The Many and The Few

January hasn't been a great month for me healthwise.  Having missed the beginning with a cold I lost the end with a nasty chest infection.

In the mean time I managed another trip to Prestwick Carr, which didn't produce anything spectacular but did offer some nice sightings of the regular customers at the bird feeders.

On a chilly day with little wind,  I noticed three or four times trees in the distance with a raptor perched in the crown, as if waiting for some reason to get more active.  Distance made identification difficult but I reckoned they were sparrow hawks.

Sparrow Hawk

Walking along the subsided road there were no more signs of redwing or fieldfare but around three pairs of bullfinches were scavenging in the hedgerow.

Bullfinch

It's not often that bullfinches stay close but they seemed relaxed, particularly this female.  I think you often see them in January, feeding on fresh buds.

There was quite a party going on at the feeders, where someone had added some coconut halves and filled the wee tray with seed.  So I managed to get some quite good shots of participants that weren't members of the tit family.

Tree Sparrow

Chaffinch

Reed Bunting

The one that sort of got away was willow tit, which did visit sporadically.  It was showing interest in the bits of apple I had spread close to where I was standing and I thought there was a chance of a really good close up.  But it never stayed for more than just a few seconds and after about forty minutes, I got fed up of cold fingers and moved on at a brisker pace.

On the way back to the car there were a number of roe deer in the far distance.

Still trying to figure out the lack of non-tit small bird appearances in my garden, I wondered about the theory of a near neighbour that bird flu is to blame.

In this case it would seem to suggest that it has particularly affected the following species here:  bullfinch (which normally show up in January), nuthatch, woodpecker, jay and (in nearby trees at least) greenfinch.

However my complaint about poor sightings in Chopwell Woods was contradicted on the way to the doctor's yesterday, when I heard hundreds of small birds chattering high up in the birches near Chopwell East Field.  I think they were tits, but I did observe half a dozen chaffinches towards the end of the stoney road.

A Cold Snap

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

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

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

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

Sanderling

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

Long-tailed tits

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

Robin

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

Improving Slightly

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

Long-tailed tits

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

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

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

Redwing

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

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

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

Orange Peel Fungus

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

Sunday 9th February

Lady Blackcap put in a couple more appearances over the past week, oscillating between the feeders and the mahonia.  The latter is now sadly depleted, which may be the end of her visits. Luckily I did manage to snap this fairly typical and somewhat charming pose. Still rather unclear though, as she tends not to stay in the same place for long.

Blackcap

I also finally managed to get to Wallington Hall, if by a rather roundabout route. The common crane that has been sighted in Northumberland over the past few weeks is actually in the immediate area so I went up for a bit of a scout around.  This proved unsuccessful, though I did with another birdwatcher managed to pick up a few tips about access from a local lady out with her dog.

So I went round to Wallington as a reserve, with the notion that bramblings might be a possibility.  There was quite a bit stirring at the heavily laden feeders over a period of time, including most notably loads of coal tits, a nuthatch and a couple of glimpses of a marsh tit. Initially there was also plenty of chaffinches but I couldn't find a brambling among them.  I noticed that, every now and again, all the birds suddenly dispersed and suspected a bird of prey in the area.  Sure enough, a male sparrowhawk parachuted in right below one of the feeders and started looking around for easy prey.

After he flew off and birds slowly returned, a treeecreeper turned up and, as on my last visit, started to become more of a groundcreeper, picking up sunflower seeds that were lying about beneath the tree.

Sparrowhawk

Groundcreeping treecreeper

So quite a rewarding visit for a fallback!

Monday 30th April

There have been some interesting appearances on the bird feeders to be noted and recently we have had jackdaw and male woodpecker.

Furtive Jackdaw

Male Woodpecker

I think this pretty much completes the photo sequence of regular visitors apart from wood pigeon who I haven't bothered with and magpie who takes fright as soon as I reach for the camera.

Over the past weeks I have been out a few times and the accent has been on nature walks and botany.  The only bike ride was last Thursday when I took a look around Gibside followed by a fairly chaotic attempt to cycle back home via Track 14 and Chopwell Woods.

For an estate Gibside has obvious potential and I did see my first willow warbler by the cycle track and the first of several plants I couldnt identify in Chopwell Woods, plus of course the inevitable grey squirrel.

On Friday I went on the Prudhoe U3A walk in Whittle Dene with no idea what to expect. It turns out the area is an ancestral forest and the botanical experts in the group could point out several specialised flowers and trees, notably wood avens, marsh marigold, spindle, wood anenome and opposite-leaved golden saxifrage.  Frankly I was well out of my depth but absorbing at least some of this knowledge and appreciating the at times stunning scenery made for a rich experience.

Wood Anenome

Wood Avens

I did however spot a lone small tortoiseshell and managed to identify the song of a small group of blackcaps that obligingly showed themselves shortly afterwards.  My other observation was that there were no fish to be seen in the burn - hopefully not another sign of successful otter preservation. It was also good to learn that one of the plants we saw (garlic mustard) occurs in my new garden and is a food plant for the orange tip caterpillar.

On Saturday, my sister and I attended a supposed drop in at Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, except that the guy who was hosting it seemed a bit surprised that anyone turned up.

On the way to Hide 2 we had good views of at least one sparrowhawk moving through the trees, saw a couple of overflying waders (common sandpipers??) and heard what we thought to be a sedge warbler.

On the lake itself there wasn't too much happening but I enjoyed watching the antics of a couple of common terns performing acrobatics and swooping to (presumably) catch flies just above the water's surface.  Amongst the commoner inhabitants (little grebe, black-headed gull, shoveler, canada goose, tufted duck) one greylag posed nicely right in front of the hide.

Greylag Goose

Wednesday 25th October

Well into autumn now but daytime temperatures continue to hold up well.

Last Wednesday I stopped off at Lochfoot, where there was a flock of canada geese in the shallows.  It was quite a surprise as most geese at this time of year seem to be barnacles.

Canada geese

The other thing I always notice at the nice viewing platform at Lochfoot is the board with illustrations

Bream or perch?

by the local primary kids showing all the wildlife that can be seen on the loch. Unfortunately one of the illustrations appears to be the result of a confusion as the fish depicted is supposed to be a bream but very obviously has some features of a perch, notably the spiny dorsal fin.  Both fish are present in the loch but there wasn't a separate diagram devoted to the perch.

Anyway, I rolled on down the road and was heading towards Beeswing, when I caught sight of a large bird of prey flying skilfully in and out of the woodland.  It was too nimble to be a buzzard, had a pointed wing shape in flight and a palish appearance.  I suppose the commonsense answer is sparrowhawk but that wasn't my instinctive reaction.  I couldn't say it wasn't a goshawk, just that it would be very unlikely at this time of year.

Almost immediately after there was a fleeting sighting of a bullfinch and a female reed bunting. On the way home I saw a red admiral at Shawhead, but haven't seen one since.

This week, riding to Caerlaverock against the sun I cursed the lack of sunglasses and more especially binoculars as there may have been a few redwing in the trees before the Canine Rescue Centre.  There were however a couple of siskins going up the hill toward the Craigs and another female reed bunting.

Meanwhile back at home, my attempt to attract more interesting birds to the bird table misfired spectacularly, as did that of a young pussy cat.

Probably not the best way to catch a bird...

Thursday 2nd February

Not much happening on the last two Wednesday's bike rides to Gatehouse and Kirkcudbright, when weather conditions of various kinds made it difficult to identify anything beyond the odd bird of prey.

Yesterday there were birds areound but the whole of the morning was misty and driech until I actually got near Kirkcudbright itself, when it became brighter for a time.

Dee Estuary near St Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbright

Sparrowhawk imprint

However events in the garden have provided some compensation. At the end of last week, a massive thud from the sun room heralded a bird impact on one of the windows.  I assumed a blackbird or starling and went in search of a corpse but none was found.  Instead there was this large imprint on a central window that can only have belonged to a sparrowhawk.  From the right angle, I could even see the imprint where it's eye hit the window as it turned it's head to one side.  You can only wonder if it managed to survive.

The local estate is a good area for hunting sparrows and it's not the first time one has left it's mark on the sun room. A sparrowhawk was seen perching in the bush that holds the bird feeder some time ago, just a few yards from the house. My mother collected a similar tattoo on her kitchen window some years ago. They must be pretty filthy to leave so much muck behind!

I also noticed the local coal tit investigating a so-called bird box hung in the pear tree next to the sun room.  It gave it a good look over, but surely will be wiser than to try nesting there.

Yesterday, he was nosing round in the heavily prined silver birch in the front garden, so there must be a few insects around already.

Wednesday 23rd April

Ride to Palnackie via Glenkilns, hurrying near the end as late.  Typical example of the way that a number of bird sightings can occur in a short period of time, in this case going over the moor after the remaining sculpture.  Two wheatear were quickly followed by a hovering kestrel when another bird of prey flew purposefully past it straight into a tree.  Wondered about merlin but did not get a good view but was a bit dark for a sparrowhawk.  Then there were a series of two or three grey wagtails.  A lot of goldfinch around today but no red kite west of Bogle Bridge, just another pair of wheatear.

Sunday 19th May

A rare day of twitching as I read reports of wood warblers at Wood of Cree, so abandoned other plans and set off to Newton Stewart early.  Made things complicated by stopping at the new part of the reserve and starting with a rather barren “wood” walk that actually mainly took in moorland.  Managed sparrowhawk, reed bunting, wheatear with juvenile and willow warbler as well as hearing skylarks and seeing suspected pipits in flight. Also heard cuckoo calling from woods - so that makes three in three years.

On finding the main wood, I found a calling wood warbler almost immediately and got a good view of it fluttering in the canopy.  Several more too and wood warbler was the predominant bird in the lower part of the wood ahead of willow warbler and chaffinch. In the binoculars on a day with poor light it was heard to see much yellow on them but the song was unmistakeable (hear more than see video below!). There was just one pied flycatcher on the way back and nesting boxes seemed as yet unoccupied.  Did not see tree pipit although told by bloke on first site that there are plenty around.

So a major tick on my list and a cue to think what still is on the list after various successes over the years.  Basically in some sort of order it's willow tit, green woodpecker, hawfinch (not sure where to start with that one), merlin, goshawk, eagle).  Not a very long list now, but there are plenty that I would like to see again.  Hold on though, I forgot hooded crow.

Wednesday 1st May

Not much to report over the last fortnight. Last week's Wednesday bikeride took place in wind and rain, making it hard to see anything at all.  Today saw a young deer and a treecreeper plus a bird of prey that Tony thought was a sparrowhawk, though I didn't see much brown on it. Went looking for willow tits at Castle Loch yesterday but feeders have been removed and nothing interesting showing around the castle. Ended up sunning myself.

Have however seen a male siskin in the garden and heard greenfinches on new road. Chiffchaffs now audible most places.

Wednesday 27th March

Wheelers again but this time had already sighted 12 species on the way to Beeswing via Kirkconnell Flow, most notable including again sparrowhawk, which appeared to make a run at a sedentary hare, goosander (I think) and redwing.  Also heard jay and very prominent woodpecker.  This time quite heavy snow after New Abbey affected sightings.

Wednesday 20th March

Wheelers to Corsock.  Very parky over the moors with light snow, so gave up counting bird species at 12.  Most notable were greenfinch  and sparrowhawk. Clearly saw at around 100 yards a black squirrel running along the old railway embankment by Dalquhairn on Byeway.  Notified Squirrel Conservation person who says there have been several sightings of brunette squirrels in the area, which are a derivation of the red.  This however contradicts one web reference I've seen which talks about black squirrels being a derivation of the grey.  This one was black as pitch.

Sunday 3rd February

Quick trip to Old Graitney to check over Kirtle Water again.  Saw yet another sparrowhawk on the way.  They and sparrows seem to be doing really well.

River was much lower but still very deep.  Lots of rocky stretches on nearside.  No sign of fish and looked a bit daunting today.  There is however a sign warning about casting near overhead power lines.

Sunday 3rd February

Brief trip to Castle Loch yesterday, looking for willow tits. Not seen but did see nuthatch (2), treecreeper (several) and log-tailed tit (up to 50). Standing in front of a tree and just waiting certainly better than wondering around in the marshy undergrowth, which is bound to make noise. No bird on tree stump today.

Met birder who said he had heard willow tit and last year had seen one at the feeders on the west bank. This is slightly contrary to info on the yahoo D&G birdwatching group, which suggests the feeders are too near the road to attract willow tit. Had been planning to try West bank anyway and just saw more of the usual range of birds on feeders, but a pleasant day.

Quick trip to Old Graitney to check over Kirtle Water again today. Saw yet another sparrowhawk on the way. They and sparrows seem to be doing really well.

River was much lower but still very deep. Lots of rocky stretches on nearside. No sign of fish and looked a bit daunting today. There is however a sign warning about casting near overhead power lines.

Saturday 2nd February

Brief trip to Castle Loch, looking for willow tits.  Not seen but did see nuthatch (2), treecreeper (several) and log-tailed tit (up to 50).  Standing in front of a tree and just waiting certainly better than wandering around in the marshy undergrowth, which is bound to make noise. No bird on tree stump today.

Met birder who said he had heard willow tit and last year had seen one at the feeders on the west bank.  This is slightly contrary to info on the yahoo D&G birdwatching group, which suggests the feeders are too near the road to attract willow tit. Had been planning to try West bank anyway and just saw more of the usual range of birds on feeders, but a pleasant day.

Yesterday an excellent view of sparrowhawk in close pursuit of a sparrow across the rooftops while I was waiting for a bus.

Also on my last visit to see mum on Monday this week, two male bullfinches in the tree outside her window.

Friday 1st February

Excellent view of sparrowhawk in close pursuit of a sparrow across the rooftops while I was waiting for a bus.

Also on my last visit to see Mum on monday this week, two male bullfinches in the tree outside her window.

Wednesday 21st November

My No1 birdwatching target for the winter has been achieved! 40 waxwings in large tree on Glebe Street and also plundering yewberries from St Michael's churchyard  - but they made off to another large tree around Brooms Road car park area when visited by the resident sparrowhawk.

This is the culmination of a story going back two weeks when they were first sighted in Dumfries, since when I've visited every site where they appeared without success.  They have even had the cheek to turn up in Georgetown in small numbers. About ten days ago sat it out for a while in the churchyard but there were only coal tits and chaffinches around, which scattered all of a sudden, upon which I caught site of the sparrowhawk (female) which is how I know it visits regularly.

Also had first ever goldfinch on bird table about ten days ago after putting out sunflower seeds.

Saturday 28th July

Yes it took me that long to get back out again due to worst July weather for forty years. Walk on brown trail (including butterfly reserve) at Mabie Forest. Surprisingly little heard or seen the whole way. Some newts in the pond and a dragonfly. A couple of coal tits. Possible redpoll calling. Six ringlets and a sightly delapidated meadow brown, one red deer. Weather mixed. Otherwise have had juvenile sparrowhawk in garden but all butterflies on buddleia have been small tortoiseshells and few enough of them.

Wednesday 29th February

Bike Ride to Ruthwell and Caerlaverock. Largely inspired by TV programme on exercise the previous night so more focussed on exercise than wildlife. Did however manage to see tree sparrow in hedge just before the conifers on run in to Clarencefield and 100 whooper swans in field east of Brow Well. Surprised by tree sparrow as haven't seen them in this area before - completely chance sighting while pedalling at a fair rate of knots. Also probable sparrowhawk and a lone curlew at Bankend. Heard several skylarks at Bankend and Caerlaverock Nature Reserve but could not see them. Paused for 20 minutes to look for willow tits but only more long-tailed tits and others showed themselves. Tide was out and many more curlew were on the estuary sands plus something with a brown head that didn't seem to be a shelduck.

Sunday 19th February

Sparrowhawk sat on top of the bushes outside Parkhead Court - a very good place to look for sparrows! I sometimes wonder why I see sparrowhawks so rarely, as if I'm looking for them in the wrong way or mistaking them for something else.

This also reminds me I chanced to see a couple of tufted ducks on the Nith by Troqueer Bridge a couple of weeks ago.