Madeira Day 3

This was the day that I had allocated to visit the Biological Gardens and the Monte Palace Tropical Garden at Monte north of Funchal Centre. In the event, transport complications and lack of time meant I only went to the latter, which a German guy on yesterday's Butterfly Tour suggested would be better for butterflies.

Having failed to find the relevant bus stop and missed the hourly bus connection to the Tropical Garden I decided to take the cable car.  It cost more time and money but I thought well worth it as it offered good views over the whole area.  The cable car passes quite close over the houses whose owners can do nothing about it if a certain overhead distance is observed. Perhaps in protest, one man immediately below was tending his garden completely naked, provoking an ecstatic reaction from an Asian lady in the same car as me.

Arriving at the garden, I headed straight at the Lauressilva trees optimistically hoping for another Cleopatra but the downward path of broken grey stone was quite tricky and so spent most of the time looking at my own feet.

I wasn't overall quite sure what to make of the Tropical Garden.  It's certainly informative and well-resourced with plenty of trees and flowers but I felt overall a bit unnatural and disappointing.  It certainly didn't produce any interesting butterflies as speckled woods were all I saw.

One thing I started to notice on them though is the variation of the depth of background colour of the forewing.  In this example, it is particularly dark:

Speckled Wood

I guess the lighter versions have been on the wing longer.

As throughout the rest of my stay in Madeira, the only bees seen were buff-tailed bumblebees and honey bees.  Perhaps more appropriate to the tropical theme was this oriental darter, doing its best  to imitate a twig.

Island Darter

Otherwise it all had a bit of a zoo-like feel.  There was a few ponds in the oriental garden, one with masses of koi carp and another with masses of croaking frogs.

Koi Carp

Croaking Frogs

A big hit with the visitors was this small pond full of flamingos, amusingly tossing their heads almost in synchrony as they expressed apparent verbal displeasure.

Flamingos

Presumably they've had their wings clipped to prevent them from flying away.

More interesting was another small pond containing a couple of ducks I couldn't recognise. These are wood ducks, a rare American migrant to Madeira and perhaps therefore also not entirely there by choice.

Male Wood Duck

Just before leaving I was reminded of reading that robins abroad are much shier than in the UK when this wee one turned up so close I could almost have caught it.

Robin

While waiting 30 minutes for the service bus back to Funchal, I did see a white butterfly at distance.  As the Madeiran Large White is extinct and the African migrant is a rarity, I'm 98% certain it must have been a small white.

As if by habit I made again for the Municipal Garden.  Once again the Monarch was in evidence except at this time there were at least four of them.  From time to time they performed the speckled wood habit of spiralling aggressively upwards, this time flying around to the background noise of a prolonged religious ceremony.

Monarchs

And just to prove they're not always completely elusive, I snapped a buff-tailed bumblebee on a nice flower

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

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 Slow Spring

We are already experiencing summery days but I have so far seen little of much interest.

About a week ago people started reporting occasional buff-tailed bumblebees and the odd butterfly.  I noticed three of the buff-tailed bumblebee queens in the garden on Monday and a couple more since but no sign yet of the red mason bees that live in the bug hotel and so far no butterflies at all.  Interestingly several records of the brimstone have been registered in the Darlington area and one as far North as Sunniside.  It would be great if one of those turned up on my travels

Again I'm regretting the lack of garlic mustard in the garden, once prolific and a food plant for the orange tip and green-veined white until I decided it was getting out of hand and uprooted virtually the whole lot.

Apart from an increase in blackbirds and robins, collar doves have been fairly frequent visitors, fleeing into the trees at the back if they caught my attention.

Collar Dove

I remember being excited when they first turned up as a mystery in our garden in Blyth in the early eighties, having only recently established a presence in the area.

A bike ride to Matfen a fortnight ago produced a sighting of a yellowhammer and hearing my first chiffchaff, which are now singing out all over the place as they do.  On several occasions I have also heard greenfinches in the tree tops but so far haven't seen one.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I did see was crawling around in the summer house rather than in the garden itself.

Green Lacewing

Nothing special and I have had lacewings before in the Spring, but I rather like them and daresay the trout in the Derwent like them too.

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.

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!

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.

A pause in the action...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately none of these resulted in a successful photo.

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

Monday 8th March

Recent paucity of nature news can be blamed on poorish weather and continuing lockdown, hopefully better is soon to follow.

A slightly bright nore has been offered by several appearances of a male nuthatch in the garden and, on one sole occasion that of a woodpecker.  Yesterday I planted some wild flower seeds at the back of the garden as it is only now that frosty nights are starting to look less likely.  Part of the thinking here is that the copious amount of garlic mustard that used to grow in the same area hsn't yet appeared.  Maybe I was too radical when knocking it back last summer.

I've done a couple more walks in Chopwell Woods, whose main success lay in finding further routes that avoid the heavily-used car park and ice-cream van.  During the first one, there was at least some birdsong to be heard and evidence of jays in the trees, but that was all apart from a grey squirrel, the odd robin and a single wren.  Last week the second one was a return to the baffling near total absence of birds.  I can't understand it.  You'd think among so many trees there'd be treecreepers and even a crossbill or two.

One thing I did come across on the way in was a heron on nearby farmland.  This evokes the question I wondered about often in Dumfries.  Why do herons visit farmland in winter - to seek out worms and insects or because of fishmeal compost?

Heron

This one is obviously next to some flooded land but I can't imagine it would hold fish and it seems to be looking elsewhere.

More interesting was a visit with Malcolm to check out some of the lakes maintained by Wansbeck and Cramlington Angling Club during a brief warmer spell.  Walking up to Milkope Lake there were a good number of skylarks in the fields.  They were flying low in pairs rather than soaring alone and it looked like this was some sort of pre-mating activity.  On actually reaching the pond, a good number of people were fishing and catching small stuff.

On Horton Lake nearby, one elderly angler took about half an hour to land a near 6lb bream on fine pole tackle and a visit to Brenkley Lake established that it had recently produced a 19lb carp.  We've taken out membership and I hope to report on some fishing activity before the end of the month.  I had wondered if it would soon get warm enough for butterflies to be seen early but the weather quickly deteriorated over the weekend

A bike ride the Monday after started in mist temperatures of 3C rather than the anticipated 9C but at least led to the sighting of a group of tree sparrows huddling in a tree,  I was out riding again today in warmer but windy weather and did get a closer than usual view of some tufted ducks at Bradley Pond on the way home.

Tufted Ducks

Wednesday 27th January

There has been a surprise visitor to the garden last week - a chaffinch.  Not the rarest of birds by any means but another example on one that isn't seen too much up here. 

I was over in Dumfries at the weekend and did a walk round the Mersehead reserve.  On a pretty cold and bright day, the low sunshine meant the scenery was beautiful but made it hard to identify and photograph the birdlife.

Heading for the beach there were some canada geese in the fields and a little egret flew past overhead.  When we got there the tide was as far out as I've ever seen it and there was a clear view across to Skiddaw on the other side of the Solway.

Skiddaw across the Solway

Several flights of barnacle geese flew in from the West and landed on the reserve.  It was also very still and the only bird of prey we saw was a buzzard on a dead tree who steadfastly showed his back to us.

We went along the coast towards Southerness some distance in the hope of spotting some merlin after small birds but in vain as there werfe only a few corbids in the fields.  All we saw on the shoreline was one of several robins encountered and a wren.

On moving back inland we encountered the first of two groups of deer.

Roe Deer

Moving through the woodland strip we did see several throstles feeding in a field.  It was hard to make them out properly but on careful observation they seemed to be mainly fieldfare and some mistle thrush.  We didn't see any redwing in the group.

Tits and chaffinches were visiting the feeders on the way to Meida Hide but nothing more exciting. The hides were still closed and almost all the wetlands still frozen and the only ducks were too far away to be seen with binoculars.  Nevertheless a very pleasant walk.

On a brief exercise bike ride today there were some nice bullfinches on the way to Greenside and by Blaydon Burn.  Back home three long-tailed tits were on the peanut feeder at dusk.

Friday 15th January 2021

Another lockdown and some snowy weather have restricted activities more than somewhat.  

I have managed another couple of pleasant but eventless walks in Chopwell Woods, as ever distinguished by the lack of birdsong.   The second in distinctly wintery conditions on New Year's Eve was slightly better, producing five robins and one blackbird but I cut it short as it was quite strenuous negotiating the ice packs on the main trails.  I'm at a loss as to why such a large area of woodland isn't more productive.

Snowy Weather

By contrast a walk down the bridlepath towards Rowlands Gill produced a good deal of song.  There was nothing spectacular, mainly tits and more robins but it gave a more postive feel, as if some birds are already thinking of asserting their territories before mating.  There are less walkers here than in the Woods.

Long-tailed Tit

I ended up on the Derwent River Walk and got a good view of a red kite but it quickly soared off and settled in some trees to make mewing noises.  Things were quieter on the way back.

The normal visitors have been turning up and long-tailed tits have been quite frequent.  They often arrive at the feeders in groups of four or five.  I'd like to photogrpah a group of them but, like the coal tits, they never hang around for long.  Nothing special here either and no sign so far of the blackcap that turned up last year.  No woodpeckers for some while either.

There were at least a couple of rematches between robin and nuthatch on the birdtable.  On the first occasion, the nuthatch arrived second and the robin gave way a bit but didn't fly off, which I adjudged to be a draw.  The second time, the nuthatch was there first but flew straight off leaving the robin victorious.  In this case maybe the redder bird rather than the larger bird has the upper hand.

The robin behaves as if s/he personally owns the bird table, which may also be a factor.

Monday 14th December

Some slightly strange if not exactly world-shattering happenings this week...

I'd just finished discussing the 'not quite right' greenfinch mentioned in my last post with someone by email when what was obviously a female greenfinch turned up on the peanut feeder, to be succeeded by the 'not quite right' one which fed off the decking for a few minutes with me thinking it was a chaffinch, then visiting the feeder and revealing the same plumage features I photographed last time. I haven't seen it since.

Nuthatch

A very frequent visitor to the feeders has been this male nuthatch, which has to my pleasure also started visiting the bird table and fighting off the coal tits and others.  I wondered if he would also scare off the rather aggressive robin who clearly regards the bird table as his personal possession.  On the one occasion they did meet up, the robin won somewhat against my perception that in such confrontations, the larger bird will prevail.  Maybe in this situation the redder bird prevailed but I look forward to seeing if the same result occurs the next time.

Shortly after a session watching the nuthatch and more coal tit aerial acrobatics, I was amazed to see a grey wagtail land on the bird table.  It didn't stay long but I couldn't help wondering what it was after as they don't eat seeds.  Maybe it got a whiff of the rather smelly soldier beetle larvae I've been adding to the birdfeed lately.  One awaits developments.  There was another grey wagtail around near Swalwell today so perhaps they get a bit more adventurous in winter.

The next minor shock came when I went to close the bathroom window yesterday and a queen wasp crawled in.  Apparently they can live for a year, but a wasp active in December??  I should probably have taken a photo but decided to usher it out as soon as possible as I don't want a wasp's nest in the bathroom for Christmas.

I did do an ettempted twitch on Friday as a whimbrel had been reported in the Cambois area and I've never seen one.  On returning home with so to speak empty binoculars I had to recognise that I'd been looking in the wrong area in spite of having seen a fairly clear map!  The whimbrel hasn't been reported

Young Deer

since so probably had moved on anyway.

What was slightly strange about that trip was that on driving out of Greenside several deer ran across the road in front of and behind. I was lucky not to hit one.  Then at Cambois the only thing I did see (apart from one hovering kestrel) was a young deer happliy grazing away on what was blatantly a brownfield site.

Today I have enjoyed watching a squad of half a dozen long-tailed tits invade the garden.  Nothing strange about that though...

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.

Friday 20th November

An interesting few days have elapsed recently.

On Tuesday a friend and I agreed to make the best of limited time by combining a coastal bike ride with a checkup on some birdwatching spots.  The first spot was Seaton Sluice where astonishingly a swift has been sighted.  I arrived with the news that it had supposedly moved on to St Mary's Island and that I hadn't seen anything noticeable while checking the proposed locations en route.

We decided therefore to give Seaton Sluice a miss and head straight for St Mary's, where we didn't see much of note on looking into the nature reserve apart from a few teal and possibly a couple of tufted ducks - albeit more than I saw on the way up.

We rode slowly along the causeway as I was hoping to possibly see some snow buntings but no sign.  There didn't look to be much on the rocks either but when we dismounted to cross over to the island, what should fly straight over our heads but the aforementioned swift!  Heaven knows what it is doing here when it should have flown to Africa two months ago.

Preparing to feed seal pup

As soon as we started to move, some walkers pointed out that the Seal Rescue Service van was trying to get past us and we arrived at the lighthouse in time to see the seal being fed so it could be released back into the sea.  This didn''t look too pleasant as it involved one guy sitting on it while it was effectively force fed by the other.

Meanwhile the story amongst the spectators was that someone had reported it as having been abandoned and injured although the Rescue Service had found nothing wrong with it.

Eventually it was able to flap over the rocks into the water, where we think its mother may have been waiting for it Difficult to say though as seals were popping their heads out all over the place.

After this unexpected excitement we cycled on to Tynemouth but got there too late to see the black redstart that regularly visits as the tide had come in and covered the pierside rocks.  However two out of three ain't bad...

On Thursday I decided on and out an out twitch and made my way again to Morpeth, where, contrary to my last post, hawfinches have been turning up again.

At the time this seemed a frustrating experience.  The birds were definitely there and I could see them moving about with the naked eye but it was obvious that the other twitchers there were much better at picking them out and were getting close-ups in their big telescopes and photographing them.

I ended up taking photos on the off chance, so it was quite fortuitous when I managed to get four of them in the same shot.

Spot the Hawfinches!

They are of course pretty elusive and my attempts to get shots of individual birds fared little better.  As darkness moved in and people started to pack up the large telescopes, I got a clear sighting of one bird in a separate tree but the light was by now too tricky to show up much detail.

Elusive Hawfinch

Hawfinch at dusk

Overall though a much better session than my earlier visit to Sizergh Castle. 

Things have been happening in the garden too.  The coal tits have been visiting the bird table in numbers again, much to the anooyance of the resident robin.

And today there was a visit from a bullfinch to the neighbours' garden in search of berries - the first since early this year.

Bullfinch

Tuesday 18th August

Expectations are often disappointed but occasionally exceeded and sometimes you get a nice surprise.

Looking for a walk last Monday, I decided to try Whittle Dene, which is pleasant early in the summer, for butterflies.  However it was all a bit overgrown and dry and there wasn't much to see - some whites, a few peacocks and a single pair of speckled wood.  It only served to pose the question where all the speckled woods have got to this year, though I've seen a small number since.  And no meadow butterflies at all.

So on the Tuesday I decided to be more targetted and headed to the heathland area at Havannah, thinking I should easily be able to see some common blues, dingy skippers and some burnet moths plus a few others.  In fact after a single burnet it was the others that made the time worthwhile as blues and skippers were absent, leaving me without a single one this summer.

After thinking there may be no butterflies at all, I started to see some small heath and, after some foraging, three or four small copper.  The latter were particularly pleasing as I didn't see any last year when I looked and, come to think of it, I'm not too sure when I last saw a small heath either.  I was also treated to the sight of two small coppers chasing each other around crazily, presumably in some sort of mating ritual.  I hadn't seen them do that before.

Small Heath

Small Copper

The back end of the week was spent in Dumfries, where the temperature was about 6' higher.  We made a little trip out to Mossdale to walk the Paddy Line track briefly.  Unfortunately it had been rather spoiled as the Forestry Commission have put down a roughcast road on top of it and the rocks have spilled over onto the roadside vegetation.  Target was the scotch argus and there were a few about, if somewhat unsettled.  In the end we saw about six, along with a dozen more peacocks and a few red admirals. So it was one expectation achieved.  I also had an eye out for the wall butterfly and may have seen a couple but couldn't prove it.

Scotch Argus

Nothing new to report in the garden apart from a young wood pigeon but I have enjoyed watching the juvenile robin gradually acquire his red breast.  It's not quite there yet so he's more of a chaffinchy colour just now.

Young Wood Pigeon (n.b. lack of markings)

Tuesday 31st March

A week ago today I got out for a bike ride from Matfen to Bellingham (or Wark as it turned out) not realising that driving in order to take exercise would shortly be expressly forbidden.

Almost as soon as I left Matfen, there was a nice view of a kestrel.  On the way up to Ryal a few butterflies were settling on some yellow colt's foot type flowers and I managed to identify my first small tortoiseshell of the year.  There were several other butterflies around during the rest of week, even on the cooler days, including in the garden, but all were on the wing and frustratingly impossible to identify positively.

Heading towards the moors it was actually possible to observe rather than just hear some skylarks in action and in the wooded areas chiffchaffs were now established and singing strongly. Somewhere around Throckrington some meadow pipits appeared and I briefly saw a falcon with a red chest and pointed wings in flight.  Not a good sighting, but I reckoned it was probably a male merlin - they like meadow pipits!

I decided to return by a slightly less arduous route but it was nice to see a yellowhammer in the hedgerows on the way back to Matfen - and an incidental buzzard.

A walk round Chopwell Woods a couple of days afterwards produced nothing but a robin begging for scraps and a pair of unidentified spiralling butterflies, so on Saturday I took the bike along the Tyne from Wylam. There were a pair of tufted ducks and a pair of wigeon on Bardley Pond - not bad for a smallish venue.

Going along the river was pleasant if not very eventful, but I did catch sight of some dozen or so ducks heading upstream past Ryton Golf Course.  Unfortunately the path was narrow and there were a lot of people around making it inadvisable to stop at the current time and the view was party obstructed by tree branches and twigs. I reckoned they might be goosanders, but if so it was a little strange as they all had brown beaks and so must have been females.

Going past the new housing towards Blaydon, there was a smart-looking great-crested grebe, which took me a bit by surprise as I've only seen them on lakes before.

Another legal cycle trip to Matfen produced little apart from lots of singing skylarks - and another stray buzzard.

I managed to get through all of this without getting a decent wildlife photo.  But I did take one of this green fly on the rather mucky window of my summerhouse. I'm not sure what it is but it reminded me of a fishing fly called Greenwell's Glory, meaning it might be some kind of olive - or maybe a lacewing?

Mystery green fly

Wednesday 10th April

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

Wary chiffchaff

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magpie pair

Sunday 24th February

My good streak of birdwatching luck has continued.

Short-eared owl

On Friday I travelled to Prestwick Carr reserve in search of short-eared owls, arriving about an hour or so before dusk in unseasonably mild weather.

Setting out to the birdwatching platform, I was hardly a third of the way there when my target for the evening, a short-eared owl appeared, quartering the moorland to my left and broadly heading in the direction I had come from.

I nevertheless continued towards the platform, which was technically the right thing to do as that is the area where they mainly get seen.  On this occasion however, there was no further sign and I had to count myself fortunate to get some sort of a shot of it in flight as it was only in view for two or three minutes.

Willow tits

Visiting the platform had an extra dividend in that there was a male reed bunting and a series of tits, including a couple of willow tits, visiting the feeders put out next to the path.

I met a regular visitor to the Carr who also picked up a few deer and a fox in his binoculars at distance.  I couldn't see them in mine, adding to my suspicion that I might need an even better pair.

In the garden the other morning there was a bit of a fight between two male blackbirds and straight after a set-to between two robins on the bird table.  Clearly, spring is with us early.

Monday 16th April

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

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

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

Log-tailed tits

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

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

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

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

That's where all the bird food went!

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

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