Quiet Days

I haven't been active much lately, the reason being that there hasn't been much ado.

The rarities that were showing up on the run-in to Christmas aren't showing up any more with the exception of gulls (which don't interest me overmuch) and an american pipit which is a long way off in North Northumberland and it seems to me not worth chasing when I probably wouldn't have been able to distinguish it from the other pipits that occur on the coast.

Nuthatch

The garden has provided the normal fare with the long-tailed tits visiting if sporadically and the nuthatch still appearing almost daily.  I hear the long-tailed tits quite a lot in the Derwent Valley.

The Big Garden Birdwatch again passed with low numbers and birds that I would normally expect to see not turning up, including the pair of collar doves that have landed now and again.  The overall totals (maximum seen at any one time) were:

Jackdaw 3, Woodpigeon 2, Robin 2, Blue Tit 2, Blackbird 1, Coal Tit 1.  Nothing to write home about but this seems to be normal for the past few years.

Bike rides and car trips have produced vary little apart from the odd bird of prey.  

I did finally get out for half an hour at Lamesley Pasture at lunchtime today.  Here there was a large number of greylag geese, possibly 100, and around 20 moorhens digging around in the bankside mud, which is as many as I've counted at once.  A couple of them looked like they might be males getting feisty with each other in preparation for the breeding season.

Moorhens

Otherwise the main thing with wings that could be seen in the distance was the Angel of the North.

I should have more to report in ten days after my latest nature trip in Spain, with which I hope to bridge the transition from winter to spring.

Quiet at The Coast

The forecast was for it to be mild over the festive season and, sure enough I woke up on Christmas Eve morning to witness a red admiral flying around my garden.  it did not settle but seemed to be in good health, flying around robustly.

I spent most of Christmas at Alnwick, having taken advantage of the opportunity to try again for the grey headed lapwing at East Chevington en route.  It had appeared the day before but didn't show.  

However a major consolation was the appearance of a pair of marsh harriers.  I could only get some distance shots of the (I think) female at several hundred yards range but nevertheless worth recording.  Marsh harriers have been turning up in the area for some time but it's the first time I've seen one in Northumberland.

Marsh Harrier at distance

They showed up again briefly around dusk somewhat closer and I got a good view of the wing edgings of the male.  Unfortunately their flight was a bit irregular and didn't last long.  Presumably they are breeding.

A chap who was looking for the grey-headed lapwing reckoned it might be amongst the lapwings in a field near the coastal path.  However I got a view of the 'lapwings' in the camera viewfinder.  They were clearly geese, so I wasn't tempted.

The only birds I got reasonably close to, apart from a single wren, were a couple of moorhens who had forsaken the nearby pond to go foraging in a grassy field.

Moorhens

Turnstone

A Christmas Day walk on Warkworth Beach brought totally calm conditions with virtually no wind and a flat sea nearing high tide.  Unsurprisingly a large number of dogwalkers were out so that birds were not to be found on the foreshore and the only one I saw was a single turnstone on the rocks, its bright underside undermining an otherwise effective camouflage.

It spent its time turning over the seaweed rather than the stones though.

I think I did see a seal pop its head out of the water out at sea a couple of times, but couldn't confirm.

It was the dogs who were the most active animals by far, including the Grays' Arthur who excelled himself and startled other dog owners by digging a hole in the sand big enough for him to be buried in.  This is one of his earlier trial runs:

Daft Dog

It was similarly quiet on Boxing Day when we did another beach walk at Low Newton.  What birds there were were swimming in the bay or snoozing out on the rocks and difficult to decipher.  There were some more turnstone and I think these may be dunlin, while bobbing on the sea there was what Google Lens thought was a Bonaparte's Gull.  But I suspect it was a black-headed gull and others on facebook thought so too.

Dunlin?

Black-headed Gull

As the pub and public toilets were both closed, I had a view over the fields and nearby lake and could make out curlew and greylag geese.

Greylag Goose

Wigeon

In a way the best sighting was the last.

Just before we left I got a clear view over the northern part of the bay, where a few more birds were noticeable.

Floating around on the sea was a group of wigeon, the first time I have ever seen them on salt water.

I suspect they don't do this often, preferring inland lakes - and certainly a much clearer view than the ones at Geltsdale.  It was  probably testament to how calm the conditions were all day.

Getting Around

I got out on a couple more trips this week.

On Monday the U3A Nature Watchers made it to the Low Barns Reserve next to the River Wear, which looks quite promising and certainly produced several pleasant if not unexpected sightings.

Straight away we caught my first sighting this year of a swallow in the typical 'bird on a wire' pose.

Swallow

Of course there were a couple of pairs of Canada Geese, one of which had some charming chicks, the other distinctly amusing in their mating activities.

Canada Geese mating

...and having mated...

Also we found the more obvious members of the grebe family:

Great-crested Grebe

Little Grebe

I was also quite amused to spot what I take to be a pair of immature greylag geese.  I think they look rather stately.

Greylag geese

Then at one point, something out of the ordinary happened when a bird appeared briefly on the fence and bushes in front of the hide - and appeared to be sporting a definite red breast,  Unfortunately, I had turned away briefly to check the feeders and couldn't get a photo of it.  But I did see it later in flight, which was noticeably rapid and again got a clear flash of red breast. The only conclusion I could come to was that it might have been a red-breasted flycatcher, a relatively rare passage bird.

Unfortunately the only photo that someone did manage to take was inconclusive and looked more like a reed warbler and no further reports have followed.

As it happened I had to content myself with a shot of the first speckled wood butterfly I have seen settle this year.

Speckled Wood

In fact there's been remarkably few of them around this year.  Perhaps something to do with the cool, damp spring?

Signs of Life

Nature is only progressing slowly through an extremely wet cool spell.

Reckoning I had tracked down where the mandarin ducks on the Derwent have been appearing, I took a look for them a few weeks ago without success but did manage to identify a buff-tailed bumblebee hunting for somewhere to nest,

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

A few days later it was at last warm enough to sit out in the summerhouse for a while.  I didn't take a camera not expecting to see anything but one of a couple of ladybirds trapped inside proved to be a harlequin ladybird.  It looked half-dead so I put it down thinking to photograph it later but it obviously moved off while I was finishing a coffee.  Apparently they can invade buildings in large numbers.

Meanwhile a chiffchaff had turned up and settled briefly on a plant pot, so it was the only time I have seen my first chiffchaff of the year before hearing one..

Last Saturday, I took a roundabout bike ride and caught a brief glimpse of a yellowhammer.  Stopping briefly at the feeders at Weetslade Country Park, nothing special was visiting but another buff-tailed queen was milling round noisily.

However I did manage to disturb a single red admiral on my way back up Blaydon Burn - so it was my first butterfly sighting of the year (30th March).

Today I decided to visit Rainton Meadows as an identified promising area, as there were no major sightings reported elsewhere.

The ponds were a bit disappointing as views were partially obscured and the ducks as you would have expected and a good way off.  One greylag goose looked to be enjoying the sunshine at the pond's edge.

Greylag Goose

While exploring the woodland areas, and mainly getting lost, I did however come across an early bumblebee nectaring on gorse.

Early Bumblebee

There were also a couple of pleasing moments when a comma landed briefly, and another red admiral was disturbed by my passing.

Near Joe's Pond there was a bullfinch rooting in the undergrowth and, best of all on the Coalfield Path, a lovely if brief display by a singing blackcap.

Mission Accomplished

It's a pity the weather in the middle weeks of October was so rubbish as one of my junior buddleia bushes actually produced a couple of decent sprigs during that period that could potentially have attracted a late butterfly or two.

Buddleia - the last blooms

Anyway persistent rain meant it wasn't to be.  The last butterfly I saw passed over the car park at Washington Sports Centre on 20th October.  It was brown so presumably a small tortoiseshell or comma, I couldn't tell.

One nice surprise was however a visit from a tree sparrow to the reduced offerings in the feeders.  Not a rare but nevertheless an infrequent occurrence.

Tree Sparrow

As you can maybe tell, it proved to be a bit of a poser.

After various postponements, we decided that the monsoon season was finally over at the weekend and I drove over to Alex and Vicki's for a visit to the massive reed bed on the River Tay between Port Allen and Errol.  The key target, the bearded tit, is supposed to inhabit the area but we didn't really rate the chances of success.  In particular I reckoned bearded tits might not fancy the extreme cold that can be experienced north of the Firth of Forth.  In fact it turned out to be a lovely day.  The trees were at their most colourful and bathed in sunshine.

After a fleeting encounter with a red squirrel, Vicki thought she heard some bearded tits. Then, on a pathway out through the reeds, we hit gold.  I saw one straight away but wasn't totally sure.  A twitcher turned up, himself sporting a magnificent russet beard, and soon they - the tits - were all over the place, at least a good few dozen of them.

We were snapping away busily as they mostly didn't stay in the same place for long.  And I was quite pleased that I even managed a couple of videos with my fancy new camera.

Bearded Tits

I realise there may have been some unconscious gender bias going on there as I seem to have zoomed in on the males, so here in the interests of balance are a couple of shots of the females.

Female Bearded Tit

Female Bearded Tit?

As you can see and maybe would have expected, they are clean shaven.  We did wonder though whether the second one might be a juvenile.  It was the first time I have seen bearded tits since I visited Minsmere 12 years ago.

After a most pleasant session and no sign of a marsh harrier, we gave ourselves the 'job done' sticker,  and spurning the chance to pursue a mandarin duck at Scone, we headed south for Loch Leven.

This was actually a good deal less rewarding as there wasn't too much going on in the first hide we visited and by the time we got to the second hide, the light was getting tricky so that I, at least found it tricky to see the colouration of the ducks.

In fact the best shots I got weren't of ducks at all:

Stonechat

Little Egret

The others we observed were a lot of coots, some teal, wigeon and a few goldeneye.  

I was a bit disappointed not to see any pink footed geese as there had been plenty around but days earlier and, on trying to perform alchemy on some distant greylags with the camera, I can now see that I actually captured a few whooper swans even further away.  The shot is unfortunately too blurry to publish - even on here!

Otherwise I did dryly remark that there was more wildlife on the steps going down to the trails - which you actually can't see on descending them.

The wildlife steps

Another visual did however catch my interest though.  It was a sign on the butterflies and moths present, which included a picture of a small blue.  Clearly a strong case for a revisit one summer...

There's an interesting sequel to our trip of a non-nature variety.  As we got ready to go home from Loch Leven, I wanted to check a couple of sightings on my mobile phone and discovered to my horror that I no longer had it. Vicki and Alex phoned it several times and got a ringing tone and I realised I had probably lost it somewhere on the woodland trail by the Tay earlier.

As we drove back there frantically to beat the dusk, Vicki got a call from Mr Huang, a (we think) Chinese tourist who'd picked it up and were able to meet him as he reached his airbnb in Errol.  Apparently he'd heard the alarm going off that I had set to remind me to text a friend.  

Bearded tits AND getting a phone back you lost on a woodland trail!  How much luckier can I get?

Spring In the Air

 It's gradually getting a bit warmer, in spite or because of gale force storms which have made conditions rather unpredictable.  At least there has been no snow like there was last February to March.

Just over two weeks ago I took a bike ride to Matfen.  There were a couple of clusters of bullfinches working the trees but not a great deal else.

The Friday afterwards, I visited Gosforth Nature Reserve for the first time in ages.  Again the winds were approaching gale force and there was a remarkable lack of ducks and geese on the lake.  From the second hide I did manage a couple of possibly flirtatious herons and thought I saw some lapwings flying by in the distance.

In fact the main thing I saw in this area was actually well outside the reserve - a little egret that I managed to focus on several hundred yards away on the Gosforth Subsidence Pond.

Little Egret

On circumnavigating the western end of the lake there were some very dark shapes to be picked out that looked to be shovellers but it was impossible to pick out the colouration.

Just beyond that point, my attention was drawn to an area of undergrowth by some fallen trees.  I thought I could pick out the odd flash of red and I was wondering about brambling.  Eventually I got a clear view of a redwing through the binoculars.  When I tried to sneak nearer for a closer look, about forty or fifty of them went up where I would have guessed there to be about half a dozen.  It was quite pleasing though, as they were the first redwings I've seen all winter.

This Monday, there was supposed to be a Naturewatch trip to Big Waters, which was cancelled due to bad weather.  Noticing however that conditions were improving by lunchtime and that an Iceland Gull had been sighted there the day before, I decided to go along anyway.

Unfortunately the hides were locked but I was soon greeted by a flypast of a hundred or so lapwings, one or two of which showed signs of wanting to practice their mating display flight..

Most were sharing a nearby rock with some oystercatchers and every now and again, they would go up once more.

Lapwings

Further on there was another group of male and female bullfinches who might have been consorting but at the moment were more intent on demolishing a few buds.

Bullfinch

It's always tricky getting shots of them when they're foraging high in the bushes.  Ironically, another male showed up in the trees at the bottom of my garden the day after and posed beautifully - but I was upstairs at the time and didn't have the camera to hand.

 

At the West end of the pond I spent some time peering at the feeders behind the hide and picked up brief a sighting of a siskin, the first I've seen in a long time.  Unfortunately it didn't stay and didn't return.

On the lake there was a large squadron of greylags and another of canada geese, as well as a smaller group of wigeon, as on our last visit.

Wigeon

Friday 7th May

 As if to prove my point a minor extreme weather event hit the area not long after I finished the last post.

Spring?

There were a few rolls of thunder, a flash of lightning and the village was suddenly bombarded by a heavy strafing of hailstones at least the size of marrowfat peas, which quickly covered the roads and gardens.  Who'd want to be a butterfly in that? 

Today a fortunate set of circumstances led to a more fortunate outcome.

I was supposed to be going cycling but my friend cancelled.  A recent cricket injury to my thigh was feeling tight anyway and I was worried I might do myself more harm than good by getting the bike out.

At breakfast I noted that a yellow wagtail had been reported at Bothal Pond and a ring ouzel at Nebiggin.  So I decided that chasing them up would be a healthier thing to do with not too much walking involved.

Flukily I turned up at exactly the right location at Bothal, as what was in fact a black-headed wagtail turned out to be in a horses' field on the other side of the road from the pond. An extensive band of twitchers had already custered by the hedge.  At first all I could see was a couple of swallows.

Amusingly the wagtail was spending its time following the horses to pick up whatever they were turning over in the field.  At first it was favouring the horse furthest away but when a woman entered that part of the field it switched horses and came gradually nearer.  Meanwhile one of the twitchers drew my attention to a wheatear on a dungheap and a couple of horses came over as if to ask what all the fuss was about.

Wheatear

At times the wagtail got really close to either end of a horse and on one occasion, looked like it was in danger of being eaten by one.  It was as if it was a matter of luck that the bird was hungrier than the horse!

Black-headed Wagtail - with horse

Among the twitchers there was some talk about a mockingbird having been seen but I decided to move on to Newbiggin to see if I could catch up with the ring ouzel. Before I moved on a quick glance at the pond revealed some tufted ducks, lapwing and greylag geese, so relative small beer.

At Newbiggin I missed my way slightly trying to find the path to the links when a couple of women in a car stopped to ask me what bird everyone was looking for.  I assumed the ring ouzel was meant but they showed me a picture of another large gathering of twitchers at a rather run down looking location.

I got to the relevant bit of waste ground just off the main street where apparently the bird had been showing all morning before moving off.  It then reappeared briefly on someone's shed just long enough for me to get a hurried shot before disappearing again.

Mockingbird

I waited for half an hour eating an apple but it didn't show up before rain moved in ahead of forecast.

Overall it was a remarkable morning.  The black-headed wagtail does turn up in Northumberland but is one of the rarest wagtails and the mockingbird was several thousand miles away from its normal haunts.  Plus it was complete chance that I found out it was at Newbiggin.

I owed both sightings to the activities of twitchers, who in particular pointed out where to look for the wagtail.  But another mystery must be:  What an earth inspired someone to check out a piece of waste ground in the centre of Newbiggin in the first place?

Thursday 1st April

A lurch into warmer weather has produced an increased level of sightings. 

The day after I last posted, we ventured on a fishing trip to Milkhope Loch on 24th March.  As I was parking the car I heard my first chaffinch of the year.  On a reasonably bright day, Malcolm managed to catch six small roach, although to be honest tiny in most cases.  The first one actually looked more like a rudd but wasn't retained. I stuck out for carp on ledger and short pole with bacon grill baits and had nothing more than a couple of sharp, bait stealing bites on the pole which I attributed to ide but it was more about catching something on this first visit.

On Tuesday this week I went back alone to Milkhope to use up the maggots and again had no trouble picking up small and tiny roach.  I switched to sweetcorn near in on the waggler after lunch in the hope of better things.  One large fish did move through the swim but otherwise it was just tiddlers failing to take the bait.

Bites were continuing on the feeder and the maggots were constantly getting sucked.  So I decided to fine down the tackle, which produced a skimmer bream as well as a couple more roach.  Then just before five I hooked into a much bigger fish which fought well for four or five minutes before snapping the 1lb 14 oz bs line just below the feeder.  Very frustrating as I didn't get a decent view of it, and probably underestimated how heavy it was.

It wasn't much of a consolation that I got a friendly visit from a greylag goose that also ate my apple core.  By this time chiffchaffs were calling all around.

Greylag Goose

Buffish Mining Bee

Previously I spent a windy Sunday afternoon at the Spetchells to see if the mining bees were active and ideally identify the rarer ones.  There were a few dozen buffish mining bees around as well as some garden and red-tailed bumblebee queens.  However I didn't catch up with ashy or tawny mining bee and there was no sign either of the sandmartins over the river yet.  Rather surprisingly, I did see a couple ofunidentified butterflies in an area of trees with dark bark and I wondered if they'd hibernated there.  On the way back along the river a kestrel hovered  enticingly.

Meanwhile I did finally manage to spot a greenfinch high up in a tree at the back of the house.  Stretching the capabilities of the camera, I got a shot which just about showed up the large beak and yellow stripe.

Greenfinch

Yesterday I did a bike run up to Lygett's Junction and a couple of miles up the Waskerley Way.  In considerably sunnier weather, there were quite a few butterflies on the wing.  I wasn't convinced they were all peacocks and red admirals either, too brown and, as I thought not quite right for small tortoiseshells either.  

Skylark

Just past Consett there were a lot of skylarks singing above a meadow and one of them was obliging enough to let forth from the fence of a nearby estate.  Again more of a silhouette but it's rare to get a skylark in the camera lense.

By the time I headed home butterflies were starting to settle in the sun and I caught sight of two peacocks and two red admirals, but none of them were inclined to linger when I appeared.

The extra two miles were worth it though, as there was a chance encounter with an early bumblebee queen as I took a quick break at the halfway stage.

Early Bumblebee Queen

Thursday 26th November

The coal tits continue to raid the bird table in numbers and the robin tries in vain to chase them off.  They are very agile and quick and flight and have become a bit of a favourite.

On Wednesday I followed the twitchers again to see if I could get a decent view of the crossbills at Rising Sun Country Park  Not knowing where they were, I followed the Brown Trail and looked out for conifers,

A slight diversion to a small pond just South of the car park revealed four or five gadwall at closer range than the ones I saw at Holywell but shortly after I met a couple of birdwatchers who said they had found the twitchers but the crossbills had disappeared.  I thought they meant permanently.

Gadwall

However I continued with Plan A, figuring that there seemed to be a good deal of conifers around so that the crossbills may just have been displaced to a slightly different area of the park.

So I walked on not seeing anything of note apart from a couple of suspected fieldfare/redwing until near the end of the path I encountered the twitchers who told me that the crossbills had been there until about three hours ago when a sparrowhawk flushed them and they hadn't been back since.

I decided to come back another day and was heading dor the car park when I saw a chap with binoculars peering into some deciduous trees at the edge of a farm field.  Sure enough it was the crossbills warily edging along the woodland border.  

Crossbill

It was a typical lucky encounter - the right bird on the wrong kind of tree in the wrong location.  Having a last minute success when I had effectively given up looking is however something that has happened to me quite a number of times now.

Yesterday we did another joint bike ride in the Mitford area.  I was just relating the story of having spotted a heron at the top of a tree and failing to photograph it when we saw a heron at the top of a tree in exactly the same place.  Once again it made off when the camera came out.  

Averaging 10.3 mph we didn't notice much more until a lot of honking near Dinnington revealed the presence of a large number of geese in a field.  I took a couple of photos to check for pink-footed geese but it seems they were all greylags.

Sunday 15th November

 A variety of bits and bobs have caught my attention over the past week or so.

A bike trip to Stamfordham didn't reveal much except for a few long-tailed tits and a fleeting sighting of a reed bunting.

A considerable surprise this week was to see a couple of pigeons getting fruity with each other in the birches behind the garden.  Surely they didn't think Spring had already arrived?  It's been pretty mild.

I often wonder where all the food on the bird table goes to.  Usually it disappears when as soon as I turn my back and I tend to blame the jackdaws.  The other day I got a pleasant surprise when I witnessed  eight or ten coal tits visiting in quick succession and departing each time with a few seeds.  At one point there was half a dozen strung out between the clothes on the washing line.  Usually it's just the odd one or two.  Maybe I'm too hasty in blaming the jackdaws.

Last weekend I was in Dumfries and went with the family to RSPB Mersehead.  The weather was questionable and sightings limited as a result.  My son wanted to see the barnacle geese, which was as ever not a problem to arrange.

Barnacle Geese

From Bruaich Hide we could see a few teal and wigeon and one of the former was preening itself to reveal the green underwing patch.  Unfortunately we had to wear masks which steamed up my glasses and when the young ones went outside for a clearer view, everything took flight.

We moved on to Meida Hide where there was just a few greylags but in time for the starling murmuration, which was pretty impressive and lasted for a good half hour.

Murmuration

I knew there was a murmuration at Mersehead but I thought it was considerably smaller.  Comparing it to the one at Gretna/Rockcliffe, I noticed that the birds flew in a broader formation.  It was almost as if they were hoovering up smaller groups of starlings.  At Gretna, the formation was higher and did not cover such a wide area.

On the Monday I checked out St Michael's Churchyard for waxwings.  As suspected, there weren't any yet though the yewberries have started to ripen and blackbirds were eating them.  I was interested to see an unexpected nuthatch climbing up one of the walls, and later a song thrush.

On Thursday I took a bike ride from Kirkley to Abbey Mill near Morpeth, where hawfinches had been sighted several days in succession.  I was very conscious of the sod's law of binoculars, which postulates that if you don't take binoculars, you will see something of interest in the distance.  Sure enough approaching Saltwick, I reckoned I could see some visiting throstles feeding in the fields at about 300m range.  Depending only on my camera, I took a few shots to see if I could identify them later - only to then find I'd picked out a group of starlings!  From what I could make out from views in flight, I reckoned that the winter visitors were pretty much entirely fieldfares.  Probably most redwings are still feasting on berries.

As to the hawfinches, my main aim was to establish precisely where they had been seen.  After a bit of a wander I managed to find the twitchers who were looking for them. They reported that there had been no sightings so far.  My immediate instinct was that the hawfinches had moved on and, sure enough, no further sightings have resulted.  I hope it wasn't my high-vis cycling jacket that scared them... or maybe it was the high-vis leggings of the lady joggers who also passed through.

On Friday I did a walk at East Cramlington Nature Reserve with a friend in the hope of finding some crossbills.  In the event  it turned out to be more of a survival exercise as we ended up on a muddy track next to a drain.  Afterwards we took a look at the well-stocked bird feeders nearing dusk, when I was surprised to see an unexpected bird coyly visiting the feeders.  At first I thought it was a linnet but expert advice suggests it is a female reed bunting.

Reed Bunting

I've never seen either species on a feeder before.

Sunday 31st March

The magpies have continued their nest building efforts. Though at times I was thinking any of the three little pigs could have done a better job, it does now look reasonably stable though not fully visible through the bushes.  So far there is no sign of chicks.

Perhaps also looking for a nest site, two or three fat tree bumblebees have worked their way through the garden.  More amusing however have been the antics of some of the pigeons as they seek to feed on the ivy berries out the back.  One even looked like it was having an ivy bath.  A wren has also visited and I got a nice shot of it singing from the 'dreadlocks' bush, so called because I don't know its real name.

Pigeon

Wren

On a bike ride last Wednesday I heard my first chiffchaffs of the year as soon as I was out of High Spen and they are now around in the woods at the back of the garden.  Between Wylam and Matfen skylarks were about and on the River Pont in the village there was a dipper that was spending so much time underwater I started to wonder if it was a small duck.

On Friday there was a Nature Walk at Whittle Dene Reservoirs.  Quite a few birds were seen but mostly at very long distance, notably wigeon, teal, goldeneye, curlew, cormorant, grey heron and greylag goose.  

Towards the end of the afternoon the wind dropped and we did get a few better sightings near the Southern Reservoir.  There were a couple of feral pigeons at the farmhouse, a few pied wagtails and a good view of a meadow pipit on the fence.  I thought I'd seen a warbler but others disagreed. The best thing we did see was a quick flypast by a sand martin, the first hirondine of this summer.  From all that, the only decent photograph I got was this heron.

Wednesday 13th February

Blue Tit house hunting

A bit of a landmark moment occurred last weekend when the first blue tit (that I have seen anyway) undertook a fairly detailed viewing of the nesting box on the side of the summer house. So far there hasn't been a second viewing but it's a step in the right direction. Robins are starting to become tuneful as another sign of the approach of Spring. A red kite flew straight over the garden yesterday as well just after I had got of the bus around 4.20 pm. I've also seen goldfinches when walking to the bus stop.

Last Wednesday I was out on a bike ride and saw three or four bullfinches along the cycle track just west of Rowland's Gill and as good a view as I've had of a jay, plus a couple of grey squirrels and a buzzard and a kestrel later on.  The kestrel was actually hovering low over the left-hand side of the road as I was approaching Whittonstall.  For a moment, I thought it was going to let me ride straight underneath it.

This was all largely eclipsed by an excellent trip to the Big Waters reserve with the Nature Watchers group

Iceland Gull

this Monday.  There were a number of bullfinches on the way to the first hide, where a number of ducks and geese were quickly identified, including wigeon, teal, tufted duck, canada and greylag geese.

Gulls aren't really my thing but it was interesting to see a herring gull on a well-frequented island straight in front of us.  One of our more expert members also pointed out an iceland gull that clearly dominated the others. Later a number of lapwing landed there too, giving an excellent display of iridescent plumage in the bright sunlight.

The second hide was even more productive.  A number of reed buntings were passing through the reeds and eating the heads, as were incidentally a couple of blue tits.  A wren also passed through, low down into the reeds.

There was also an area of cut grass with a large number of bird tables and feeders to the rear of the hide, which attracted a very wide variety of visitors after a time, including bullfinch, great tit, blue tit, reed bunting, tree sparrow and yellowhammer.  This was not however where I would have expected to see a water rail, which strutted over the lawn on a couple of occasions and appeared to be relatively tame.

Reed Bunting

Water Rail

Yellowhammer

Both the water rail and the iceland gull were first sightings for me.               

Friday 16th November

This is the slightly delayed report on the visit to Low Hauxley WWT reserve on Monday.

Driving by a rather more direct route than planned following my argument with Sally Satnav, we were treated

Tree Sparrows

to a good view of a kestrel hovering on the approach to Hauxley Village.  We duly assembled in the cafe observation area.  Conditions were slightly tricky looking directly into the sun but secerla ducks including little grebe, wigeon and tufted duck were soon spotted.

I sidled off to watch the feeders, which were soon being plundered by a number of tree sparrows, two of whom performed an 'eyes left' routine for the camera.

There was also the first sighting of a red-breasted merganser.  It popped up again later when we were half way round the reserve but, annoyingly for me, it managed to sneak behind an island both times before I could catch it in the binoculars properly.

Female Shoveler

After that we split to visit two hides.  I chose the one facing seawards where there were a few female eider near the shoreline.  Several woodland birds visited the feeders there as well as a moorhen on the ground and a large volley of long-tailed tits passed through, one perching in the twigs right in front of the hide window.

From the other hide there were also reports of a bar-tailed godwit.

Further round past Ponteland Hide, we encountered some gadwall, a shelduck, teal and a pair of female shovelers that seemed to have particularly large beaks - even for them.

Hebridean Sheep

As there had been no substantial frost, there were still numerous plants and trees in flowers.  The ones I noticed most were sea buckthorn, red campion and viper's bugloss.

On the way to the last hide on the western side of the lagoon, there was a group of hebridean sheep, one of which managed to look strangely like a baboon.

Perhaps due to the incoming tide, this was arguably the most productive location and produced amongst others excellent sail past views of a teal and a male goldeneye, while numerous curlew, greylag geese and wigeon could be spotted on the grass upland opposite.

Teal

Goldeneye

All in all a good visit to a well-maintained reserve that had me wondering what rarities might turn up there over time.

Thanks to Ruth of the Prudhoe U3A Naturewatch group for the photos in the absence of my snapper.