down the west side of the Nith estuary and it was a similar story.  Even usual bankers like goldfinch and buzzard were not appearing. Then coming back over the moors, I saw two red kites being mobbed by a bunch of corbids a bit north of Fallgunzeon Farm. This is certainly not the furthest east they've been seen, but I haven't noticed them in this area before, which is a good way from their original haunt on the far side of Loch Ken.

Red Kites

Then on the military road just after Milton, there was a kestrel hovering - always good to see but these days you see one where a decade ago you would have seen ten.  At times I wonder if there's just less birds around than even two years ago.

Today however, as if to call me a liar, there was a small flock of goldfinches sitting in the hedgerow as I made my way along the cycle track after dropping the car off.  Then there was a row of dunnocks in the tops of the smaller trees, singing for all they were worth.  A lot of birds were singing in fact, and my thoughts turned happily to spring.

Wednesday 16th December

I'm enjoying this time more than usual but it's still a bit depressing to see how little decent daylight we are getting - a maximum of around four hours here. No wonder primitive man thought the world was coming to an end.

Went out for an experimental walk yesterday in the area of Barwhillanty Forest and Loch Roan, experimental in the sense I had no idea how attractive the area would be in any respect. Initial impressions in terms of wildlife would have confirmed the notion that the world is coming to an end as nothing was around for the first 45 minutes at all.  In terms of scenery, it was however an extremely attractive stretch of mixed wood and moorland and profoundly still.  I would imagine it to be a beautiful area in the summer and the numerous ponds would probably mean lots of dragonfly and insect activity.

Loch Roan

After nearly an hour I did manage to see a couple of pairs of bullfinches - or possibly the same pair twice about half a mile apart.  They seemed almost to be unwisely limbering up for the mating season, perhaps a reflection of the ongoing mild temperatures that have produced only one frost to date.

Apart from that there were only a few coal tits in the conifers and a couple ofwrens muttering in the undergrowth.

On the way back from Loch Roan (private fishing only) as dusk approached, things did liven up a little.  A reluctant buzzard shuffled around the trees, and half a dozen pipits emerged from the rushes to circle around a bit overhead as if irritated by my presence.  Just I was reflecting that I hadn't seen a single crow or gull all day, a crow wandered lazily across the skyline as the car came into view.  The last bird I saw was a single dunnock.

Saturday 1st March

Spot the bullfinch!

After much wet weather, went up to a drier Edinburgh for a couple of days.  A.m. walk to Saughton Park, which is obviously well-maintained.  A bird singing extensively at the top of a small tree confused me for some while.  Took me some time to work out it was a dunnock.  I've never seen them do this before.  Also bullfinch and long-tailed tit and a crow that had some very pale markings - but not enough to be a hooded crow, in which case it would anyway have been well outside its normal area in North West Scotland.  Also several magpies.  On revisiting a day later, I counted eight magpies in the same tree at one point.

Wednesday 11th December

Several dunnocks around on way up Cairn valley and finally got a couple of decent sightings of redwing flocks in trees - enough to identify even though no clear sighting of red flanks.  Some looked pinkish in the sun, probably a trick of the light.  Nuthatch in trees by Cairn while I stopped for a rest and red squirrel further up - also saw one from the car last week, so they are on the move again. Birdwatcher on moors towards Corsock reported crossbills singing in flight and has seen green woodpeckers and ravens. Red kite and a lot of redwing on the way back plus some big chaffinch flocks.    

Tuesday 30th October

Walk at Threave Castle yesterday, nominally looking for willow tits.  Sort of broke the bind of hearing but not seeing birds as saw redwing, possible woodpecker and fieldfare in the high trees, several wrens, whooper swans, a couple of dunnock (are they another species that has gone down in numbers? - haven't seen one for ages) as well as blue tits and chaffinches.  Detoured back through the wood and also saw jay that had been screeching earlier. No suspect willow tits.  One bench near stepping stones hide is almost out of view of passing birds.  Several blackbirds went very close to me on way to tree nearby.

Very similar result re willow tit today on bike ride through Castle Wood - in fact only saw another jay, some wrens and incidental curlew on way back.  This area looks very attractive with lots of fallen trees, dead wood and damp patches for willow tit, but haven't seen much on several visits. Perhaps it hasn't settled down yet after recent makeover, although this is now two years ago.