April

 Last time, I mentioned the possibility that we were experiencing a ‘false spring’, however, it has continued until this post too. In my notebook, the last time precipitation gets a mention was on 16^th March with an odd drizzle shower. Since then, we have had dry but cold weather, often in bright sunny days. 

 Another sunny day on the 29^th March brought the first Hairy footed Flower Bees or our garden. Always an absolute pleasure to see as they bump from flower to flower in a cartoon like fashion.

 By the 29^th, up to 150+ Kittiwakes were back around the Howick / Cullernose cliffs while 31 Whooper Swans flew N in two parties of 22 and 9.

 Another Boulmer search on the 30^th found that the female Black Redstart was still present, but the male was long gone. 9 Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks. In the afternoon on a visit to Amble we found a colony of Tawny Mining Bees in a raised bed by the Memorial. Lots of small males danced around the soil interspersed by a few bright tawny orange females.

 March bowed out with more Whooper Swans heading over Howick back to the Icelandic breeding grounds. 27 came over very low, you could almost feel the down draught from the wing beats.

 The first week of April finally saw an emergence of butterflies around the patch with several Peacocks, a Comma, a Red Admiral, 2 Small Tortoiseshells and a few Large White. More Hairy footed flower Bees and a few Dark Edged Bee Flies too.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

Hairy footed Flower Bee, male.

A late afternoon walk at Boulmer on 4^th  was still cold but a few migrants battled on. A smart male White Wagtail  was with half a dozen black and white Pieds, a Lesser black backed Gull flew N followed by 3 Sandwich Terns. A good number of 32 Shelducks kept company with a  Pale bellied Brent Goose.

Pale bellied Brent with the Shelducks

Male White Wag...

For a change on the 6^th April we walked from Cullernose Point to Craster, hoping for a Wheatear sighting but that plan failed. We did make it worthwhile though with a close Raven, the first Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcaps, 4 Swallows and 2 Sand Martins of the year.

Now the evenings are lighter there is more time to be spent in the field ( while neglecting jobs at home), it could just do with warming up to 15 or so degrees…

 In the fine spell, a few moths kept the trap going while a nice spider graced the bathroom...

Acleris literana

Brindled Pug

Early Tooth Striped

Harpactea hombergi only my second, both from the bathroom.

Purple Thorn

Finally, on a cool sunny day last Sunday we checked out the new scrapes at Alnmouth Buston Links. It looked well for waders and wildfowl but not today.4 Shoveler and 2 pairs of nesting Lapwing were the highlight, 3 Whooper Swans moved N while the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year reeled unseen from a thick bramble at Hipsburn.

Male Lapwings very vocal and acrobatic.

Shoveler

This Yellowhammer sang from the ground in the car park at the cricket club for 5 minutes.

Catch up...

 A quick catch up of April so far .

Since the last general post a few more migrants have appeared locally. On 6th a very early Willow Warbler sang in our garden at first light but was gone by 7am. There arent many here yet but we did have 5 singing at Brizlee at the weekend.

A pair of Greenfinches at our feeders were the first to do this, this year and Hairy footed Flower Bees were out in good numbers when the sun was shining.

One good (?) bird was seen briefly on the coast path on the 8th. An Egyptian Goose flew north past the Bathing House followed by 11 Whooper Swans. The Goose is only the second record here after one last year. They'll be breeding on the pond soon no doubt. Our first Swallow was over our house on the 8th but they are still not here in any numbers.

On 9th, John and me walked up the Hulne Parks south wall to Brizlee. It was cool and damp with little to show other than 2 Red Grouse, a few Curlew, a singing Willow Tit and best of all a close, but unseen, Green Woodpecker yaffling loudly. 

Willow Tit singing at me.

  Near by 2 Adders were our first of the season.

Adder

Over Easter weekend an in house spider hunt revealed not only the Uloborus plumipes already posted, but Pisaura miribalis, Pardosa sp, Woodlouse Spider, Zygiella x-notata and an Oonops in the bathroom.

The local Blackcaps were late to the party on the 14th with 3 singing in our village wood.

When driving back from Alnwick on 15th we were over flown by a Red Kite at Denwick heading south. One day I'll get one on the patch but this was about 4 miles too far west.

Edit - Not sure how I missd this out? But anyway, Sunday 16th saw me and John up at Brizlee again. It was bright and sunny but cold. 5 male Wheatears in 2 places showed well, even in a rain shower, several displaying Redpolls chased and buzzed around the car and a Bilberry Bumblebee was on a sallow beside the road.

Displaying Curlew

Wheatear in the rain.

 

On the 18th another poor patch year tick materialised on the coast path when we flushed a pair of Red legged Partridges. I didnt see one here last year so they were sort of welcome.

Holly Blue has shown well in the garden this week with 1 on the 15th and 3 on the 20th. Seems like a good start to the year for them...

One worn and one fresh Holly Blue in the garden...

As usual the wind is swinging North for the weekend so it will be baltic while the rest of the country is basking in 18 degrees. 

Dark edged Bee Fly.

Still cold...

 The week progresses but its still bloody freezing. Every morning when I get up the place is white with frost, today -2 degrees again. The sun is beautiful though, bright and crystal clear but there is little warmth. I am sick of feeling 'tight' with cold when I go out, roll on a day when its a straight 12 degrees with no reduction for wind chill.

Little has changed on the bird front around the village. There are still no Willow Warblers but with 400 arriving at Portland yesterday they are surely on their way.  There are more Blackcaps now with 4 or 5 singing locally but the Swallows have gone and who can blame them.

Out in the village wood on Peggy's walk at lunchtime, the blossomed sallow, mentioned last time, is still attracting a few hardy insects with 2 Comma, a Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell in the vicinity. 

Yesterday was my first visit to the barbers since mid December, so maybe that is how I am feeling the cold...

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

Peacock

At last!

... spring has sprung!

But, lets pause. On the TV weather forecast I am seeing those inland people with temps up to 22+ degrees. Within sight of the Northumberland coast, here, we did have 12 degrees but the wind was still sharp. The key was to get into a sheltered spot.

During the day, I hung around the garden and through our village wood to the pond field. This was my first butterfly day of the year with 7 Peacocks, 2 Small Tortoiseshells, 1 female Orange Tip, 1 Small White and best of all, 3 Holly Blues in the garden. Last year i had my first confirmed Holly Blue in August here but it was too quick to photograph but thes eones, 2 males and a female, were a bit more cooperative...

Its great at this time of year to see more biodiversity on the local patch...

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Holly Blue

Dark edged Bee-fly

Kidney spot Ladybird

Mute Swan, cob.

Female Orange Tip

Our garden this morning

Primrose bank near the pond field

Primroses

Germander  Slender Speedwell ( see comments)

Common Violet

Beautiful...

...is the only way to describe the weather this weekend. I even managed to see my first butterflies of the year too. On Saturday, a Peacock narrowly escaped the foot of a sniffing terrier in the garden, but a Comma, looking tired after hibernation was more approachable. A Small Tortoiseshell on Sunday was the last of a very welcome trio.

Two Dark edged Bee-Flies added to the insect interest, including only my second in the garden.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

On the bird front, a drake Ring necked Duck caused some excitement for the young or newer birders in the county, being the first here since 2010. We used to see them quite regularly in the 80's / 90's with long staying birds touring a lot of sites. This bird is favouring Hauxley Nature Reserve ( closed until special weekend opening times) with an odd excursion down to East Chevington.

As the Ring necked Duck was distant in my photo, I did this small drawing back at home.

We dipped it at the latter site, where the wintering Shorelarks and Twite, 16+ Scaup and 60+ Goldeneye were the main attraction, luckily we caught up with the dapper yank later on at Hauxley NWT.

Above - Shorelark

Above - Twite

Reed Bunting

Chevington Burn mouth, the haunt of shorelark, twite and snow bunting....