Beginning afresh at Newbiggin

One consistent star performer on the stage of my garden bird table is the coal tit.  He/she, since there appears to be no difference, loves to harvest the numerous black sunflower seeds, always exiting backstage into the trees to consume them.

Recently, one bird made at least a dozen successive visits and you can only wonder if it isn't rather energy-sapping to perform in this energetic fashion.  Here's a brief sample:

Coal Tit feeding

Last week I at last achieved an objective when I visited Newbiggin and managed to catch up with some twites towards Beacon Point.

Twite

In fact there was a massive flock of about 50 to 100 birds visiting the seaside as they often do at this time of year.  Apparently there were a few shore larks around too but a jackdaw came down and flushed them shortly before I arrived.  There have been records of snow buntings at Newbiggin, but I think that was a little further down the coast.

Also in evidence on the day were a couple of meadow pipis and, as so often on the coast in Northumberland, stonechats:

Meadow Pipit

Stonechat

Down on the beach, there were a large number of birds dozing by the rock pools near the shoreline.  I took them to be golden plover.  However I was a bit stiff and and didn't fancy going down from the path and took photos at considerable distance.  On comparing them with images in my bird book I thought they looked more like dunlin or knot.  But it seems that golden plover they are.

Golden Plover

Facebook does have some uses!

Mixed Pickings 2

Last Sunday I was out on a walk in the Durisdeer Hills with V&A.

In reasonable weather there were quite a few butterflies around, the predominant species being the green-veined white.

Green-veined White

Even more predominant were large numbers of red kite, which have clearly spread from Loch Ken and a fair few buzzards.

We were really hoping to see a pair of hen harriers that appeared to have mated in the area and merlin, which are known to be present here too.  In fact we saw neither and speculated that the large number of other birds of prey may have discouraged the harriers.

There were however numerous other birds to see, notably meadow pipits as one would expect, wheatear and a few red-legged partridge - hardly surprising as they are bred widely as a gamebird. 

Wheatear

Red-legged Partridge

The wheatear looks to me like a young female. I also noticed that the pipit appears to have some sort of head or eye stripe, so that I briefly wondered about tree pipit but discounted the possibility.

Meadow Pipit

About two thirds of the way along the trail there was some cotton grass and a large expanse of bilberry and I started to wonder what else might be seen here.  However, the bilberry was only just coming into flower.

On the way back through this area, there was a chance sighting of a small heath butterfly, which pleased me considerably.  There was also a single bird's egg on the path - probably that of a dove or pigeon - which we decided to leave alone.

Small Heath

Towards the end a couple of moths appeared.  One I couldn't identify but the other appears to be a brown silverline.

Brown Silverline

A couple of days ago on the way to the doctor's, I did a reccy of Chopwell East Field, a recently declared reserve to see if it is suitable for a Naturewatch Walk.  

It actually proved quite promising.  Quite a lot of flora is springing up.  At one point there are signs of bird's foot trefoil establishing itself, though I suspect it may get overwhelmed by surrounding grasses.  A shetland pony staring at me from a neighbouring horses' field possibly was showing some interest in addressing this issue.

In an area described as wetland, which was actually pretty dry, I was lucky enough to come across one or two small copper butterflies.  Turning to retrace my steps a pair of linnets started singing from nearby trees and bushes.  It looks like they are both male.

Small Copper

Linnets

Meanwhile back in the garden, I've twice been visited by a pair of bullfinches, anxious to hoover up some seeds from the now over-abundant forget-me-nots.

Mr Bullfinch

Mrs Bullfinch

A bit rude of Mr Bullfinch to have his back turned on us.

There's no more news on the mystery black bee, but I did manage to capture this early bumblebee worker.

Early Bumblebee

No more signs of red mason or nomad bees, perhaps down to poorish weather.

On the "Is it a fly or is it a bee" debate, I think I may have missed out when I found a very small item wondering along the kitchen windowsill while cooking.  I didn't take it too seriously thinking it was probably a fly and only got a couple of poor images.

A pity as I think now that it may have been a wee furrow bee and it hung around for ages!

Onshore and Inland

Having survived a cold snap over the past week, I decided on a trip to the coast on Thursday after dropping my ebike off for a service.  I'd thought about concentrating on birdwatching but decided to meet a friend instead, and actually saw a couple of things anyway.

Walking into Cullercoats there was a stonechat on the promenade railing and a woman drew my attention to a kestrel hovering for long periods over the foreshore.

Kestrel

I've never had the chance to capture a hovering kestrel with my wee camera before so it was a pleasing result.

Having collected my bike again, I saw what I initially thought was a woodpecker of some kind crossing my path at the top of the Byker Link track, where there is a bit of a flytipper's paradise.  It had a stripey appearance that put me in mind of illustrations I had seen of a three-toed woodpecker.  Knowing it couldn't really be that I stopped and approached with camera in hand.  The bird took fright at my high vis jacket and made itself scarce but I saw it long enough to note that it was a leucistic blackbird.

The day after I was on a Naturewatch walk to Letah Wood near Hexham.  The main idea was to see the wild daffodils that grow there, which should have been showing well.  However the cold weather over the previous few days has held them back and it was hard to find a decent batch.

Wild Daffodils

There were plenty of birds singing but high up in the canopy and I only actually saw a robin and some woodpigeons.  

However, there was a very healthy tree fungus, probably a shelf fungus and a healthy colony of wood ants.

Shelf Fungus

Wood Ants

The day after I was out again after visiting my son's new house in Crawford when we went along a nice track near Leadhills.  Before we got soaked in a sudden downpour we had managed to see all of curlew, lapwing, buzzard, red kite, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, and raven.

However most sightings were at distance above the horizon.  At one point a lapwing was mobbing a buzzard.  It must be because nesting time is near.

Today I briefly saw the first bumble bee of the year in the garden and at the tennis courts there were several honey bees struggling across the surface. They must have come out too early.

Up in The Highlands 3

Day four of our stay was spent at Marr Lodge after a lovely, scenic drive through the moors of Aberdeenshire.

We did a longish walk up the valley from there and back and at an early stage encountered some birds at the top of some young conifers.  Some were pipits and I thought I saw a couple of linnets but the one decent photo we got might be of a young stonechat.  It's a bit hard to be sure from the front on view:

Linnet or stonechat?

On the basis of the above I'd say stonechat but another poorer photo I got of a bird in the same flock looks more like a linnet.  After that there was a stretch of path where we had to avoid treading on small millipedes on the path, at least fifteen that I came across and a large moth caterpillar on a rock. Again I'm not sure which kind as fox moth and drinker moth caterpillars look quite similar.

Drinker or Fox Moth Caterpillar?

Millipede

Continuing the insect theme, we came across this moth more than once.  After consulting with an expert, I can establish that it was a common heath.

Common Heath

The colouring of this species can vary a bit, it seems.

Further up the path we were noticing more and more pipits.  I assumed they were all meadow pipits but was pleased to note that one was clearly a tree pipit as I hadn't seen the one the day before.

Tree Pipit

Meadow Pipit

On the way back we followed the river through the woods where there are some striking rocky waterfalls.  As well as more tree pipits, we were saying how surprising it was that we hadn't seen a dipper when suddenly one flew past us upriver.

The journey back the day after was a touch disappointing.  We visited a supposed red squirrel feeder station near Boat of Garten but saw no squirrels and one site that was more a tourist walk.  It was also advising the presence of red squirrels as did most other places visited but we saw none at all during the whole stay.  We drove on to the Lough of The Lowes site only to arrive 15 minutes before it closed, thus unfortunately depriving us of apparently the best view of an osprey nest in the UK.

The was a slight consolation at The Hermitage nearby where we saw the tallest pine trees in the country, numerous wagtails and more impressive waterfalls.  And on the way up we did catch up with a dipper, sitting completely still on a stone.  It was still there in exactly the same position when we passed by again an hour later.

Dipper

A Frantic Fortnight of Frustrating Photography

The Covid thing left me with an ongoing chestiness and I decided on a concerted activity campaign during last week's good weather involving several bike rides, tennis and walking cricket.

One of the many bike rides was to Prestwick Carr to see what was on the feeders and looking out for any activity en route, having seen a few peacock butterflies (about 6) and a few bumblebee queens on my other travels as well as hearing several chiffchaffs.

Not much turned up until I came to the end of the track out of Ponteland Park, when I was quite pleased to get a shot of a greenfinch up on a telegraph wire after several attempts.

Greenfinch

Both chiffchaffs and greenfinches have been turning up near the garden and hereabouts, usually heard rather than seen.

It was too early in the day for the short-eared owl at Prestwick Carr, but there was a single tree sparrow on the approach to the area and as usual several small birds near the feeders - notably reed buntings and willow tits as well as more greenfinches, other tits and the odd chaffinch.  Annoyingly, the sun was in such a position that it was impossible to focus on them without scaring them off and the best I could manage was a brief video of a willow tit in the hedgerow.

Willow Tit

There was another peacock and a small tortoiseshell, a large white (probable), a kestrel and a buzzard.

On Sunday, the last day of the really warm sunshine, Alex and I took a walk up to the the Gairs Viewpoint at RSPB Geltsdale in the hope we might see something interesting, which I said for me would be a grouse and either a peregrine or a merlin.

There were a few curlew near the car park.  Afterwards sightings tended once again to be fleeting but we continued well with a redpoll, a greenfinch and a stonechat as we advanced through the tree scrub, having seen a few lapwing in semi-display mode.

Once we reached the moorland, Alex spotted what appeared to be a merlin harassing some passing crows.  It looked like it had settled on a distant fencepost with a crow on another post nearby.  The trouble was that neither of the photos I took clearly showed a merlin so it was a bit of a conundrum.

Further on we started to hear grouse in the heather and a pair or red grouse flew right over our heads - naturally without posing for the camera.

On the way back more and more meadow pipits lifted off in front of us and more peacocks started to appear along with a single buff-tailed bumblebee.  A few buzzards were around and we spent some time working out that another distant bird on a wire was nothing more than a kestrel.  There was no sign of a peregrine.

In all of this the best photos I got were a robin and a stonechat!

Robin

Stonechat

Yesterday I took a quick walk in Chopwell Woods in the hope of seeing a few bumblebees.  One almost flew into me as I went out the door but there wasn't much doing in the Woods apart from another surprise small tortoiseshell at 10C.  As I turned for home more bumblebee queens did start to appear.  Several buff-tailed queens were not keen to settle and a suspected early bumblebee queen on some carnations and a possible garden bumblebee couldn't be confirmed.

Strangely the one butterfly that did linger was a lone tree bumblebee that looked a little small to be a queen but presumably was one.

Small Tortoiseshell

Tree Bumblebee

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.

The return of my bike after a wheel replacement has led to an increase in cycling activity.

On the 12th June, I took a brief trip up the Waskerley Way, hoping to see some butterfly species that haven't been showing up so far.  The only result in that direction was a couple of passing red admirals and a speckled wood.  Once up on the moorland, I did find a bank of bilberry not in flower, a good bit of uncut fern and some advanced bird's foot trefoil but no resulting pollinators. Lapwing, curlew and skylark were around but otherwise the most noticeable feature was the impressive view.

Waskerley Way

The most exciting thing was a momentary sighting of a redstart on the path on the way back down, just after I'd had a close up rear view of a red kite.

On Wednesday I set out from Newbiggin to head for East Chevington Pond, where one or two rarities have been spotted.

Going slowly, I again kept a careful eye on the bird's foot trefoil between Lynemouth and Cresswell but again no common blue were seen.  What I did see was a collection of what I was fairly confident were linnets around a house just South of the first caravan site.  A few turned up later coming back along the dunes but in both cases they didn't hang around.  Linnets are nervous birds.

Stopping at the north end of Cresswell Pond, I didn't really expect to see the spoonbill that had been reported a few days earlier. After returning from inspecting the undergrowth and stumbling upon a red admiral, I spoke to a chap who thought he had seen a little egret.  However another chap with a telescope confirmed it was indeed the spoonbill and I could pick it out in a field on the other side, snoozing with its beak tucked in.  There were some avocets around but I didn't spot them, just a lot of gulls including a little gull.

It was only on the way back in the afternoon that the spoonbill was active and I got a good view of it.  Apart from my visit to Minsmere several years ago I hadn't seen them in this country before.

Spoonbill

Little Gull

Compared to that East Chevington pond was a bit of an anticlimax as all I saw beside more gulls was several cormorants.  At least I got the chance to check out where the hides and approaches to them are.

On the way back more individual red admirals were around, none of them settling.  I counted five by the end of the day.  Again there were a lot of skylarks and several meadow pipits around, on a couple of occasions perching quite close.

Unusually I only saw one stonechat but a nice surprise was a whitethroat on a lone bush in the dunes.

Whitethroat

... Or at least I think it's a whitethroat as I'm still not sure when a whitethroat is a lesser whitethroat.  

On a fitness ride on Friday, I think I may have seen a meadow brown or two, but very much in the passing.

Return to Dumfries - Day 2

The search for birds continued, similar weather to Day 1 with slightly less wind again largely ruling out the possibility of butterflies and bees.

I did an old trick and drove the bike to Ken Dee marshes enabling me to forage further West.  The first target was the Laurieston area where I have heard cuckoos a couple of times before.  However my progress was quickly interrupted on the road over when I could clearly hear a cuckoo calling from  a conifer spread in the middle distance.

Annoyingly again, I couldn't catch sight of it but stopped at the very next field where about three red kites were performing acrobatics.  By the time I got off the bike, removed two layers of gloves and got the camera out they had moved on.

I was just about to do the same when the cuckoo flew right by the road, hotly pursued by two smaller birds - an impressive view.  It settled in a small tree along the road but soon retired some distance away.  I did not know that cuckoos get mobbed but I suppose it makes sense if the pipits etc have worked out what they are up to.

I rode on amongst a chorus of willow warblers and chaffinches and spent time in a certain area where a golden eagle is reported to pass by.  Needless to say there was no sign, nor indeed of any other bird of prey which was a little surprising.  There were just plenty of pipits and the odd skylark singing.

Things remained quiet until heading towards Girthon I heard exactly the same insistent chattering from a hawthorn bush as I encountered yesterday.  This bird was even more invisible.  I wondered about lesser whitethroat but it was only when I replayed the video I attempted that I realised it was a sedge warbler.

Must be a sedge warbler in there somewhere!

This was rather annoying as I have heard sedge warblers before and should have recognised it.  Perhaps I eliminated it on the basis that there was no marshland nearby though on reflection there was a small stream as was the case the day before.

At this point I realised I was quite a way behind schedule and pedalled on at some speed for a late lunch at Kirkcudbright.  This was a bit of a pity as I passed through some interesting territory and someone told me the day after he had seen grayling at Carrick.  I wish I had known that in advance.

The idea was to cycle back slowly to Laurieston from Ringford but a sudden shower sapped the enthusiasm and I did not pay much attention to the cuckoo calling north of Ringford, nor the one south of Laurieston.

After Laurieston I had warmed up a bit and was considering a quick run round the reserve at Ken Dee Marshes to check for peid flycatchers and wood warblers.  But just past the spot where I saw the cuckoo that morning I stopped to inspect the undergrowth and spotted a cuckoo in a tree further along.  I just managed to get a mediocre shot of it before it flew on further to a telegraph pole and started singing.

Before I could get a better shot peering through the trees it bolted up the valley, singing all the time, and made itself scarce.  It was probably the same bird as earlier.

Cuckoo

Thus was a minor ambition achieved in the very last mile or so of the expedition. By the time I reached the car, it was too late for further escapades and I headed back to the B&B.

Wednesday 5th May

Last Thursday I decided to brave the weather and take a fishing trip to Brenkley Pond, partly as I still had some usuable maggots from several weeks ago and was happy enough to catch a few smaller fish on waggler in view of the ongoing near-freezing temperatures at night.  That was exactly what I got - 6 small perch and 6 small roach, some of which rivalled the ones at Milkhope for minuteness.

Even on fine tackle bites were infrequent and finicky and had a knack of arriving at inconvenient moments when I was pouring a coffee or fiddling with gear, so I should probably have caught more.  At least the presence of perch is likely to weed out some of the smaller fish over time.

Covid travel restrictions having been relaxed I took the opportunity to meet up with Alex and Vicki at a certain Scottish moorland last Friday in search of birds of prey.  Maximum temperature forecast 9C, actual temperature on arrival 3C, enlivened by strongish wind and a squally shower.

Within half an hour of arrival, we spotted what we thought was a barn owl hunting and soon there were two or three on the go.  Then hen harriers started to appear, both male and female, overall about a dozen sightings though some may have been the same birds returning.  Some of the males were displaying by zigzagging up and down on the horizon.

Not really dressed for the  cold, I was more interested in fiddling with a flask of tea and a pork pie than the camera, so left it to Vicki to provide the photos.  

Male Hen Harrier

Short-Eared Owl

It transpired on closer inspection that the photos were of short-eared owls, though I suppose it's just about possible that both were present.  At one point two owls were together and there was a clear size difference and all sightings were at some distance.  However the habitat certainly makes short-eared owl a good deal more likely.  We had also hoped for peregrine falcon or merlin but neither showed up, not even on returning later in the day.  Still, having only ever seen one male hen harrier before, it was great to see several on the same day.

Meanwhile, on a brief walk up a nearby valley, we encountered numerous meadow pipits, the first two swallows I have seen this year, a few pied and and one grey wagtail.  I had a notion there might have been a white wagtail but it didn't hang about, neither did one larger pipit on the stream which I suppose was a rock pipit.  On the return walk, there were a number of willow warblers around and one reed bunting as well as a pair of stonechats back on the moor.

I suspect this Spring will turn out to have been a disaster for butterflies and there have been remarkably few on the wing these last ten days.  Today a white landed that was either a female orange tip or a green-veined white.  After it departed a male orange tip appeared.  Otherwise there has been nothing apart from a single speckled wood at the tennis club on Sunday.

Orange Tip

Saturday 10th April

 I noted some while back that spottings in my garden are a bit upside down in that birds that are normally common appear seldom - and vice versa.  A recent surprise was to spot two 'rarities' at the same time last week, a male garden sparrow and a siskin.  A female sparrow also turned up a couple of days later, as did briefly a goldfinch.  Both birds can be seen close at hand but don't usually visit the garden.  You'd really expect more siskins, given the amount of nearby woodland.

Siskin

To cap that I also got the best view I have ever had of a jay, which hung around for a couple of minutes just behind the bottom fence.  This happened while I was getting dressed upstairs, hence alas no photo.

The weather has done a major u-turn putting an end to butterfly sightings but Spring has now sprung and other species are abundant.  

A week ago on Friday Frances and I did a very scenic walk along the Blyth at Humford Mill near Bedlington.  There was wild garlic and other woodland flowers starting to come out all over the place, plus one plant I knew I recognised but needed to check - alternate leaf golden saxifrage.  There was less in the way of birdlife apart from a grey wagtail and a quick flash of a dipper flying downstream.

Grey Wagtail

Alternate Leaf Golden Saxifrage

Although the weather was already starting to cool there were a good few bumblebee queens on the move, one of which seemed to me on the basis of video evidence seemed to be a buff-tailed bumblebee.

One week later it was quite chilly when Malcolm and I set out from Low Newton to the outskirts of Beadnell against a northerly wind.

There were skylarks all over the place with a good number of meadow pipits, one of which posed nicely on a stretch of cut grass near a holiday park.

Meadow Pipit

It was one of those days when the further we walked, the more we saw.  By the time we got back we had also seen kestrels, stonechats, a flock of geese in flight that eventually landed at distance and looked to contain a mixture of greylag and pink-footed geese. there were a good few shelduck around, a couple of which were just about near enough to catch in the camera, though I never even spotted the curlew that was next to them.  A shallow pond produced a couple of gadwall and lapwing as well. however I was most pleased with a quick but unmistakeable view of a golden plover through the binoculars.

Shelduck - and curlew

Afterwards we stopped for a coffee back at Low Newton.  The tide was in and there was a proliferation of sanderling, redshank and oystercatchers on the crowded shoreline and a fleet of eider duck further out.

I reckoned there were some other small birds running around with the sanderling and took a few casual shots thinking to identify them later.  In fact I totally missed the foreshore and got instead a couple of blurred shots of birds in flight above the waves.  One had an upwardly curved beak but wasn't an avocet so I suppose possibly a godwit.  The other was a small wader but from what little I had looked more like illustrations of Temminck's Stint than the dunlin or knot I anticipated.  That however seems rather more unlikely.

If we had visited the foreshore at the beginning rather than the end of the day, I might have paid it more attention.

Sunday 20th September

 The last  few days of summer, at least a bit better than the end of August...

10 days ago I decided to continue my explorations of Cycle Route 1 up as far as Warkworth.   There was an immediate reward just past the old aluminium smelter at Lynemouth when I stopped to watch a group of buzzards and was distracted by the appearance of a couple of butterflies in a nondescript bit of wasteland.  One proved to be a small copper and the other a rather faded common blue, one of two, my only sighting this summer.

Small Copper

Common Blue

Continuing on into the nature reserves, there were a good number of stonechats around the dunes.  I thought at first there were a few whinchats among them too but on checking I think it was just that there was a large proportion of female stonechats and perhaps a few juveniles.

Female Stonechat

On the way back from what was a very pleasant run on a pleasant day, I happened upon this massive flock of goldfinches, as large as I've ever seen.

Goldfinches

There were a few meadow pipts around too.

On Friday I tried a fishing trip to Big Waters, mainly feeder tactics with sweetcorn.  It didn't work for most of the day until I caught two good roach in succession, probably straddling the 1lb mark.  In the meanwhile, I'd noticed some fish playing in the shallows and managed to pick up a couple of nice wee rudd on worm beneath a light float, plus a roach.

The better fish came when the sun was in.  When it came back out bites became niggly and I only got one more roach.  I fished on til dusk in hope, by which time I had lost all ability to cast straight and it was too dark to get a decent photo.

My attempts to preserve the buddleia for longer this year have worked a bit.  Two out of three plants still have some blooms so that small tortoiseshells have continued to visit.

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled wood and red admiral have passed through as well but small tortoiseshell and small white are now the main visitors.