It's gradually getting a bit warmer, in spite or because of gale force storms which have made conditions rather unpredictable. At least there has been no snow like there was last February to March.
Just over two weeks ago I took a bike ride to Matfen. There were a couple of clusters of bullfinches working the trees but not a great deal else.
The Friday afterwards, I visited Gosforth Nature Reserve for the first time in ages. Again the winds were approaching gale force and there was a remarkable lack of ducks and geese on the lake. From the second hide I did manage a couple of possibly flirtatious herons and thought I saw some lapwings flying by in the distance.
In fact the main thing I saw in this area was actually well outside the reserve - a little egret that I managed to focus on several hundred yards away on the Gosforth Subsidence Pond.
Little Egret
On circumnavigating the western end of the lake there were some very dark shapes to be picked out that looked to be shovellers but it was impossible to pick out the colouration.
Just beyond that point, my attention was drawn to an area of undergrowth by some fallen trees. I thought I could pick out the odd flash of red and I was wondering about brambling. Eventually I got a clear view of a redwing through the binoculars. When I tried to sneak nearer for a closer look, about forty or fifty of them went up where I would have guessed there to be about half a dozen. It was quite pleasing though, as they were the first redwings I've seen all winter.
This Monday, there was supposed to be a Naturewatch trip to Big Waters, which was cancelled due to bad weather. Noticing however that conditions were improving by lunchtime and that an Iceland Gull had been sighted there the day before, I decided to go along anyway.
Unfortunately the hides were locked but I was soon greeted by a flypast of a hundred or so lapwings, one or two of which showed signs of wanting to practice their mating display flight..
Most were sharing a nearby rock with some oystercatchers and every now and again, they would go up once more.
Lapwings
Further on there was another group of male and female bullfinches who might have been consorting but at the moment were more intent on demolishing a few buds.
Bullfinch
It's always tricky getting shots of them when they're foraging high in the bushes. Ironically, another male showed up in the trees at the bottom of my garden the day after and posed beautifully - but I was upstairs at the time and didn't have the camera to hand.
At the West end of the pond I spent some time peering at the feeders behind the hide and picked up brief a sighting of a siskin, the first I've seen in a long time. Unfortunately it didn't stay and didn't return.
On the lake there was a large squadron of greylags and another of canada geese, as well as a smaller group of wigeon, as on our last visit.
Last weekend during the storms I was convinced I'd seen a white butterfly flattering past my front hedge. The temperature was 11C but there is no evidence to suggest any whites appear in January so I guess it must have been a leaf. There have been no surprises on the feeders apart from a female nuthatch turning up on the suet nuggets. Nuthatches have not been seen here for a while.
One thing that did "turn up" was an explanation for the burrowings in my plant pots and for the fact I occasionally find an acorn or an oak sapling in them.
Grey Squirrel
Malcolm and I decided on a walk from Amble Dunes to East Chevington, which should have produced more interesting bird sightings. The main thing saw was this dead ray, which I think may be a cuckoo ray although rays are not exactly a speciality with me and the spots have faded.
Cuckoo Ray
I was expecting a lot of stonechats at least but all we actually got was a heron just south of Druridge, a couple of passing goldeneye as East Chevington Pond and some usual wader suspects as the tide went down on the way back.
However I was pleased to manage as much as nine miles with the aid of my long-neglected walking sticks and very much enjoyed the concluding ice cream at Amble!
A recent bike ride only produced some audible skylarks and a fleeting bullfinch.
Sometimes the answer lies nearer home and a quickish visit to Killingworth Lake to check out the ducks yesterday proved more successful. The main interest was reports of scaup and I did manage to see a few although it was hard to distinguish between the juveniles and the many young tufted ducks. It was also nice to see some pochard again and get a close-up of a male goldeneye.
Pochard
Goldeneye
Scaup
At Killingworth the gulls, ducks, geese and swans are often found close to the bank at the West end because of the number of people who feed them. Whether this is a good idea is another thing.
Not a bad past ten days even if the bird rarities aren't showing up in the numbers they were last year.
A week ago on Monday I decided to finally walk a stretch near Gosforth Golf Course, where I knew ring-necked parakeets had once been seen.
A few hundred metres after the start, an old chap with a crutch stopped to chat and told me that parakeets are often in the trees in the area where we were standing, but weren't there today as he would have heard them squawking.
I can't have gone on fifty yards before I did hear squawking and could make them out in the trees overhead, about four in total I reckoned This was a fair slice of luck as hardly anyone else I encountered muttered even hallo unlike most areas I visit.
For the rest of the walk I didn't see anything much beyond a few goldfinches even though I ventured into a North Tyneside designated ecozone, which was actually a rather unpromising strip of land sandwiched between the North end of Longbenton and an industrial estate.
On the way back I was wondering what else I had hoped to see and came to the conclusion it was redpolls, which turned up in some number at the end of last January.
Anyway, the parakeets were still in situ in the same couple of trees when I ended the walk and seemed to be pretty static, not crashing around all over the place like when I saw them in Brussels.
Ring-necked Parakeet
This was the first time I have seen a parakeet in this country. They are in the region but not in anything like the numbers in the South East.
The day after was a bike ride to Belsay, when I heard skylarks for the first time in a while and spotted a yellowhammer in a hedgerow. There were also a couple of buzzards, a kestrel and a probable sparrowhawk.
I tried a walk round Shibdon Pond at the weekend, an area that always strikes me as attractive but doesn't produce much of interest. Apart from large numbers of barnacle goose, I did manage to spot some shelduck and tufted duck on the pond itself.
Shelduck
Tufted Duck
The other thing I have noticed in the past few days is that a robin has started visiting the peanut feeders, not something that I've ever seen before as far as I can recall. I'm wondering if it's something they've learned from the numerous tits.. The winter has so far been mild so you wouldn't think food was in especially short supply.
Having concluded that a lack of suet nuggets would lead to a lack of long-tailed tits, it was interesting to be proved wrong when they started turning up on the peanut feeders in similar numbers. It left me wondering whether I should stop feeding the nuggets as you get a better view of them on the nuts.
Long-tailed tits
Curlew
I got out a couple of times. On Tuesday I did a bike ride along the Tyne. By the time I got there I was pretty cold and there were a few large chunks of ice floating downstream. When the forecast sun finally got out on the way back, I saw three male bullfinches in a tree just before Newburn Bridge. They were less shy than normal, probably focussed on the presence of a single female. A bit further past Newburn where the trail leaves the river, there were a couple of thrushes flapping their tails at each other. It looked like some birds are at least thinking about finding a mate.
On Thursday, we did a walk from Seaton Sluice to St Mary's Island in a stiff and chilly breeze. Apart from a few curlew in a cemetery, there wasn't much to see but it turned out most birds were hiding out on the rocks north of the car park, presumably out of the worst of the wind.
There were a good few oystercatchers, a few lapwing and several turnstone. We reckoned there was also a large flock of golden plover nearer the lighthouse, but it was hard to be certain at distance. On the island itself, a good few seals were lolling about as they are pretty much commonplace there nowadays.
Oystercatcher
Turnstone - with starling
Stoats
I have been bemoaning the lack of less common species in the garden this winter. But this morning a couple of stoats turned up and started a major fight on the path by the lawns. I though I'd captured the whole encounter, which lasted several minutes, on video but must have pressed the wrong button! Presumably it was a fight between two males rather than a mating event.
As stoats attack rats, I am prepared to extend them a cautious welcome.
It may be my imagination but there seems to be much less going on in the way of rare bird sightings compared to previous years. November was mild and waxwings haven't irrupted in any numbers. Only the odd hawfinch has appeared at Morpeth. Apart from that most twitchers are reporting gulls and other sea birds that don't excite me that much.
You may have observed that I have posted several photos of long-tailed tits tucking into suet nuggets. About three weeks ago, I finally managed to get the shot I was really after - six of them having a go at the same time. Unfortunately, on the last trip to the supermarket in question, the suet nugget shelf was totally empty so maybe other customers have had the same positive results. The high energy fatballs I've replaced them with don't exercise the same magic, so no more long-tailed tit invasions as yet.
Long-tailed tits
In slightly murky conditions more recently two male bullfinches turned up on the forsythia bush, which I remember attracted bullfinch interest last winter. I've often noticed bullfinches feeding on fresh shoots at this time of year but it isn't so common to see two males together.
Bullfinches
Perhaps they have a particular liking for forsythia.
Over Christmas I was at my son's in Moffat and we did a walk at Carriefran near the Grey Mare's Tale. Although the scenery was pretty impressive we didn't see much in the way of wildlife - a single buzzard, a volley of pipits and a few tits and not a single mammal. This is a new walk and, like Chopwell Woods, they've signposted a lot of trees to show what kind they are. I'd no idea there were so many varieties of willow
Carriefan
On the way back into Moffat we drove past the Hammerlands Centre, now developed into a serious resort. There used to be a stew pond where it was dead easy to catch a few trout on baits. The fly fishing seems to have expanded now and is reasonably priced. I've often told myself I wanted to try some trout fishing again. I think what I would like to do is catch a trout on my late dad's vintage fly fishing gear. Perhaps it doesn't extend further than that: I'm not sure I'm up for clambering up and down river banks any more.
Yesterday, I met up with Malcolm to do a dog walk round the QE II lake near Ashington, the one WACAC venue I hadn't sussed out yet. There wasn't much bird life about apart from common items - swans, cormorants, canada geese and standard ducks.
However I was impressed with the look of it as a fishing venue. It mainly gets reported as a specimen venue for quality carp and pike but all the main other coarse species are present and it didn't seem as exposed as I had imagined.
Although we didn't see anything much, Malcolm's dog certainly did, showing a great deal of interest in the reedy areas and at one point plunging into a boggy bit of water in full attack mode. We wondered if it might have been a water vole as there are some in the vicinity.
Vole Hunter
Another advantage of the QE II was the real ale in the (rather plasticy) pub near the car park.
Today I was out on a long bike ride and noticed that there were a lot of chaffinches about.
Immediately following the power, boiler and broadband outages initiated by Storm Arwen, I sought shelter in Alnwick and we went on a beach walk at Warkworth.
I thought there might be some bird activity but in fact there was precious little. Just when I thought I might have spotted a couple of greenshank, my friend called me to bring the camera over.
There was a young seal pup sitting on a rocky outcrop and we spent some time wondering how it had ended up there and what to do about it. There had been some talk from a walker that a chap had returned a seal pup to the area in a wheelbarrow, which indeed we found - but in that case we couldn't understand why it hadn't been returned to the sea.
Seal pup
There was no sign of a mother seal and the two dogs with us were making whining noises to go and play with their new friend, which started to toss its head around a bit but didn't move. Eventually we recalled that the best thing to do with a stranded seal is to leave it alone. It must have been quite fortunate in a way as we discovered two larger dead seal pups stranded at the top of the beach on the way back.
On Sunday I decided to take a walk along the Tyne from Wylam to Newburn and back, which proved to be a bit longer than I had reckoned.
An early sighting was a couple of goosanders sheltering from the current until a rival turned up and they pursued it downstream at high speed. By the end of the walk I counted nine goosanders in total.
Goosanders
On the section of the Keelman's Way where it is still permitted to walk following a landslip, there was straight away clear evidence of the damage caused by Storm Arwen as some deciduous trees had had branches ripped off. This area looked like a good place to see willow tits but I didn't spot any.
Damaged tree
There were however a few other birds around. I tried to sneak up on a jay but it eventually flew off across the river. Approaching dusk on the way back a volley of long-tailed tits passed through the trees. A wren skulked through the undergrowth and a single bullfinch showed up.
But perhaps the most interesting discovery was that the meadow area near to the Stephenson Cottage is actually advertised in a notice as an area of calaminarian grassland and home to some rare species of wild flower. Having never heard of calaminarian grassland before, I resolved to revisit in the summer when the flowers are actually out.
Unfortunately nature activities have been suspended over the past month due to a bereavement followed by a loss of broadband connection, broken boiler and lengthy powercut in the wake of Storm Arwen.
As a result I've seen very little beyond what has turned up around the garden. I only got out on one trip, a bike ride to Corbridge when, after seeing a single low-hovering kite early on, I spent some time peering into someone else's garden. Apart from trying to transform a chaffinch into a brambling as someone once amusingly put it, there was nothing of any significance.
There hasn't been that much in my garden anyway. A couple of weeks back I glimpsed a queen wasp
Long-tailed tits
passing by the mahonia but no early bumblebees, which might have been a possibility.
I've spent some time thinking about the long-tailed tits and how gregarious and shy they are. I moved the suet balls they obviously like onto the plum tree to see if they would come closer. Apart from one occasion they didn't so I put them back near the fence and about six visited shortly afterwards. It's a case of feast or famine though.
For a while a dunnock with no tail visited the bird table, moving uptypically slowly. The first time it even stayed there motionless for about an hour. Presumably it had been attacked.
A wren has also visited on a couple of occasions.
My occasional visitors have sometimes noticed tawny owls calling from the trees by the stream. I don't usually but there was one evening, quite early, when there was one calling from fairly close by.
A sighting of a furtive jay in the same area had me wondering if one would visit the garden again, but nothing so far.
