The Holly and the Survey...

(I remember when this blog wasn't this bad...I know, I have a long memory...)

This morning, Mr JW Rutter and myself popped 'along the doors' to do a farmland birds survey at nearby Littlemill. The farm here has entered the countryside stewardship scheme and requires info on what is around, and for this a donation is given to the Alnwick Wildlife Group.

The wind was blowing strongly, a W6, but the sun was shining so we headed off prepared to see very little on what looked like unremarkable farmland.

A few fields were planted with some kind of game or bird seed crop like this one. I'm not sure what it is, maybe Linseed or Flax? but they proved quite attractive to small seed eating species.

The area in the photo above held over 40 Brambling and 5 Tree Sparrow, while others had 38 Yellowhammers, Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Linnets etc. A flock of 44 Redwing was flushed and 9 Brown Hares were spread across the relatively small area. Only 4 Grey Partridges were seen which was a little disappointing, but coveys may have been off the survey route.

The commonest species by far was the Woodpigeon, with up to 2000 present including a flock of 1200+.

Other notable species included a Jay, 2 Treecreepers and 2 Goldcrests.

The cherry on the cake came when John spotted a fully white Ermine fossicking about in some brashed pines. Unforunately it sloped off while a fumbled for the camera. I bet this is the animal from last winter seen nearby.

Oh and what of the Holly in the appalling attempt of a pun-ish ( punished!) title, this berry laden one was right next to the car as we ended the route...

Tickety boo....
 

Duly pondered...

I think that this 1000 in 1km mullarky will be too time consuming for me after work. Too much time ( too much more time) will be spent at the PC trying to identify stuff, so I've decided to give it a miss. I'll still be following the entrants on their mission and maybe shadowing when I have the time available.

 As mentioned by a few others, being tied to one place could make a person a bit stir crazy, and I do like to check other spots once in a while!

So thats it then, my 'resolutions' or targets for 2013 are -

Get this blog more active.
Do the Patch Challenge.
Continue the moth trapping.
Dabble a bit more with other forms of wildlife ( seashore possibly).

Simples.

Busy busy busy....

Like buses, you aren't too sure what to plan for the forthcoming year when three come along all at once!

Firstly the patch birding competition is on regardless. Its what I do anyway, so no change there then. Then there's the 'Foot it' gig in January where birders have taken the wholly original and unheard of idea of birding their patch on foot for a month to see how many species they can get. I've no idea who first decided that was a good idea....

Now, there is this. 1000 in 1km.

The idea is to pick one square kilometre and try and find 1000 species of life within it in the year.

To me that's a big call, but my learned and experienced peers seem to think it possible. Now unless you are a knowledgeable botanist or entomologist I think most would struggle. Personally I am neither of these. I know birds, mammals, fish, butterflies, dragonflies and have started on moths but in my square this would only give me about 565. As for the balance, I see myself as having a basic grounding in the other orders of natural history but it is very basic indeed. The other 435 would need to be insects, flora, fungi, lichens, ferns, sea life etc etc most of which will take up a lot of time identifying back at home.

Oh well, you need to fill your time somehow so I might give it a casual shot...while birding of course...

My square - NU2517 to the left of the line and NU2617 to the right.

I've not a clue what is in here except Limpets...

There is a danger here of course...of being branded a total (even sadder) sad ba***** while trying to i.d midgies. And, if you can't include anything deliberately planted, that's all hedges and 99% of  trees out of the equation. This will need some clarification on what you can and cant have.

More pondering required.

Patch Map Struggle....

Well all the IT guru's out there seem to be knocking out nicely bordered maps of varying kinds at such a rate of knots and here's me struggling to get anything looking remotely like it!

If you click on the image in the right hand column, it throws you into Google Maps showing the real patch...

I have extended the area now to cover the south side of Craster, as I was robbing myself of some coverage with in the 3 sq km limit. It now measures 2.955 km sq!

Some in the competition have pushed its limits even further. A patch is now defined as a foot wide and 300 miles long, basically a path covering  from Titchwell to the Lizard to scope all sites along its route...

Wish I'd thought of that....

Almost done...

The end of another year is almost here. Due to one thing and another, my usual plans for the forthcoming year have been a bit waylaid. At this time I am usually planning targets and goals for the up coming year, as well as doing a round up of the past 12 months but I haven't gotten around to a review so far.

Anyway, one target for 2013 will be to join in the Patch Challenge with over 120 other local patch birders right across the UK. We are all looking at an area no larger than 3km sq and basing the bird totals on an average over the previous two full years on our sites, to give a level playing field for all observers.

My patch centres on Howick as you might expect but stretches up to to the start of Craster in the north and to the Howick burn mouth in the south. I am expecting in the region of 150 species over the year, though this is dependant on weather conditions, same as any coastal patch I suppose.

Again I will be trying to see all forms of wildlife including plants, and, with all best intentions, reporting them on this blog.

Good luck to anyone else doing the list, click here to find more detail what the Patch Challenge is all about...

A sneaky one...

 As I was driving out of the village this afternoon a noticed a lump on the village green that shouldnt have been there. Mmmm, it looks familiar. No bins, but scope in the boot revealed the lump to be as expected - a Woodcock. I managed this shot with an iphone4s on my Lieca 32wa eyepiece. The large physical size of the eyepiece glass makes digiscoping quite tricky...

There were 2 Waxwings on the village apples this morning too and 9 Grey Partridges along the coast path. A Fulmar has returned to the cliffs nice and early.

Lets seen what the cold snap brings this week...

Closed for Decorating...

This blog is about ready for a refurbishment. Sorry for lack of posts lately, things have been a bit busy.

I am going to give it a tidy up ready for the New Year...when I get a minute!

Please bear with me...