Thursday 2nd January 2020

A one-off New Year's Day trip to Prestwick Carr proved productive. In fact there were more birds in terms of numbers than I have seen there to date. We started off by almost immediately spotting a large brown bird on a distant gate which, when it took off hovered unmistakeably like a kestrel and reappeared a couple of times during the walk - a great, plump thing it was too.  Further along walking west we got a brief view of a woodpecker.

Near the platform feeders there were really large numbers of birds, especially tree sparrows and occasionally a willow tit as well great, blue and coal tits and the odd chaffinch.  One short-eared owl (presumably) put in an appearance in silhouette flying along above an adjacent hedgerow.

Willow Tit

Tree Sparrow

We knew there was a chance of a genuine rarity as an eastern yellow wagtail has repeatedly turned up on the Carr and we were lucky enough to get directions from two other birdwatchers.  Sure enough it was exactly where they said, in a horse's field scampering around to pick up bits of food from the mud. It had been showing right next to the road but had moved off somewhat by the time we got there, scurrying back and forth on more or less on the same line, with a group of pied wagtails and meadow pipits in the distance behind it.  Probably the rarest bird I've seen in the UK and a really simple sighting.

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Treecreeper

We looked out for the short-eared owl as dusk fell on the way back but with no success.  There was a single dunnock and we stopped to watch the antics of a treecreeper working its way up and down a gnarly bush. It was the first time I've seen one here and I was a bit surprised to see it on what wasn't a large tree.

There hasn't been much activity on the garden feeders.  I've increased the number of fatballs but basically because I suspect that they are of poor quality and would like to get rid of them.  The case seems to have been proved.  One or two red kites have been sighted, one flying low over Rowlands Gill and another above the garden, being hotly pursued by a corbid.

Saturday 28th December

Last Saturday I caught up with daughter Jennifer and fiance Joe at the Saltholme RSPB Reserve near Seal Sands - distinctly brownbelt country.  The main purpose was to start off a complex exchange of Christmas and Birthday presents while fitting in some birdwatching and refreshments.

It was clear from internet search that there were a large number of fieldfare and a good few redwing present, and these were fairly quickly identified, including the leucistic fieldfare advertised, which actually showed up on two or three separate occasions and therefore was adjudged to be showing off just a bit. Just to confirm, it hadn't been snowing...

Fieldfares

Redwing

Leucistic Fieldfare

On moving to the first hide, we saw a few greenfinch, tits and tree sparrows and phenomenal number of

Peregrine Falcon

goldfinches crowding in around the feeders.  At distance it was just possible to pick out a solitary peregrine falcon that remained static on a fencepost for all the time we stayed, halfway over to a line of factories to the north of the pond. I wondered if it was possibly a juvenile.

Walking over the scrub land, we saw a few kestrels and a large flock of lapwings moving back and forth. Things became somewhat quieter when we reached the Saltholme Hide, so much so that these wigeon obviously decided to take a wee nap.

Sleepy wigeon

Unfortunately we didn't see any peregrines hunting, nor the marsh harriers that have consistently been reported.  This was for me the biggest disappointment as a pair were briefly spotted on the day and I had no idea that marsh harriers are regularly sighted as far North as the Tees Estuary.

Thursday 19th December

There have been one or two spontaneous nature occurrences over the past few days.

On a trip to Morpeth I had a bit of time to spare and caught up with a goosander among a group of gulls being fed at the edge of the river .

Goosander

Last Friday I was cycling back along the Derwent Valley from the gym and it was a bit of a surprise to see two bullfinches and two jays before anything more mundane turned up. There was also a grey heron above the fish pass near Winlaton so I suppose that shows it must get used, even though I've never seen any sign of fish in the Derwent and only ever one angler.

On Tuesday I finally managed a long-postponed trip to the hide at Clara Vale, which I found after some faffing to be very near the cricket pavilion i use in the summer. I wanted to check whether rumours of a kingfisher being there/not being there were correct.

As soon as I arrived, the kingfisher arrived on a lone branch just ten metres or so in front of the hide. It hung around while I fumbled with the camera and I was still fumbling when it landed briefly in a willow just to the left of the hide window.

For the next half hour or so it rotated around the pond at different points and you could see it splashing into the water to catch a tiddler.  Just as it was starting to get dark it again perched in front of the hide and I finally got the shots I wanted.  Just before I packed up it flew towards the hide.  I momentarily thought it was going to fly in my face before it veered off into the woods to the right.  As I got ready to leave I could actually see it front on through the side window of the hide - almost as if IT was observing me!

Kingfisher

Yesterday there was an amusing game in the garden. Grey Squirrel appeared again but instead of making for the sunflower hearts feeder, he started trying to dig up bits of the lawn.  I gradually realised he wanted to hide some nuts. The lawn was quite frozen so he had no success until he started at the bit where I had dug in the rescued buddleia. Just before this, one of the thuggish local jackdaws started paying attention and following him around. Eventually the jackdaw sneaked up while he was digging and gave him a nip on the tail before fluttering off towards the decking.  Grey Squirrel seemd deterred by this and retired, whereupon the jackdaw moved in and started pecking into his hidey hole.  As I didn't see any nuts being buried or retrieved, I suspect there was no victor in this little contest.

It's not only around the house that there have been a lot of squirrels.  I saw at least a dozen on a short walk in Chopwell Woods this morning - plus literally hundreds of wood pigeons.

Wednesday 11th December

Grey Squirrel

Things have been quite lively in the garden as the nights darken.  It has clearly been a good year for grey squirrels, whom I have regularly seen passing along the trees at the back, no doubt commuting to the oak tree just down the burn to collect acorns.

One made a couple of forays into the garden itself and eventually ended up on the bird feeder that contains sunflower hearts.  On closer inspection it proved that one of the holes in the feeder has been considerably enlarged.

There have also been regular invasions of long-tailed tits, sometimes half a dozen at a time. For some reason I was particularly struck by how dark the markings are on their back this winter. In typical fashion, they arrive suddenly and only

Long-tailed Tits

stay briefly before moving on.

Long-tailed tits were even more in evidence at Shibdon Pond yesterday when I took a break from the hide which was full of Naturewatchers.  There must have been at least twenty passing along the south bank.  From the hide, the sightings were pretty much dominated by gulls. Apart from the normal things you'd expect to see (teal, shoveler, etc) there were a good few shelduck patrolling the far bank.

On the edge of the grassy area where there the canada geese like to promenade there were also a couple of domestic ducks - one a hybrid of some sort and the other a muscovy duck.

Shelduck

Teal	Muscovy Duck

I got one bike ride in last Wednesday when the weather looked up and noticed a couple of kestrels hovering - one just north of Wylam and another north of Ponteland on the Morpeth road.  Red kites are also starting to appear more regularly over Rowlands Gill.

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 16th October

I went to Holy Island last Friday in the hope of seeing some of the passage birds that had been turning up over the previous few days. In fact there wasn't much about.  The first and the commonest bird I saw on the island was the starling.

Turnstone

In pleasantly bright weather but a strong wind, I did manage to identify a couple of rock pipits on the stoney beach as well as some oystercatchers and turnstone.  On the pond near the wildlife centre, all the birds were sheltering under their wings but one may have been a whooper swan.

Two whites sighted during the day remain my latest butterfly sightings to date.

I spent quite a lot of time foraging in the dunes at the North of the island, which proved completely unproductive though I did see this rather large caterpillar.  Referring to a suggested expert indicates it will one day become a fox moth.

Fox Moth Caterpillar

On the way back to the castle, there were some teal visible, sheltering against the weeds on the far side of the other pond.

Wheatear

It's strange how the most interesting sighting often occurs when you have given up looking. I had decided to visit the priory when I spotted an interesting little bird feeding by the wall on the main road.  At first I thought it was a water pipit in summer plumage but the general consensus is that it is a wheatear.  All I can say is that the wheatears I have seen were much more strongly marked but there are photographs of them online that look similar.  It certainly wasn't shy as a water pipit is supposed to be.

Yesterday the Naturewatch Group visited Belsay Gardens, where again the birdlife was a little furtive. Over time I did manage to identify three nuthatch, several coal tits and blue tits and a song thrush. The best sighting was a couple of goldcrests working their way through a hazel bush that so fascinated me that I left my waterproof trousers behind. I also got a glimpse of a disappearing red squirrel.

Obviously it was a cultivated rather than wild environment but I was rather impressed with this particular variety of rhodedendron barbarus, which apparently comes from Northern Asia.

Rhodedendron Barbarus

Wednesday 9th October

Understandably, things have been much quieter since returning from holiday and a 50% plus drop in temperature as summer draws to a close.

On resuming birdfeeding activities in mid September, there were a series of visits from a group of long-tailed tits and on one occasion I happened to count as many as eight clustered around the bird feeders. It didn't

Small Tortoiseshell

however take long before the jackdaws started visiting again.

Around this time, some of my newly-planted buddleia's last flowers produced a couple of fine, large specimens - a red admiral and a small tortoiseshell. The photo doesn't give a fair impression of its size.

Recently, I've continued to keep careful note of butterflies, wondering when the last sighting of the year will occur.  There was a red admiral and two speckled wood in the garden on 28th September and three speckled wood yesterday.

Egret

Today there was another red admiral on a bike ride near Lanchester and two more speckled wood in the garden once I got home. 

On the way back from Lanchester, I stopped to chat with some fishermen at the little lake at Annfield Plain, who had been catching some carp. I suddenly noticed that a heron wading on the far side was in fact an indeterminate egret. I guess they must be pretty much anywhere where there is water if they are this far inland.

Earlier in the day, I was pretty sure I heard a chiffchaff calling briefly.