Low Force and High Force Wind

On Saturday I joined up with Jennifer and Joe who are walking the Pennine Way in stages.

We met at Middleton-in-Teesdale to do the section to High Force.  Unfortunately I 'hit the wall' at about four miles and only made it to Low Force, the easy access to High Force from the nearby hotel having closed about 15 minutes before I got there. 

High Force

We saw surprisingly little wildlife during the couple of hours or so.  We thought there was a flock of fieldfares in some trees and there were three butterflies, one of which was a red admiral and a few buff-tailed bumblebee queens.  Birdwise there was the odd lapwing and curlew plus a few pied wagtails.

One surprise though was three completely white mallards that paddled their way across the Tees below Low Force.  Apparently this almost certainly means they were escapees as mallards held domestically are often bred to lose their natural colours.

We actually saw more birds while driving around the moors from place to place: partridge, a possible cuckoo, red grouse and short-eared owl.  And many skylarks.

A buff tailed bumblebee queen finally landed in my garden the other day.  So far they hadn't settled.

Queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Due to poor weather I hadn't been out on the bike for a long time apart from a couple of short refresher rides.  Again not much was seen but having got stopped at the level crossing at Wylam, I took a snap of the grey heron that frequently resides there.

Heron

Anyway, on Sunday I took advantage of what had been an excellent weather forecast for a ride up the coast to Cresswell and Druridge - except that the non-stop sunshine expected never happened and I was buffeted all day by a heavy onshore breeze that made me wish I'd taken my winter gloves!

On the Blyth estuary I got a couple of nice views of shelduck and redshank on the mudflats.

Shelduck

Redshank

I've always liked shelduck.

I did a detour around the Newbiggin area in search of Sandy Bay where rarities sometimes turn up - notably a bluethroat recently- but couldn't find it and made a quick exit to escape the Easter festivities.

At Cresswell and Druridge the most notable sighting was my first bar-tailed godwits, which turned up in both locations.  The one of Cresswell has spilled some weed on itself.

Bar-tailed godwit

I had hoped for avocets, which have recently appeared at both locations but unfortunately no luck and the spoonbill at Druridge didn't show either.  

Nevertheless there was a reasonable tally of further sightings recorded including a little egret in the corner at Cresswell, sanderling, lapwing, canada and greylag geese, shoveler, teal, wigeon, lapwing and several more shelduck

Lapwing

Shoveler

Unsurprisingly no butterflies were seen.

Friday 27th March

Wednesday's bike ride to Kirkcudbright was much like the one before - nice bright weather but no particularly oustanding sightings.  On the way out startled a red-legged partridge, which did sort of settle an argument I've been having with myself as my bird book suggests grey partridge is more likely in this part of the country.  However, this one did have very red legs, so I think I've been getting that one right.  I think they're bred a lot for game.

Between Old Bridge of Urr and Clarebrand followed a hare for nearly a mile along the uphill road before it finally ran off into a field at the top.  Unfortunately there was a dead one a little further

Carlingwark Loch

along.

Stopped at Carlingwark Loch for a break and disturbed a heron, but everything on the water itself was pretty usual stuff and there were no warblers yet.  On restarting did hear my first chiffchaff of the year.  From talking to someone else it seems they've been on the coast for a week and have just started to move inland.

On the way back it was pleasing to encounter two kestrels at seperate locations, perhaps showing their numbers were starting to grow again.  One was hovering over the road hedgerow, just like they used to do. Yesterday there were also a couple of greenfinches in the trees on the estate as I walked back from the shops so hopefully they are doing better as well. Today I saw another bumblebee.