If you go down to the woods today...

 For the first time since Storm Arwen we took a walk into the Arboretum. It is not open to the public at the minute anyway, plus there are a few trees causing 'tripping hazards' shall we say.

The pond has a good showing of ducks today with 25 Teal, 10 Mallard, 9 Tufted Duck and a pair of Gadwall, a decent record for here. A pair of Mute Swans,a  few Moorhen and a Grey Heron were the only other things seen.

Further on, the damage caused by the Storm Arwen became very apparent with trees over the rides and, in some places, access totally blocked. The estate will want this cleared and made safe in time for public opening for the February snowdrops, but it will take a lot of work. Here are some images but they cannot portray what it really looks like in the field...

These pair of Beeches were just two of many huge trees lying like deceased beached whales. Those root plates were at least 10 feet in diameter.

Huge pines including a nice Wellingtonia blocked our route...

    

First week of 2021 almost done.

 Good news. According to Dylan at 'Esox' Angling is back on the agenda as a legal exercise pursuit. Providing no travel rules are broken of course. For me that means local patch seawatching is on the cards too. After all, I will be sat still but instead of my fishing rod, I'll be peering through a scope. I can walk to a stretch of coast in 10 minutes with a few spots off public paths where I can be alone, but, saying that, mid winter is not the best time to be wave gazing. 

Yesterday, Peggy's walk was, as usual, past the pond field but, for a change, a little bit further into the Howick Hall Arboretum where we did a short circular to gather some missing woodland birds for the list. 

The track through part of the arboretum, an area of large ornamental pines and hardwood trees.

The day was calm, dull and cold so bird calls carried a good distance. This meant that it was quite easy to locate a tribe of Long tailed Tits and the obligatory Treecreeper with them (if you are hunting for Treecreeper, I always go for Long tailed tit calls and rarely fail) and 4 Nuthatches.  The pond itself was full and muddy brown with little activity other than 5 drake Tufties, 2 Mute Swans, 4 Coot and 4 Little Grebe.

Earlier, at dawn, Grey Partridge was calling from the back fields.

Seeing photos of other naturalists local patches is always interesting to me as it gives context. Its something that often features on here, but as we are all home birds for the foreseeable, I will try to include a picture or two of the sites visited around about home a bit more regularly.

Local Patch Year List ( or Northumberland Lockdown 2021 5km from home) 87 sp  

 

This is the small pond beside the Village Hall car park that we renovated last Feb. Its totally flooded at the minute, out onto surrounding grassland. This week it has hosted a flock of Yellowhammers and a single Snipe.