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

A One Off...

The weather since New Year has discouraged excursions and cycle trips except for the most hardy.

With some reluctance and in need of exercise, I decided to take a walk in Chopwell Woods on Monday afternoon in freezing but sunny conditions.  I always expect the most common form of animal to be seen in Chopwell Woods is the domesticated wolf, and fear that I won't see anything like the amount of things I would see in the garden anyway.  On Monday, this comprised blue tit, great tit, coal tit, long-tailed tit, sparrow, chaffinch, bullfinch (3) and nuthatch as well as robin and blackbird.

This fear was largely fulfilled - just a few robins and tits around until I noticed an area near Victoria Garesfield where some birds were advancing from a patch of evergreens to drink in a small stream that hadn't frozen.

Some distance away using a lot of zoom, it turned out that one of the birds showing flashes of red turned out not to be a robin, but a redwing.

Redwing

Now this wasn't really a one-off as it's clear from what others have been posting that there is an influx of redwing in the area just now.

However, for me it was the first redwing I have seen since I relocated to the North East nearly eight years ago, so for me a definite landmark that made the whole walk worthwhile.

If I'd actually been looking for Redwing, Chopwell Woods isn't where I would have started.

A Quiet Period

I haven't posted for some time for the simple reason that I haven't been seeing anything I felt worth reporting.

Partly I haven't made the effort.  There have been a few potential sightings at the coast. Having missed them at Seaton Sluice, an increasing number of snow buntings have appeared on the links at Whitley Bay near where I once lived, as have couple of black redstarts at Cullercoats.  But I have seen both species before and the supposed 'rarities' that occasionally turn up were restricted to known occasional visitors (green-winged teal, American wigeon) and for me unexciting seabirds, though I was briefly tempted by a report of some little auk somewhere.

I was keeping an eye out for any waxwings appearing and there were a small number at North Shields last week that were not expected to linger.  It seems too late and too warm to expect a major irruption.

On my travels the most interesting thing I saw was a pair of goosander on the Derwent near Swalwell.

I was however pleased to note last week the return of long-tailed tits on the suet balls I started to put out when the first minor frost appeared.

Some long-tailed tits

More long-tailed tits

It's possible to get seven or so visiting the same feeder.

Today though, they were outdone by an invasion of the more common members of the tit family, which actually continued for perhaps 15 minutes:

Blue, great and coal tits

Tits are almost always the most common visitors to the garden. This seemed to a case of taking advantage of the lull before the latest forecast storm moves in. 

It'll be interesting to see if there are any more rare visitors to the garden over the coming weeks.

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.

A miss and a hit

The long-tailed tits have continued their massed attacks on the relatively few suet balls still in the garden feeder.  I reckon the maximum number seen at the same time was eight, though things can change pretty quickly as this video shows:

Long-tailed Tits

Elsewhere my third attempt at the grey-headed lapwing at East Chevington drew  another blank.  The trouble with this bird is it doesn't keep its appointments.  Like an unreliable employee, it turns up three of four days in a row then throws a sickie and wasn't sighted at all on Friday.  All the signs were good with a healthy clutch of twitchers peering over the suspect field but an hour later all had left bar me.  All I got was a couple more distant fieldfare sightings and a suspected redwing that turned out (I think) to be a song thrush.

Fieldfare

Song Thrush?

It was bit hard to tell as the low sun was casting a lot of shadow and focusing was quite tricky.

In complete contrast to the absent lapwing the equally rare white-billed diver at Druridge Country Park  proved highly reliable.  Also one you will not find in your Book of British Birds, it has been described as the most photographed bird in Northumberland and ended up performing its stunts pretty much in front of the touristy cafe.

White-billed Diver

It's also a bird that generally does not favour fresh water lakes. 

Apparently it doesn't get on well with cormorants and I noted that the male tufted ducks were going round together in solidarity.

Tufted Ducks

New Year Bonuses

The pattern over the rest of the festive period has been for restricted sightings but with the occasional bonus prize.

I did a quickish walk around the QEII with a friend when there was very little to see in the way of ducks or waders but a single herring gull turned up among the swans at the hotel end.

Herring Gull

For a while I did wonder whether it might be a different gull but the expert opinion was 'third winter herring gull.'  So there!

I spent New Year with V&A in Crawford, driving there in pelting rain.  We didn't get out the next day but Alex got a great shot of the Northern Lights!

Aurora Borealis

I hasn't to add I didn't get a thing and it wasn't even visible to the naked eye.  But pretty good considering we weren't further North.

On the 2nd we managed a trip to Airds Moss, which looked very promising but seeing anything following the sudden temperature drop and in an almost total lack of wind was hard going.

A heron flew along the valley at one point and, thanks to Alex's supreme spotting skills, we picked out a flock of goldfinches feeding in some distant trees, although getting a decent shot of them was a different story as they hid behind the withering catkins.

He then managed to spot a good number of distant fieldfares feeding near a large collection of molehills. Again, getting at a decent view was difficult, this time as they were at considerable distance.

Goldfinch

Fieldfare

Just to prove there were more than one each:

Goldfinches

Fieldfares

This was however the first time I have seen any fieldfares for a very long time, so worthy of note. As far as I could detect, no redwing were present.

A couple of days ago I made a visit to Whittle Dene to check for a little owl but it looks to me that some of the cracks in the wall where it supposedly nests have been filled in.  

The fishing lakes were pretty clear apart from a couple of mallard, gulls and a couple of tufted ducks a very long way off.  

A little investigation up the back of the nature reserve proved fruitless.

Yesterday the snow came down heavily and there was a frenzy of birds at the feeders.  At last the long-tailed tits participated fully and there were five of them at one point attacking a nearly empty suet ball feeder.

It wasn't the best photo, but the little things don't stay still for long!

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!

Larks Not On Shore

Not too much to report from the garden.  I blame fairly or otherwise the continuing construction of a new housing estate in the middle of the village.  However I did manage to get a brief video of the long-tailed tits mobbing the suet dumplings that I've been trying to capture for some while:

Long-tailed tits

Not a bad roll call though I have had as many as seven or eight on previous occasions.  Unfortunately I couldn't get the same suet dumplings on my last trip to the supermarket, and the attempted replacements has been viewed with puzzlement by tits and corbids alike.

In fact this blue tit preferred instead to rob a few seeds from the mahonia bush.

Blue Tit

After some humming and hawing I decided after a typically abortive trip to Chopwell Woods to visit Beacon Point at Newbiggin again, where conditions yesterday were somewhat misty and rather rough.

Rough conditions

Thanks to another birder, I did this time managed to catch up with a pair of shore larks.  These however were found several hundred yards away feeding next to one of the greens on the golf course and nowhere near the shore where they were supposed to be.

Shore larks seem to be fairly confident birds and at times I had the feeling that, even at 250 metres range, this one was giving me the eye.

Shore Lark

There were again a good number of twite on the path next to the golf course, though once again I didn't make a great job of getting them in focus.

Twite

I think i might need to find out more about focal lengths.

The flock was perhaps slightly smaller than last time but feeding in exactly the same place on the path, where I gather people have been putting bird seed down.  I do hope this isn't to be regarded as cheating...

I didn't manage to catch up with the snow buntings that have visited occasionally but another bonus sighting, this time as considerable distance, was a couple of ringed plover down on the rocks.

Ringed Plover

Immediately to the left of them was this rather scruffy item, which puzzled me a good deal.

Scruffy Item

It spent most of its time trying to preen itself.  On reflection I suppose it's perhaps a juvenile oyster catcher without as yet the red beak.

Missing Out

As the weather has become harsher, my attempts to find interesting sightings have largely misfired.

The one new sighting was completely by chance.  As a result of a navigational error on my last long bike ride, I ended up at the village of Broomley, where a good number of redwing were feeding on berries.

There was talk of a mandarin duck on the Derwent in Gateshead, so I took a good scout around but found nothing but a couple of goosander.  Then one was reported at Saltwell Park but it had gone by the time I visited, though I was rather surprised to see a kingfisher flash by.  Not the place I'd have chosen to look for one.

The only thing I did see much of apart from mallards and tufted ducks was a couple of cormorants. By the time a I captured one airing itself, the light had pretty much gone.

Cormorant

Incidentally, folk at the Tennis Club have confirmed seeing salmon going up the weir during November.  I saw one about a month ago but thought it was a freak one-off.  It seems there must be a very late run of salmon on the Derwent.

After a dog walk at Plessey Woods produced nothing but some long-tailed tits and a pigeon last week, Malcolm and I headed for Felton at the weekend as a large number of waxwings had visited a few days before, but once again there was no sign of them, even though we got good tips where to look from local walkers.

I had been hoping to get a video of long-tailed tits mobbing the suet balls I've been putting out in the garden lately, but the best I got was one long-tailed tit and a blue tit:

Long-tailed and blue tit

I might do better after Christmas if I place the feeder nearer the back fence.

Since the sub-zero temperatures and snow arrived  it has got a bit more interesting.  You might not consider a female chaffinch and a juvenile starling rarities but they don't show themselves here regularly at all.

Lastly there was a very dark looking corbid looking around, which I thought was a crow.  It was only when I fiddled with the contrast on the (again very dark) photo I got as it made its exit that some jackdaw features appeared, notably the eye, and I now wonder if it could have been a hybrid.

Jackdaw or Crow?

However I could only find one mention of jackdaw/carrion crow hybridisation on the internet...

Surprise and Disappointment

 As expected the buddleia hasn't lasted into October well enough to have much chance of attracting further butterflies, as just two or three reasonable sprigs remain.  The last red admiral to visit was sighted on 24th September.  Perhaps surprisingly though, the penultimate visitor on the 21st was a one-off comma.

Comma

Holly blue sightings did manage to rise by one, making a presumed final total of 14.

On Friday I finally got round to manage a planned visit to Hammerlands at Moffat (now apparently The Green Frog) to see if I could catch a trout on my father's old fly fishing gear.  Unfortunately most of the lake was heavily weeded and I didn't catch anything - and neither did the other two visitors on the day.  I did however manage to see some hefty looking trout but most were moving around at considerable speed and seemed disinterested in any offerings.

Staying over with my son in Crawford, we then got out for a birdwatching trip to Lochwinnoch RSPB  that proved my theory that you will often see nothing interesting until you are on the point of giving up.

Although it was a pleasant walk, there wasn't that much birdlife around, the main items noted being shoveler, heron and long-tailed tit plus some distant views of goldeneye.

Goldeneye

One interesting section was the boardwalk to the Peel Tower, where there was an abundance of himalayan balsam.  We noted several bees and wasps nectaring on it, all of which seemed to have white markings on the thorax.  I wondered if the first one we saw was a rare bee or if some kind of disease was prevalent.  We eventually concluded that it was in fact pollen from the balsam as it affected all of them, including honey bee, carder bee and buff-tailed bumblebee.  Attempts to photograph it were  in vain as the marking simply doesn't show up well.  This was my best attempt:

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

On a nearby lake, we did manage to add great-crested grebe and tufted duck to the list for the day.

Tufted Duck

Great Crested Grebe

Giving up on further sightings, we headed for Lanark where we bought fish and chips, which we decided to eat at Lanark Loch, mainly because it is a known carp venue.

Leaving binoculars and cameras in the car, we found a bench near the water and opened up the chips.  It was no surprise when a couple of swans came over but they were then followed by up to 20 gulls we couldn't immediately identify.  It turned out they were bonaparte's gulls, an occasional migrant from North America.  Fortunately, Vicki managed to record this first ever sighting for me on her mobile phone.

Bonaparte's Gull

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 Cold Snap

I returned to Prestwick Carr a few days later, hoping to pick up some more sightings towards dusk. Unfortunately it was already very dark an hour before sunset and visibility was poor. The hen harriers didn’t turn up but had been about and a willow tit appeared a couple of times, as did a sparrow hawk, stonechat and kestrel.

On the way back it was just possible to pick out a flock of redwings in the trees and this time they were accompanied by a fair few fieldfare.

Earlier on I saw a large brown bird taking refuge behind a clump of bushes. It might have been the woodcock reported by others but I really couldn’t say.

A trip to Low Newton as the weather deteriorated didn’t produce very much but it was fun to see hundreds of sanderling running up and down the beach and the waves came and went.

Sanderling

In the garden, a burst of snow a week ago heightened interest in the feeders. Repeated volleys of long-tailed tits has visited twice a day and all three other tit family members have been particularly voracious.

Long-tailed tits

What interests me is the fact that robins have been coming to the feeders over the past year. I don’t think this is particularly rare but I also can’t remember them doing that beforehand.

Robin

The occasional kestrel has been seen during the bad weather,looking out for prey in the cold.

Improving Slightly

Typically, the day after my previous post, there was a minor invasion of long-tailed tits on the suet balls, which was exactly what I hoped would happen when I put them out in the first place.

Long-tailed tits

There have been a few visits since but only in small numbers.

Otherwise sightings have been unremarkable, having been too preoccupied with other matters to chase up some of the rarities turning up at the coast, notably the pied wheatear that hung around entertaining the tourists at Whitley Bay skate park for several days.

Yesterday was better. I took a ride to the Cheese Factory via a very flooded Prestwick Carr. Disappointingly the feeders at the Carr were empty but there were several suspected redwing around, which I eventually managed to confirm with the binoculars though the resulting photos were poor.

Redwing

On the way out I noticed a couple walking along with a tripod and, sure enough, on the way back there was a small group of twitchers clustered on the track.

The main reason for the excitement was a couple of female hen harriers, one of which showed nicely for a while and I tracked it in the binoculars, getting mobbed at one point by a  crow. There were also several stonechats and a distant sparrowhawk but no sign of the short-eared owl. The redwings had also largely moved on.

But the strangest thing I saw was actually this orange peel fungus growing out of the Cheese Factory building edge.

Orange Peel Fungus

I’ve no idea how common these are but I’ve never seen one before. It was so intricate, I even wondered if it had been sculpted by an artist, possibly from Red Leicester cheese…

Surprise Visits

Having concluded that a lack of suet nuggets would lead to a lack of long-tailed tits, it was interesting to be proved wrong when they started turning up on the peanut feeders in similar numbers.  It left me wondering whether I should stop feeding the nuggets as you get a better view of them on the nuts.

Long-tailed tits

Curlew

I got out a couple of times.  On Tuesday I did a bike ride along the Tyne.  By the time I got there I was pretty cold and there were a few large chunks of ice floating downstream.  When the forecast sun finally got out on the way back, I saw three male bullfinches in a tree just before Newburn Bridge.  They were less shy than normal, probably focussed on the presence of a single female.  A bit further past Newburn where the trail leaves the river, there were a couple of thrushes flapping their tails at each other.  It looked like some birds are at least thinking about finding a mate.

On Thursday,  we did a walk from Seaton Sluice to St Mary's Island in a stiff and chilly breeze.  Apart from a few curlew in a cemetery, there wasn't much to see but it turned out most birds were hiding out on the rocks north of the car park, presumably out of the worst of the wind.

There were a good few oystercatchers, a few lapwing and several turnstone.  We reckoned there was also a large flock of golden plover nearer the lighthouse, but it was hard to be certain at distance.  On the island itself, a good few seals were lolling about as they are pretty much commonplace there nowadays.

Oystercatcher

Turnstone - with starling

Stoats

I have been bemoaning the lack of less common species in the garden this winter.  But this morning a couple of stoats turned up and started a major fight on the path by the lawns.  I though I'd captured the whole encounter, which lasted several minutes, on video but must have pressed the wrong button!  Presumably it was a fight between two males rather than a mating event.  

As stoats attack rats, I am prepared to extend them a cautious welcome.

Quiet Days

It may be my imagination but there seems to be much less going on in the way of rare bird sightings compared to previous years.  November was mild and waxwings haven't irrupted in any numbers.  Only the odd hawfinch has appeared at Morpeth.  Apart from that most twitchers are reporting gulls and other sea birds that don't excite me that much.

You may have observed that I have posted several photos of long-tailed tits tucking into suet nuggets.  About three weeks ago, I finally managed to get the shot I was really after - six of them having a go at the same time.  Unfortunately, on the last trip to the supermarket in question, the suet nugget shelf was totally empty so maybe other customers have had the same positive results.  The high energy fatballs I've replaced them with don't exercise the same magic, so no more long-tailed tit invasions as yet.

Long-tailed tits

In slightly murky conditions more recently two male bullfinches turned up on the forsythia bush, which I remember attracted bullfinch interest last winter.  I've often noticed bullfinches feeding on fresh shoots at this time of year but it isn't so common to see two males together.

Bullfinches

Perhaps they have a particular liking for forsythia.

Over Christmas I was at my son's in Moffat and we did a walk at Carriefran near the Grey Mare's Tale.  Although the scenery was pretty impressive we didn't see much in the way of wildlife - a single buzzard, a volley of pipits and a few tits and not a single mammal.  This is a new walk and, like Chopwell Woods, they've signposted a lot of trees to show what kind they are.  I'd no idea there were so many varieties of willow

Carriefan

On the way back into Moffat we drove past the Hammerlands Centre, now developed into a serious resort. There used to be a stew pond where it was dead easy to catch a few trout on baits.  The fly fishing seems to have expanded now and is reasonably priced.  I've often told myself I wanted to try some trout fishing again.  I think what I would like to do is catch a trout on my late dad's vintage fly fishing gear.  Perhaps it doesn't extend further than that: I'm not sure I'm up for clambering up and down river banks any more.

Yesterday, I met up with Malcolm to do a dog walk round the QE II lake near Ashington, the one WACAC venue I hadn't sussed out yet.  There wasn't much bird life about apart from common items - swans, cormorants, canada geese and standard ducks.

However I was impressed with the look of it as a fishing venue.  It mainly gets reported as a specimen venue for quality carp and pike but all the main other coarse species are present and it didn't seem as exposed as I had imagined.

Although we didn't see anything much, Malcolm's dog certainly did, showing a great deal of interest in the reedy areas and at one point plunging into a boggy bit of water in full attack mode.  We wondered if it might have been a water vole as there are some in the vicinity.

Vole Hunter

Another advantage of the QE II was the real ale in the (rather plasticy) pub near the car park.

Today I was out on a long bike ride and noticed that there were a lot of chaffinches about.

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.