Some Hits and Some Misses - Part 2

On the Sunday we headed down to Finglandrigg Wood in Cumbria. 

This was the latest in a series of attempts we have made to see the marsh fritillary there and once again we missed out, mainly seeing more of the butterflies from yesterday.

Two of three times we got excited, only to find we had been deceived by other brown species, namely comma and painted lady. Once when I lagged behind the others all that remained at a bushy area was a peacock.

Comma

Peacock

Part of the delay was that I had come across a honey bee and realised with surprise that it was the first one I've seen this summer.  We later had a discussion about the lack of bees observed.

There was also a marshy area where I kept an eye open for the large heath, this time with no success at all.

We moved on to Campfield Marsh where the objectives were slightly different, as marsh harriers and an osprey nest had been reported.  This time we were successful with both as they were visible from the hide. After many attempts, I did eventually get a clear shot of the osprey with the chicks peering from the nest.  With the marsh harrier I was less lucky but managed to observe it through the binoculars several times.

Osprey and chicks

Marsh Harrier

Not much was seen on the nearby pool - some lapwings and a few greylag geese. Later on we observed some young willow warblers moving through the trees with parental supervision.

There were also quite a few dragonflies around but the only one that settled was this common darter:

Common Darter

An added bonus was a pair of roe deer that were feeding on a farmer's field:

Roe Deer

By the time we made our way back to the car it was early evening but it remained warm and the butterflies were coming out in force.  Here there were more meadow brown than ringlet, but also red admiral, small tortoiseshell and painted lady.

Small Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

In fact we must have seen going on for 20 painted ladies, confirming the impression that this may go down as a 'painted lady year.'

Win some, lose some...

The siskins have continued to visit the garden.  I thought it was just a pair and so was quite surprised this week to see four of them on a feeder.  One couple however fled before my attempt to record the moment.

Also visiting, apart from a few two- and seven-spot ladybirds, have been a number of buff-tailed bumblebee queens prospecting the garden for possible nesting sights.  They were really tricky to photograph as they were either on the move or ferreting around in the undergrowth.  I thought I was about to nail it when one of them disappeared down a crevice in the decking.  I must have waited three or four minutes for it to come back into shot, which it never did.  So either it escaped by another route without me noticing or hearing, or I can expect a bumblebee nest in my decking...

In the end I had to make do with a brief video of one visitor:

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Also heard but not seen in the garden and nearby have been a few chiffchaff.

Yesterday I was out for a walk at Geltsdale with V&A together with recent arrival E, who managed to sleep through the proceedings uninterrupted.

I soon saw a curlew on approaching the car park and found a couple of stonechat on arrival.  Eventually we headed South nominally hoping to happen upon a whinchat but without much conviction.  Instead we came across numerous chaffinches and a reed bunting pair.

Stonechat

Reed Bunting

Further sightings overhead were a couple of kestrel mobbing a buzzard and a possible pink-footed goose.

The weather was quite warm so there were also a couple of butterfly sightings - both peacocks.

Having covered the likely whinchat area, we set off back via the former quarry where short-eared owls have been turning up.  We were probably an hour or two too early to be successful.  Instead there were several lapwing and on the way a very distant roe deer

Lapwing

Roe Deer

The lapwing seemed to be on the verge of proving a display flight but never quite went through with it. 

I always think the rockier sides of the quarry area look good for peregrine falcon, who would be due to nest about now, but none were seen.

On the way back we did however meet up with a decent flock of fieldfare.  They saw us and kept on the move.  Distracted by another bumblebee queen, I missed the best chance of a photo. They can't be with us for much longer this year.

Yesterday I had planned to head West to Parkhead on the bike, but the cycle path was closed and I didn't fancy the proposed hilly detour.  Instead I took a more casual trundle along the banks of the Derwent, which did produce a couple of active goosander. 

Goosander

Returning by the Tyne was less productive apart from a couple of cormorants and a brief check at the hide at Clara Vale produced nothing of note at all.

"Win some, lose some..."

A Good Decision

While writing up my sightings in Spain, I had a couple of sightings South of the Derwent.

On my way to the Metrocentre, about half a dozen roe deer crossed the Derwent Walk a hundred yards ahead of me, including two fawns perhaps suggesting that they are becoming more numerous, as I suppose tends to happen with deer.

I couldn't believe my ears after collecting my first hearing aid at Shotley Bridge on Friday, but then I couldn't believe my eyes either when I saw this heron above the road on the way home:

Grey Heron

Now I'd heard of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" but a heron on a wire was total news to me.  I gather the fishing on the B6310 isn't much good these days unfortunately.

Lapwing

My plan on Sunday was to do a long cycle ride to the coast given the forecast of long hours of sunshine.  When the latter had not materialised by 10.30 am I decided to do a few jobs in the garden then spend a couple of hours at Shotton Pools near Northumberlandia, where there have been a few sightings recently.

The whole area was alive with skylarks singing their heads off and there were a good few lapwings around. 

A couple of cheps told me a tundra bean goose had been sighted with some pink-footed geese in the fields.  

I reckoned I managed to see it.  They'd all disappeared briefly and I was quite surprised when they showed up again that I could pick them out at distance with the naked eye, so I had a go at getting a group shot, with the impromptu intervention of a couple of hares. 

Tundra Bean Goose(l), Pink-footed Goose with hares

My bird handbook points out the elongated neck on the bean goose.  It should really show a black tip to the beak but maybe it's not apparent at several hundred yards range.

Avocets have been turning up in Northumberland for a fair while but today I counted six and there were probably a few more, so that was new.

Avocet

A very graceful bird...

On the way back to Northumberlandia, one or two of the lapwings were starting to rehearse their display flight and call.  I didn't manage to capture this example very well, but it was easier than trying to keep up with all the skylarks.

Lapwing rehearsal

One that I didn't catch up with was the white-fronted goose but I saw them once before at Loch Ken.  

All in all I had taken a good decision. 

Spain - Day 3

We set off in the wee small hours again the next day, this time in search of the secretive Dupont's lark.  Its shyness meant us standing in line motionless on the site off the road to La Yunta in near freezing temperatures. Well we heard it clearly enough but it seemed to have disappeared by the time there was reasonable light and we only saw one or two bits and bobs on the way back for breakfast. 

Setting off again in the van we stopped briefly for some common cranes that were posing nicely in a field, not daring to get out in case we disturbed them.

Cranes posing

This was on the way for a walk in the hills near Tornos looking for larks, which were well-camouflaged and the one I definitely saw was Thekla's Lark.  Unfortunately my photography skills were again much challenged as many sightings were at considerable distance and several photos came out blurry.  Hopefully I can find an app to rescue some of them

Later we headed to the other side of the laguna, where there were some flamingos at reasonably close range, mainly keeping their heads down.  I think this is the best view I've had of flamingos to date.

Flamingos

There were a good deal of both marsh and hen harriers around and another walk near Las Cuerlas, after a period of seeing bits and pieces at distance, we hit on an area where a large number of raptors were flying overhead, almost as if participating in an air display.  In addition to those already encountered, they included a totally new sighting, the black-shouldered kite (never heard of!) and, almost as an afterthought, a couple of golden eagles...

Of all of them I got nothing but blurry silhouettes so it was a bit of a surprise, on returning to the lagoon near Dirigida, that I managed to get a passable shot of a mass of cranes right on the far side of the lake, many hundreds of yards away.  I must have got the zoom spot on for once.

Cranes at distance

When we first got there, there was also a nice white wagtail close by but the main birds in evidence where great and cattle egret, the latter showing no yellow as still in winter plumage.  I learned you can still tell them apart by the fact that the great egret has a much longer neck.

Great Egret

Cattle Egret

White Wagtail

Great egrets are starting to be seen in the North of England but cattle egrets are still a rarity, though I saw lots of them in the West Indies.  The white wagtail is also infrequent.

However the strangest thing we saw on stopping further down was three roe deer that had apparently decided to swim the whole length of the lagoon in very cold water.  We saw the last part of their journey, lasting several minutes with one pulling ahead to leave the other two straggling behind.

Roe Deer

Also sighted in this area and on the way back to the hotel were: little bustard, stonechat, linnet (lots of), black redstart and spanish sparrow.

In the evening I had a bit of reflection on the photography angle and decided to increase the focal length of the birdwatching auto facility on the camera.

Of course serious birdwatching photographers will tell you you really need to use manual settings...

Sunday 7th February

Quite an interesting last ten days in a phase where continuing harsh weather has restricted activities to a large extent.

The last walk I undertook in Chopwell Woods revealed only a red kite en route and a sole buzzard on the way out.  Since then the paths have become so muddy that I've restricted myself to walks around the village, seeing just a few goldfinches and sparrows.

What particularly enlivened things was the appearance of eight or ten new little brown jobs at the back of the garden while I was getting dressed on Friday 29th, some venturing into the garden itself.  Having quickly dismissed sparrow and chaffinch as possibilities, I thought I caught a flash of red and wondered about redpoll.  

Once downstairs I could see some flecked breasts and yellow beaks through the binoculars and loosely considered twite.  As numbers decreased I managed to get a few hurried shots with the camera which conclusively proved they were indeed redpoll.

Redpolls

The last couple of years the Big Garden Bird Watch has brought disappointing results so it was pleasing that a couple of redpolls turned up in the trees at the appropriate time and the session was further enhanced by the appearance of a nuthatch and a better selection of tits than normal. 

Then on the Monday of this week, there were at least twenty redpolls systematically working their way through the birches behind the fence, but annoyingly a bit too distant and obscured to get a decent shot of them.  There were a few more on the Tuesday and then no more, the supply of birch seeds having presumably been exhausted.

During this time my attention turned to wondering whether they were lesser or common redpolls.  It appears that some commentators argue that the lesser redpoll is no longer recognised as a separate species, but this has been gainsayed by most authorities somewhat to my disappointment as I don't feel competent to distinguish between the two.  However, various other members of our Naturewatch group have had redpolls in their gardens and the consensus seems to be that there are at least some common redpolls amongst them.  So my guess is that the influx is partly down to an irruption of common redpolls from Scandinavia.

Later on on the Monday I managed an exercise bike ride, avoiding the parlous and overcrowded state of the cycle tracks and saw what I thought was a sparrowhawk but turned out to be a kestrel behaving like a sparrowhawk.  I assume the apparent white wing barring is a trick of the light.  Shortly afterwards a deer bolted across the road a few yards ahead in a state of some panic.

Kestrel

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.

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...

Monday 11th November

Autumn has moved in with increasing severity.

Merveille du Jour

Towards the end of October I went to the Butterfly Conservation North East AGM.  It started with a moth trap emptying, which had unfortunately been adversely affected by heavy overnight rain but did produce this nice specimen. There was also some useful information, notably about the small blue introduction on Teesside, which sems to be very near the RSPB site, as well as the precise location of the graylings at Cambois. There was also an explanation the variation of size in the speckled wood.  Apparently research has shown that the ones with larger wings migrate further.  It's thought that wing-shape and colouration are altering as a result of the movement north.

A week or so later I went on a bike ride to Ryal, which didn't produce much in the way of nature though I

Clouded Funnel?

rather liked the 'footpath' of toadstools trailing its way out of the woodland near Stamfordham.  And one pleasant surprise was the appearance of a roe deer shambling along the hedgerow between two roads just north of the A695 at Crawcrook.

In the garden long-tailed tits have come onto the feeders in large numbers on a couple of occasions and several grey squirrels have been seen making their way over to the oak tree, which presumably has produced a lot of acorns this year.  A couple have even ventured into the garden itself briefly.

The other day I saw a (presumably second brood?) jackdaw trying to beg food from the others.  One of them took umbrage and attacked it, forcing it onto its back on the lawn - at which point a magpie immediately swept down, presumably anticipating an easy kill.  Anyway, the victim jackdaw was strong enough to escape on the third or fourth attempt.  Quite a spectacle.

Yesterday, Naturewatchers' trip to Big Waters provided some interesting sightings in addition to the normal fare such as wigeon, shoveler, gadwall etc.  Amongst several hundred canada geese, the twitchers had spotted a white-headed canada goose, pictured below next to the real thing.  Apparently it is the result of hybridisation rather than a separate species.

White-headed Canada Goose (r)

The area to the rear of the hide was under water but the feeders were heavily visited, particularly by tits. I spent a lot of time photographing an elusive willow tit so we could confirm it wasn't a marsh tit but the big surprise for us was when a warbler briefly visited the willow trees on either side.  It seems, according to a local expert, that a small number of chiffchaffs are now overwintering at Big Waters.

Wednesday 21st August

A bitty couple of weeks from a nature point of view - nothing major to report, but odd bits of interesting sightings.

Holly Blue

 Peacocks are now easy to find while there are less red admirals. Why is it you tend to see one more than the other? Travelling around there are still plenty of painted ladies to be seen, including in the garden.

The most pleasing thing at home has been a couple of brief appearances of the holly blue.  I've often wondered if the large amount of  ivy on the trees roundabout might attract them. While they weren't hanging around, the one that settled briefly could be seen to have the right underwing pattern, which just about shows up on enlarging the rather unhelpful pose I managed to capture.

The garden has also had occasional visits from a male woodpecker and one from long-tailed tits. For the first time this year that I know of, brown rat showed up and conducted an extensive search of the ground below the bird table and nearby.

There was also another example of the young magpies' favourite game, whereby one picks up an object such as a stone chip or a twig and the other one or ones chase it around for a while.

Last Monday was the only serious outing when I lead the Naturewatch group walk along the Derwent Walk towards Hamsterley, partly in the hope of more purple hairstreaks. As I suspected it would have been better to try a week or so earlier, especially as the temperature was low and the sun only briefly apparent.

Surprisingly, we did catch a glimpse of one strong suspect briefly circling the crown of the very first oak tree we saw from the viaduct at Rowland's Gill, but that was all.  Later we did get good sightings of a couple of red kites, a pensive roe dear and there was a small-leaved lime that looked quite spectacular in its decor of yellow catkins.  Really we were happy enough to have an evening out after some dire, stormy weather over the weekend.

Red Kite
(Photo by Kathy Clegg)

Wednesday 17th July

I did a bit of a double hit on Monday, taking advantage of a nice warm day when only a visit to the dentist was scheduled.

Cycling slowly down cycle track 14, I kept a look out for places where there might be butterflies.  At first all I encountered was a grey wagtail and a few speckled wood.  Then right at the bottom end of the Derwent just west of the confluence of the Tyne (and very near the edge of the industrial estate) I found a flower meadow.

Here the results were very similar to those encountered at Blaydon just over a week previously - plenty of meadow brown and small skippers, several burnet moths and common blues and a few ringlet. I had a suspicion that one or two of the skippers might be large skippers but the suspect I checked was a small.

On the way back I saw a female roe deer with two foals drinking at the riverside.  They had a very reddish look and at first I thought they were red deer.  Research however shows that there are no red deer in the area.

The session was nicely capped off when I got off the bike at home to see a small tortoiseshell on the wee buddleia in the front garden.  There were three more sightings later on in the day.

Small Tortoiseshell

In the evening, I decided to go to Waldridge Fell in search of purple hairstreaks, my current number one target.  I did see three seperate willow warblers and after a longish period of staring at various oak trees, of which there are many, I did on four occasions see some buitterflies circling the oak crowns.

Unfortunately they were all speckled woods!

Tuesday 12th March

Hooded Crow

In the last few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from my fitness and nature-related activities for various reasons, notably to have a long weekend in the art galleries in Vienna.  On the last day there I was however pleased to spot a couple of hooded crows grazing in the Volksgarten and one got near enough for a snap on the mobile phone.

Here the odd red kite is still hovering around at low altitude and a grey squirrel hopped along the length of my garden fence one day.  I was in the garden myself during the unseasonably warm weather at the end of February but, unlike others did not see an early butterfly.

There was a slightly strange sight yesterday when I came through Medomsley in the car.  Two roe deer stood out on the horizon of a large field of cabbages, immediately causing me to wonder if deer eat cabbages. I suppose they probably do.

Yesterday it was back to normal with a trip to Shibdon Pond with the U3A group.  I got there early to find a large number of gulls and only a few other common species showing, but it just goes to show how useful it can be to be in a group.  Someone pointed out a couple of gadwall that were briefly visible and one hawk-eyed member spotted a group of snipe on an island near to the hide.

Snipe

 They were so well camouflaged, it took a few of us some while to spot them and it was hard work getting a view in the camera. A pair of shovelers and one of shelduck also showed up in due course to add to the mallards, coots and moorhens.

A walk to the Nature Reserve on the far side of the lake proved a little disappointing as we only saw a few teal, some tits and a bullfinch.  This was similar when I visited last autumn, so perhaps summer will be a better time to visit.

I did however see a very large bumblebee in flight (garden or white-tailed) and suspected it might be a queen. It's certainly the right time of year. Flowering early was this blackthorn although those in the know said that the unusually large flowers show that it is an introduced version that could interbreed with the native variety. Very sinister!

Non-native Blackthorn

Monday 10th December

I seem to have been more preoccupied with fitness than nature over the past few weeks.

My attempts to tempt smaller birds into the garden and discourage jackdaws have pretty much failed.  The one thing that has clearly been established is that jackdaws will eat niger seed.  I'm surprised they bother.  Anyway I'm playing more with the idea that the lack of cover since I cut down the larger pear tree (the smaller one is of course entirely bare now) favours the jackdaws more than the woodland birds.  The lack of frost so far might also mean less pressure for them to find food.

Today the Naturewatch group today visited the Washington Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve.  It was fine from the point of view of getting some close up views of domesticated exotics such as the black-headed

Buff-headed goose

swan, buff-headed geese and chilean flamingoes but when we got to the main Wader Pond it was covered in ice and we didn't see much apart from a few moorhens and a couple of snipe skulking in the reeds.

We had lunch in the Lagoon Hide by the Wear where a bit more was visible, notably a number of teal and a redshank until everything was disturbed by a spooked roe dear that was bolting along the bankside.

In the end we probably saw more woodland birds - some redwing on the walkway, a volley of long-tailed tits and a good selection of 'usual suspects' on the very extensive display of feeders in front of the last hide. 

Bullfinch and coal tit

A couple of pleasant extras were treecreeper and a few bullfinches though I never saw anything in the way of a greenfinch, tree sparrow or marsh tit.

Right at the end I did enjoy a good view of a pair of eurasian cranes from the tearoom window.  They were

Eurasian crane

probably domesticated too but as they have started to recolonise East Anglia, they represented in my head a more genuine sighting.

It was quite apparent that there are many more fascinating visitors to the reserve than were around today.

Monday 12th November

There have been brief sightings of a nuthatch and a long-tailed tit in the garden plus the odd coal tit.  Otherwise the garden has been totally dominated by marauding jackdaws who get virtually all the feed I'm putting out. They were decimating the peanuts in the feeder and when I replaced them with fat balls to deter them, it didn't work. I'm now seriously considering not feeding the birds at all until there's a decent frost.  Even then I may need to change tactics.

Otherwise I've been on a couple of bike rides in the Consett and Stanley area, where parts of cycle track 7 look very attractive.  Last week I was pushing on to make time and only managed to see a red kite and a hovering kestrel past Beamish.

Sloe bush

On Saturday I determined to take it slowly as I set out towards Consett from Rowland's Gill.  Grey squirrels were clearly very active and I counted a total of eight on the way to Ebchester.

Cycle track 7 didn't produce any notable bird life but a roe deer did cross right in front of me.  There were also a lot of bushes with dark berries. I think were sloes rather than bilberries, which would have been of interest as a possible green hairstreak location. I'll bet the same area is good for butterflies in summer though as it faces south on a slope. And it was notable that the small pond near Annfield Plain, deserted last week, was clearly being fished for carp by at least half a dozen anglers.

Heading towards Tantobie and Lintz on a poor quality track, there were three separate bullfinches and a huge looking red kite skimming the trees by a farm.  On arriving home, I caught sight of another red kite, a male,  hovering low right over the estate.

Today there was a Naturewatch trip to the Low Hauxley Reserve near Amble, which was more eventful.  Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me - again - so I'm waiting for some shots from another member of the group who has a better camera anyway.  Full report to follow.

Saturday 21st April

A burst of nature activity recently, brought on by good weather and a scaling down of domestic activity.

On Thursday I went on a Meet Up walk along the river near Hexham. This was the hottest and sunniest day of the week and I at last saw a few butterflies - a red admiral, a peacock, an unidentified white and a couple of small tortoiseshells mating while I fumbled with the camera.  Near the road bridge to the west, there was a healthy colony of sand martins on the opposite bank.  Chiffchaffs are of course everywhere now and there was a single swallow and a couple of goosander, which also seem to be all over the place this year.

Chiffchaff from below

Roe deer

The new garden has continued to be interesting. A jay briefly alighted on the back fence as I went into the kitchen and a female woodpecker fed on the fatballs this morning.  Technically chiffchaffs have not been in the garden but they have been in the trees that overhang it, picking up insects, as above. This is the first time
I've managed to get any sort of picture of one.

Yesterday my daughter visited and we did a longish walk in Chopwell Woods to satisfy the demands of her pedometer.  It didn't result in anything spectacular apart from a few roe deer and grey squirrels.  The deer were obviously quite tame and there were a couple that were happy enough to have their photos taken even though they had clearly seen us.

Back in the garden today, a red kite circled low over the decking, the colour showing well, but another camera fumble meant the chance of a snap was gone.  This happens to me repeatedly but hopefully the abundance of opportunities in the garden will help me get slicker..

Saturday 17th February

A wren appeared in the garden one morning as I was getting up.  Perhaps it is coming regularly.

The weather put paid to even a short bike ride on Wednesday, so the day after I took a trip to Threave Castle as I've seen hen harriers there at this time of year.

On the path to the castle there were two great tits obviously hanging around for any titbits of food, just like the robin on one of my previous visits.  I had really meant to keep my eyes open for willow tits on the way to Stepping Stones Hide but sort of forgot.  I visited the hide briefly as a large flock of geese gradually circled in to land on the other side of the river, just mear enough to see through binoculars that they were pink-footed geese.  I've seen a lot of them this year.

Leaving the hide I noticed a single goldeneye being propelled downriver by a flood tide but still managing to dive for food.

There wasn't much going on as I made my way up the river, having stopped for a brief look at the new and old osprey nest sites.  But there was a small flock of long-tailed tits passing through the trees on the way up to the other hides.  I would like to get a snap of one some day but, as usual, they moved on fairly smartly.

The slim pickings continued during three-quarters of an hour spent in the lower hide.  As I half suspected, the nearest part of the marshy grassland was extensively flooded, which I think decreased the likelihood of harriers passing by.

A buzzard or two flew past and a red kite wheeled around for a bit a good way off.  In the far distance it was just about possible to distinguish some wigeon on the deeper water, but otherwise all was quiet.

All quiet from the hide - apart from a single swan

A nice little foray nonethless.  On the way back to the car, there were a couple of roe deer hanging around the edge of a field for quite some time.

Sunday 11th February

Some nasty weather and other concerns meant that I didn't venture out on the bike for a couple of weeks, so I decided on a bit of self-discipline and set off for a round trip to Bankend and Torthorwald last Sunday.

Just past weekend I saw the pink-footed geese in exactly the same field where I saw them last month and another skein on the other side of the road proved to be barnacles.  The rest of the ride didn't produce much but there were quite a few snowdrops around, though these I took a couple of weeks ago at Ken Dee Marshes.

Snowdrops

Part of the reasoning for the trip was to get ready for a longer ride on to Dalbeattie on Wednesday. I started up The Glen and immediately saw a huge powder puff heading into the undergrowth next to the road, evidence of a disappearing roe dear.  Then there was a male bullfinch flying into the hedgerow, after which I saw a female in the hedgerow on the other side of the cycle track.  I hope I wasn't disturbing anything.

Crossing the road after Kirkgunzeon there was a sole magpie, still not a common sighting west of Dumfries.

The weather was bitter and my hands were freezing under two pairs of gloves so the ride took on more the aspect of a survival challenge.  A frequent sight was loan buzzards perched on telegraph poles, perhaps hoping for enough wind to get airborne without undue effort. Most looked like immature birds.

Then today, after flogging round Mersehead before Christmas and several times keeping my eye out for them, I finally saw a single brambling on the way back from the shops with the Sunday paper.  It was a definite sighting, confirmed by another nature lover who passed by.

Of course I didn't have my camera in my pocket.  I returned with it a few minutes later but the brambling made off and I was left with just a couple of poor distance shots of a bullfinch and a goldfinch near to where it had been.

Bullfinch

Goldfinch