Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lovely weekend...

Out and about locally this weekend in the much appreciated sunshine. On Saturday lunchtime we walked down the Long Walk and back home via the coast path. The smell of gorse blossom and sea-salty air against a backdrop of Skylarks in full song made this the first real summery day. It was fantastic.






On route were -

Bee Fly 3 - No idea what their real names are but these are the first Ive seen in Northumberland.

 Bee Fly on Lungwort.

Our first butterflies of the year -


Left , Peacock and Right, Small Tortoiseshell

2 Grey Seals were easily seen on the mill pond flat sea.
Sparrowhawk 2+
Blackcap 3 singing
Brown Hare 1
But no Willow Warblers or hirundines...

Today, I met up with JWR to do an atlas count at Seaton Point, Boulmer. 3+ Sand martins were at the breeding colony, several Bar tailed Godwits and 2 Grey Plovers were on the beach. 

From here we called at Alnmouth where this was the bird of the day -  


A bright male Yellow Wagtail with a few Meadow Pipits.

Unfortunately nothing to add to the OFFH list, but it wont be long now...

PS A nice sunset from the kitchen window too...

3 comments:

Greenie said...

Stewart ,
Don't know if you were asking , but your Bee-fly is officially -
a True Fly of the family Bombyliidae , Bombylius major .
Great Yellow Wagtail , can't find one down here .

Killy Birder said...

Certainly did feel like summer this weekend. Long may it last. Your photos reflect the weekend very well. Brian.

Emma Anderson said...

Lovely selection here, Stewart. Thanks for the advice: I seem to have cracked the problem with my header.