Monday 23rd March

In spite of the increasing threat of the evil coronavirus I have managed a couple of worthwhile trips out.

Lapwing

The next Naturewatch trip (cancelled) would have been to St Mary's Island so I decided to take a lone bike run there anyway via Holywell Dene, as I had never visited the Dene before.  In fact the best sighting proved to be a number of lapwings on the edge of some flooded land at East Holywell. Unfortunately they weren't displaying.

Just a few minutes later a volley of long-tailed tits landed in a hedgerow, making me realise that they aren't turning up in large numbers in the garden any more.  Instead of the lightning mobhanded visits over the winter, they are now turning up in ones and twos and staying rather longer.

There was a tree sparrow on the way out of the Dene near Seaton Sluice but at St Mary's Island the tide was high, so that there wasn't much to see apart from a few cormorants hanging out to dry. I suspect in any case that walking through the Dene would be more productive as the cycle track doesn't follow the burn very closely.

A couple of days later I was gazing out of the bedroom window when a chiffchaff turned up in the silver birches behind the garden.  Of course both camera and mobile phone were sitting downstairs.  They were also out of reach when a raiding grey squirrel came right up to the back doors and took a drink from the old sink that used to serve as a herb garden.

On Saturday, I decided to visit the quiet (n.b. self-isolation now a priority) Linton Lane Reserve in Northumberland and was really quite impressed with the variety of ducks that turned up on the two ponds, including tufted duck, wigeon and male and female pochard as well as little grebe, great-crested grebe, cormorant and teal.  I was particularly pleased with the pochard, as I haven't recorded seeing one for seven years!

Male Pochard

Tufted Ducks

Wigeon

Reed Bunting

I was just about to decide I had exhausted what was on offer when I noticed that reed buntings were turning up to feed, which they did on several occasions.  Then another chiffchaff (possibly two) occurred in the trees to the right.  Having again missed the photo opportunity on two or three occasions, I waited about three quarters of an hour for a reappearance, which didn't materialise...

Although it was boggy and the Eastern hide had been seriously vandalised, I liked the Linton Lane ponds.  While quite productive, they are narrow enough to allow reasonably easy identification of the birds, a contrast to some venues where your eyesight and binoculars are left struggling to pick up vague shapes half a mile away.

Then yesterday I got another surprise when, in spite of the cool temperature, the first peacock of the year landed on my garden fence.  This time I did at least have my mobile phone at the ready!

Peacock

Saturday 14th March

After various delays and some help on location from a fellow birdwatcher, I made a successful second attempt to track down the Middleton crane.

On the way down to the river, all I spotted was a good cluster of tree sparrows in the hedgerow to add to the heard but not seen skylarks above.

After scouring around the fields along the Wansbeck to the West of the village, I turned tail and headed east along the North bank,  A few hundred yards along from the wooden bridge there was what looked like an old wildfowling area on the other side of the river.  I thought I heard a sort of croaking noise from the area and was saying something aloud about not knowing what a crane's call was like when it was flushed out from behind the reeds and flew off further East at some speed.

Unfortunately it settled at some way away from the far bank so that after a good initial view, I could only get a couple of distant shots once I caught up.  Then it flushed again and I was momentarily surprised to see that there were two birds.  For a moment I thought it was two cranes, which really would have been something as only one wintering juvenile bird has been reported. However it was apparent that the lead bird was in fact a grey heron, the crane as if in pursuit of it from behind.

Common crane

Crane pursues Heron

This concludes a rather fruitful week.  The treecreeper recently observed in the oak tree out the back paid a visit to the mahonia and, after giving it a work over, did the same on the back fence.  There has also been a sighting of a small brown mouse picking up left over bird food, a brief visit from a chaffinch (not particularly common here) and a quick sighting of a jay on the lane near the old school. And there was a kestrel hovering on the way back to Ponteland today..

Wednesday 11th March

Not being that keen on seabirds and waders, I was unsure about whether to go on the latest Naturewatch trip to Blyth, but reports of avocets in the estuary and improving weather finally persuaded me.

After taking a rather long time to spot some isolated sanderling and black headed gulls on the beach, where the main life forms were canine, we got a nice view of several pairs of eider duck in the harbour, where they were clearly begging for scraps as they bobbed around.

I was actually hoping to capture their cooing call which one member of the group aptly described as a Frankie Howerd imitation.

Things got even better when we walked along the estuary as a wide variety of species appeared, notably shelduck, teal, curlew, oystercatcher and goldfinch, as well as a grey seal that popped its head out a couple of times.

Having missed it on the Tyne at Hexham last winter, I was particularly pleased to get a reasonable sighting of a red-breasted merganser once it moved over into the river.

Red-breasted Merganser

This one appears to be imitating Boris Johnson.  

Of the avocets however, there was no sign.

Wednesday 4th March

A prolonged period of low temperatures to end winter plus a couple of domestic inconveniences have set a limit on my recent activities.

Unfortunately the latter have included a couple of nature-related issues. A small garden tree with interesting weepy twigs gave up the ghost during the winter storms and keeled over, so there was nothing for it but to chop it up and take it to the tip.

Slightly more distressing was the sight of fluffy flakes descending from the area of my roof. It proved that some starlings had broken through the cladding and were making merry with my loft insulation.  Fortunately there had been no attempt at nesting so it was simply a case of getting the hole blocked so they couldn't get in. I've no idea what they were doing - just roosting or stealing themselves some material for a nest elsewhere but the resulting mess isn't simple to tidy up.

One walking and a couple of cycle runs on better days having produced nothing of note, the garden has pretty much been the total focus of my attention.

The female blackcap appeared once again on the feeders after the mahonia had wilted, but not again, making it unclear whether the mahonia was the main attraction as is my instinct.

At the end of last week there was a sign of Spring when a pair of bullfinches turned up to steal some of the shoots sprouting by the back fence. The male didn't hang around but his partner was more patient and hung around for a while, breakfasting on the buds.

Bullfinch

I think that is the first time a bullfinch has been spotted from my kitchen window,  Then today there was another first when, at distance I caught sight of a treecreeper shinning up the bald oak tree by the burn.

I think there may also have been a visit from a bird of prey.  Yesterday one of the feeders was found on the grass where it had fallen from the pear tree.  I assumed misbehaviour by jackdaws or squirrels as per normal but on closer inspection I noticed that there were a few small feathers lying around.  So it looks like a tit might have been taken from the feeder by presumably a sparrowhawk, or quite possibly a merlin as they definitely occur here.

As they say, I will never know.

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!

Thursday 30th January

What is it about the Great British Garden Birdwatch?

Every year I sit down for an hour at the back window for an hour, see very little and what I do see doesn't reflect what might typically appear on a normal day.

So last Sunday the only tit to turn up was the blue tit and its only rival for 'most frequent garden visitor', the jackdaw, just managed one very token appearance.  Instead a couple of starlings, which I almost never see, turned up to give the mistaken appearance that Britain's second most common garden bird is a regular with me too.

The next day of course all the usual tits turned up including the long-tailed tit, which has probably visited in the largest numbers over the past month. To 'cap' it all a female blackcap appeared on the feeders and turned up again yesterday, rather uncomfortably consuming something or other from the mahonia petals.

Female Blackcap

I've mentioned before that blackcaps are tending to overwinter more in the North.  Apparently there are also some birds from Germany and North Eastern Europe that have changed their migration patterns and appear as winter visitors. Obviously it isn't possible to judge which type this bird was.

The starlings have also come back and I am actually pleased as at least they are able to diminish the continuing glut of fatballs shunned by most of the other birds.

Otherwise I haven't been getting out much.  I've been having work done around the house and spending a lot of time on the computer.  A planned trip to Wallington Hall to see bramblings last Friday fell through when I ended up in bed with a heavy cold.

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.