Thursday 4th November

 Having heard that there were crossbills and siskins in some numbers at East Cramlington Pond, I set off there a week ago.

The search was somewhat complicated by the fact there seems to be two locations answering to that name.  The one I found first was the Nirthumberland Wildlife Trust Reserve, which was pretty quiet but there were some honey bees around the artificial hives and some redwing in the trees on the western side, which was in sun.

I'd noticed there was an area of conifers to the North and headed towards them, thinking that they were more likely to attract crossbills and siskins.  Here there was another larger and less overgrown pond and a quite extensive area calling itself East Cramlington Nature Reserve.  I scouted around a good deal without seeing or hearing virtually anything but eventually did hear birds moving around the edge of one area.  Most of these proved to be long-tailed and other tits but I did briefly pick out one siskin among them.  No crossbills though.

With some time available, I moved on to Holywell Pond, where a spoonbill was reported about ten days earlier.  I missed the main path down to the pond after trouble parking and ended up approaching from the waggonway.

I found the area I took to be Holywell Pond, a wide area of shallow water set in ploughed farmland.  There were a few ducks at distance, which look to have been gadwall and in retrospect were a pleasing spot.

Gadwall

On setting off again, I could catch sight of another expanse of water which proved to be the real Holywell Pond, though in fact it produced less interesting sightings - just a few swans and gulls and some tufted ducks.

Yesterday, the spectacular sightings of a fortnight ago no longer much in evidence, I decided to take a coastal walk north from Newbiggin, watching out for any twite.

A very white gull with red legs landed briefly in front of me but eluded the camera and I had to puzzle
out what it might be afterwards.  The most likely explanation seems to be black-headed gull - without the black head of course.

Eider Duck

Down on the foreshore I got a good view of a rock pipit but on the whole there wasn't much about in the morning beyond gulls, cormorants and a good head of pied wagtails.

There were some smaller birds about but annoyingly they all seem to fly straight over me and into the sun, carried away quickly by a moderate breeze.  The only ones that landed took fright too quickly to be identified.

Further along I did see an eider duck diving repeatedly.

It was amazing to reflect that a hoopoe briefly turned up in the Lynemouth area, having first made land at Newbiggin.  I had no expectation that it would still be there, especially if it was as unimpressed by the scenery around the old aluminium smelter as I was.  Curiously though, there were a few stonechats in the bushes around th outflow from the mine contamination processing plan, which was about the same colour as them - rust red.

Things were a bit more lively as there were a good number of waders active as the tide moved in.  There were a few redshanks and some turnstone amongst others, and a lot more brown birds which were very quick to take flight when I approached.

On reflection, I suspect though that they were all rock pipits.

Rock Pipit

Saturday 24th October

Lambley Viaduct

The period over the last fortnight has been pretty flat. A couple of low flying kites near the house served to emphasize that poorer weather is on the way. In the garden the only item of note was the appearance of a male woodpecker, rather than the female and juvenile that were visiting in summer.

A promising walk around Featherstone and Lambley Viaduct only produced a heron and a chaffinch or two plus some large funghi and the most impressive sight was probably the viaduct itself.

Similarly little happened on two exercise bike rides to Belsay and on the Tyne Derwent Circular.  Well they do say October can be a quiet time for birds that can readily find lots of berries to eat.

Not so however on the Northumberland coast where various rarities have turned up as documented at @NTBirdClub particularly on Holy Island and I finally managed a trip up there on Thursday despite an unpromising weather forecast.

Lapwing

After a much-needed visit to the facilities, I spotted a promising path heading North just after eleven.  Rain duly arrived so I turned back as planned and had lunch in one of the village hostelries.

Nosing around the village I happened on a couple of twitchers who told me where to find the brown shrike - further along the path I had been on before, so I duly retraced my steps into the marshland areas.

Here there were a few lapwing, the odd curlew and a single kestrel resting on a fencepost, but I also found another lone twitcher, who told me the shrike and just flown off somewhere.  So I continued on the path until just before the dunes, checking every likely spot.

On turning back some frantic waving from the twitcher showed that it had reappeared and about half a dozen of us got a view of it on the other end of a wall from an unconcerned stonechat.

A considerable distance was involved and I certainly couldn't have identified it without assistance, though it did have a fairly characteristic 'jizz'.

Stonechat

Brown Shrike

It's over a hundred miles to Holy Island and back, but considering the shrike had come from Siberia, well worth the trip for only the third occasion I have seen any sort of shrike, let alone a rare one.

There were no further sensations after this but it was nice to see some early redwings and fieldfares on the way back.  

Fieldfare

I checked out some noted hotspots around the village without success.  A particular one is the Vicar's Garden, so much so that there is a birders' box for contributions to church funds on the outside wall. 

I didn't see anything worth noting there either so did not contribute, though I did get a nice view of the Vicar's Cockerel.

Vicar's Cockerel

None of the other birders I spoke to had more to report either. On consideration it may be that some migrant birds were pushed onto the coast by several days of east wind, which have now ceased and so they have mostly departed.  Shrikes however, having established a territory will tend to stay for a while.

Sunday 11th October

The last butterfly I saw was on 6th October, a probable red admiral at Chollerford on the way to a small group walk at Miltonrigg Woods near Brampton.  It was an impressive piece of ancient woodland and a pleasant walk, although not much wildlife was spotted.  I did see a few long-tailed tits, a buzzard and a thrush.  Otherwise there were quite a few funghi around.

Tree Fungus

There were of course examples of non-wildlife around and we met these welcoming sheep, though fortunately not the bull that was supposed to be in a neighbouring field.

Sheep

I was back in the same area yesterday for a walk with son and fiancée around the Geltsdale RSPB reserve.  Ironically we'd had a recent discussion about not seeing many kestrels but I've never seen as many as we saw yesterday - scores of them, often three or four in the air at the same time.

There were a few buzzards too.  While we were watching a faster bird passed over with pointed wings and we concluded it was a peregrine.

Unfortunately there was a much sadder sighting - a wee barn owl chick that had fallen from the nest and seems certain to die.  Ages since I saw one.

Barn Owl

Others we saw were tufted duck, barnacle goose, goldfinch and siskin (probable).

There were several things we hoped to see and didn't, confirming that there are good reasons to go back there,  It's far more strikingly pictoresque than I had remembered...

Friday 2nd October

I seem to remember writing some time ago how I was struggling to get my buddleias in Dumfries to continue flowering into September.  Well, with a bit more knowledge and frequent deadheading,  the smallest of my three buddleia has made into October.  Whether there's enough on it to attract any butterflies remain to be seen.

By not putting birdfood out for a time, I seem to have avoided the attention of the local rats and its reappearance earned a couple of lengthy visits from a nuthatch.

Nuthatch

Mole activity has also been reduced but the cheeky squirrel has been fussing around the lawn a lot and apparently trying to dig holes.  At first I thought he was trying to dig up nuts but in autumn it's more likely he's looking for suitable places to hide them.

Squirrel

Yesterday I took a trip to Hauxley Nature Reserve, where a yellow-browed warbler was recently reported.  It obviously hasn't stayed and there wasn't much around at all apart from a selction of known waterfowl, geese and curlew.  There didn't even seem to be anything to interest this kestrel:

Kestrel

I did happen to find another very large flock of goldfinches and wondered if they were the same ones I saw on my bike ride a few weeks ago.  One pleasant surprise was this lone flower which is still under investigation and may be some sort of cranesbill.

Sunday 20th September

 The last  few days of summer, at least a bit better than the end of August...

10 days ago I decided to continue my explorations of Cycle Route 1 up as far as Warkworth.   There was an immediate reward just past the old aluminium smelter at Lynemouth when I stopped to watch a group of buzzards and was distracted by the appearance of a couple of butterflies in a nondescript bit of wasteland.  One proved to be a small copper and the other a rather faded common blue, one of two, my only sighting this summer.

Small Copper

Common Blue

Continuing on into the nature reserves, there were a good number of stonechats around the dunes.  I thought at first there were a few whinchats among them too but on checking I think it was just that there was a large proportion of female stonechats and perhaps a few juveniles.

Female Stonechat

On the way back from what was a very pleasant run on a pleasant day, I happened upon this massive flock of goldfinches, as large as I've ever seen.

Goldfinches

There were a few meadow pipts around too.

On Friday I tried a fishing trip to Big Waters, mainly feeder tactics with sweetcorn.  It didn't work for most of the day until I caught two good roach in succession, probably straddling the 1lb mark.  In the meanwhile, I'd noticed some fish playing in the shallows and managed to pick up a couple of nice wee rudd on worm beneath a light float, plus a roach.

The better fish came when the sun was in.  When it came back out bites became niggly and I only got one more roach.  I fished on til dusk in hope, by which time I had lost all ability to cast straight and it was too dark to get a decent photo.

My attempts to preserve the buddleia for longer this year have worked a bit.  Two out of three plants still have some blooms so that small tortoiseshells have continued to visit.

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled wood and red admiral have passed through as well but small tortoiseshell and small white are now the main visitors.

Wednesday 9th September

I was nearly fooled into misidentifying a dunnock as some sort of warbler this week.  In fairly bright light there was very little sign of brown making it look almost totally pale and it's habit of sitting in the hedge looking nervously around didn't seem a particularly dunnock-like behaviour.

Nervy Dunnock

However the camera showed clearly that it was definitely a dunnock.

I don't know if the birds and butterflies were out partying on Saturday night but there was little sign of them on Sunday when we walked from Corbridge up past Aydon Castle.  Then on the way back around 2.00 pm on a cool, dull day they started to reappear.  I was pleased to spot a jay and a woodpecker at considerable assistance in my new binoculars.  A few whites showed up and even a red admiral of which I got a poor shot but it was large and looked and in pristine condition, like the others I've seen this year, albeit few enough of them.

Red Admiral

Reaching the river again at Corbridge there were grey wagtails, a couple of male goosanders and a little egret.

Also noted were a couple of dung beetles, several fungi including this massive one and an example of robin's pincushion on a dog rose.

Fungus

Robin's Pincushion

The buddleia has struggled on and still attracts the odd small tortoiseshell or peacock.  One or two small blooms are still developing but I'm not optimistic they'll reach any size.

Friday 4th September

Some of the Naturewatch group did an informal walk around Bolam Lake last Wednesday.  Perhaps relieved to be out again, there was more chatting than spotting.  Apart from tits, we did see a treecreeper and heard a buzzard but that was about all and the main feature was perhaps the scenery in the early autumn sunlight.

Bolam Lake

It was surprising that, apart from a number of mute swans there was nothing on the lake at all in the way of ducks or waders.

A ramble around Chopwell Woods with Malcolm on Sunday wasn't very revealing either.  We did see five speckled wood butterflies and a (probable) common hawker but his dog found a corpse at one point and smelled of maggots all the way to the local pub.  I thought I saw a slightly different carder bee but the camera proved otherwise.

Since I have reflected how frequently you think you have seen something possibly unusual and get the camera out in evidence, only for the target to disappear before you can capture it.

On a bike ride to Belsay during a windless day I was a bit surprised to see a couple of buzzards.  The one on the way back seemed to have red on its tail.  It settled nicely in a tree within camera range and I was wondering if it might just be a red kite, which would have been interesting so far north.  All I can say is that it behaved much more like a buzzard in making its departure.  

The only other thing of note was a grey squirrel scrambling across the road between two farm fields.  A little bizarre.

Similarly in the garden a very slight and slender white butterfly with few dark markings rested on the plum tree and I started to wonder against all the odds about a wood white.  However it flew off strongly, unphotographed, and was almost certainly just a small white.

Unfortunately, the buddleia is now almost devoid of blossom and it remains to be seen whether it can produce any more sizeable blooms.  So this may be the last small tortoiseshell to visit me this year.

Small Tortoiseshell

A booted warbler, a species of which I had never heard was reported at Whitburn Country Park a few days ago, so I decided to take a brief trip out there, well aware that it would probably have departed.

It had.  However as soon as I entered the park, I did see a wheatear, which obligingly posed on the sign at the entrance.

Wheatear

This is apparently a pretty typical appearance for an autumn female.  As an advert it was though totally misleading, as it was the only bird of I managed to see in the park apart for a couple of pigeons.  Still, it was the only one this year.