Patch List Catch up...

I haven't done a patch birding update since May, so here goes so far...

After the excitement of Baikal Teal and Baillons Crake in the county, it was back to patch watching in earnest. We always start the year full of vim and vigour but this often deteriorates as the summer arrivals peter out. On a North east coastal patch however, as mid summer beds in, things are only just starting to warm up. We are full of hopes and aspirations of what the return migrations season will be like. Willw e get any fall conditions? Will there be any rare birds? Will the sea watching be classic year? Or, will it all just be a damp squib...that remains to be seen, but a few decent species have been added to the local list since spring...

126. Quail. On 9th June as I stepped out onto our drive, the distinctive 'Whit, whit whit' call sounded only 30 yards into the field but could easily have been in the next field such is the skill in voice throwing that these birds exhibit. It remained until 22nd June when we came back from our Suffolk holiday.

127. In the quiet doldrums of mid summer living near the coast can have its advantages...see here for details on what happened next.

128. On the same crazy seawatch Arctic Tern was added...

129...and Common Sandpipers had already began moving to the coast on 2nd July after breeding.

130. Arctic Skua. After packing up on another seawatch on 7th July a dark phase adult came so close it was almost touchable just over our heads and away north.

131. Later in the afternoon on 7th July, I walked down to the coast patch just to scan for terns and waders and was pleased to see two birds not far out moving north. As I locked on to them one was a Whimbrel and the other, scarcer here, a Bar-tailed Godwit....

132 / 133. The sea is the way to lift the flagging list from now onwards and the hour spent on the 14th July was no different with Little Gull and Common Tern added. The Little Gulls were two birds, one a lovely sooty underwinged adult and a more typical first summer.

134. The most difficult of the breeding terns here, 4 Little Terns flew south just offshore this afternoon as I walked Peggy...

So, 9 year ticks and one a lifer who says mid summer is quiet for birding! With real autumn just around the corner, I am sure there is time to slot in a few more missing common species...a Dunlin or Sanderling wouldnt go amiss...

End of Winter Figures.

As the month of February draws to a close, its time to check the patch listing stats.

February is always the worst month for birding on my bit of coastline. I have mainly cleaned up on all wintering visitors and resdents by the end of January and spend February adding a few that were overlooked, and hoping for spring.

This month fitted the stereotype perfectly. The month came in like a lion and went out like a lamb, a phrase supposed to be associated with March but global warming has moved everything else forward  so why not the prose? A covering of snow and temps down to -7 during the first weekend added a quick flurry to the list with Fieldfare, Redwing, Water rail, Willow Tit, Peregrine, Meadow Pipit and Collared Dove. More Crossbills, Barn Owls and Pink footed Geese added to the interest.

From then on it was all down hill. On 10th a singing Siskin was species 97 then in the warm, spring like days of week three, Coot  98 and Whooper Swan 99 arrived on the 25th.

This 99 species gives me 49% of my all time patch total score.

What will be species 100 be in March I wonder? Lesser black backed Gull or Redpoll is likely to be followed by Chiffchaff later in the month. Maybe the sea will be the key to some extra additions with birds like grebes and divers or white winged gulls shuffling around from other sites. Or maybe the small pond will pull in a Pochard (unlikely!) or a Wigeon?

Who knows? It will take the second week of April to arrive before the ticking can begin in earnest...

Compare this result against my blogging colleague Steve Gale here...

2019 challenge..

The Pond ( in the Pond Field)

In previous years my blogging buddy Steve Gale and I have had some casual patch listing challenges. I cant remember the scores ( so that probably means it wasn't too good for me) but we quite enjoyed the comparisons between the inland suburban patch to the south and the rural east coast patch in the north.

Our respective patches are 290 miles apart in a straight line, as the crow flies, and are very different in habitat make up, but this is what makes things interesting.

I have worked out some basic statistics for my Howick Patch -

Total List 205
My Howick List 200

The list can be drilled down to -

Common Species seen in at least 7 of the last 9 years - 128
Irregular seen in 5 or 6 years -  22
Scarce seen in 3 or 4 years- 18
Rare seen only in 1 or 2 years - 37.

Average Year List over 9 years - 143 sp

I will be keeping the boundary as in the image in my side bar on the right, but in reality there are bits of it I never look at. My main watched area is -

The combined area of the patch is exactly 3 sq km, but the small  area watched is just under 1 km. I watch this area more intensively due to dog walks and general speed of access. These spots can all be looked at if I have half an hour to spare, but the whole extended site is easily accessible on foot from home.

I am looking farward to it already....See North Downs and Beyond for Steve's zone....

To give a flavour of the ornithological delights awaiting, I have been off work today and have checked most of the small area above ...

0700, Out with Peggy in the half light of dawn.
Newly arrived on the coast path were 6 Blackbirds, 2 Redwings, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Goldcrest and a Brambling. 60 Pink footed Geese flew S.

0930 - The Rumbling Kern / Bathing House. A stand around for half an hour with the scope had -
Shag 1 colour ringed white letters on green but unable to read it. 6 Purple Sandpiper, 3 Lapwing, 20+ Oystercatcher, 60+ Curlew, 3+ Redshank, 5 Red throated Diver S and 1 on the sea, 1 Rock Pipit, 3 female Velvet Scoter were unexpected and are rarely seen sitting on the sea here, most being fly by on seawatches, Gullemot and Razorbill maybe 10 of each scattered, 2 Stonechat, 1 Goldcrest, 6 Turnstone, 2 Kittiwake S, 1 Common Scoter S, 25 Golden Plover S, 5 Meadow Pipits, 3 Skylarks S and a Harbour Porpoise offshore.

Lunchtime, out with Peggy in the Village Wood and Pond Field.
1 Woodcock flushed, 1 Buzzard, 2+ Brambling, 15+ Chaffinch, 40+ Goldfinch, 6+ Siskin, 25+ Redwing, 4 Fieldfare, 21+ Mallard, 8 Teal, 1 Tufted Duck, 2 Mute Swan, 6 Moorhen and 2 Roe Deer.

And finally at our feeders all day -
33 Tree Sparrow, 9 House Sparrow, 12+ Goldfinch, 4 Coal Tit, 2 Great spotted Woodpecker. 1 female Sparrowhawk.

Even more Redpoll antics...

Most of Sunday morning was spent walking with Alnwick Wildlife Group as John was busy today. So as not to duplicate things, see AWG blog HERE.

I did manage a stroll around Craster early on, seeing new patch additions - Willow Warbler and Whimbrel, while later back at home in the afternoon another patch tick came to me. As I watched the Goldfinches and Siskins on our niger feeders, they were joined by a large pale Mealy Redpoll. After snatching a couple of record shots from the window, I sneaked out and hid in the outhouse next to the feeders for a better shot. After five minutes he arrived back with the other finches, allowing a closer scrutiny.

Wetter late than never....

Craster Harbour the other day...

Happy New Year all, long time no see. There is a reason for this though. We have been without internet since 28th December, it only coming back on today as if by magic, without an engineer or anything, just a manifestation in blue light on the router.

No more ado, my blood boils just thinking about the customer service given by BT, so lets not mention them again.

Much better to start with a finish to 2015. I was going to do the bloggers standard summary of the last years highlights but that candle has fizzled now so here's an update.

For the Patchwork Challenge and my friendly competition with Mr Gale of Banstead the end total is a respectable 151 species for 191 points, nicely clinching back a forgotten Sibe Chiff (oh that's only a PWC rule, so for you Steve the year closed on 150) from November.

Time for it all to start over for 2016. This coming year I have a couple of plans to look forward to - continuing with the patch birding, I am enjoying it more than ever since I am taking it casually. Accompanying my friend John on his first dip into the PWC down at the Coquet Estuary where I can enjoy a new set of species that can be tricky on my own patch ie waders and lastly, later in the spring John and myself will be making our first foray across the Atlantic with another 5 friends to catch up with some Nearctic warbler migration.

In between these main features there will be more ventures into moths and butterflies, plants and mammals or anything else that takes the fancy. I will be keeping my notebook tidy with a few more sketches and trying to get some better photographs.

And that's me really, a man of simple pleasures!

What, may you ask, has 2016 given me so far? Well, I have to say, rain. And gales, and even more rain. New Years day was ok, but every day since has been grim, dark, wet and windy to a backing track of booming, pounding, headache inducing waves against the cliffs.

The Howick bird list is a bit lower than at this stage last year, but it is early days. My first highlight of the year came as a surprise on the 1st when a lovely adult Little Gull fed in a village field with black headed gulls. It did a short circular flight low over our heads to show of the pale rounded wing tips against the sooty wing linings. This is a scarce bird here with only a few occurrences maybe every other year always on seawatches. It was nice to get a land bound one.

Speaking of seawatching, I have dabbled against the elements seeing very little except up to 3 more Little Gulls together at Craster and 2 Little Auks blasted North with a wind up their tail.

PWC 2016 61 sp.

I dont fancy a dip in there....

The Bill

An old sketch done in the field at Harwood Forest....

On Friday morning as I left the house for work, a familiar call greeted me. Several calls actually, with lots of chip, clip etc sounding like an aviary, I glanced up to see a nice party of 13 Crossbills circling and bobbing in flight overhead. It looked like they had come from the pines near the village hall and were moving off North. Crossbills are seen most years on the patch here, except for 2014. The best time is from around June and I fancied this would be another blank due to this late date, but they can occur at any time.

141. Crossbill

Picking up...

After last nights meagre offerings of the pelagic kind, the wind got up overnight, so, I set the alarm to get me up early so I could catch an hour facing east before heading off to work.

I arrived at my seawatching spot at 6.00am and was in position and counting by 6.10. The wind was a moderate NNW5 decreasing, it was overcast with odd drizzly squalls coming in, reducing visibility.

Although it was no classic, there were clearly more birds on the move than yesterday. I watched until 7.15am, noting the following. -

Brent Geese 5N
Wigeon 39N
Teal 71N
Pintail 2N
Common Scoter 4N
Goosander 1N
Manx Shearwater 5N
Sooty Shearwater 1N
Puffin 1N
Red throated Diver 4N
Sandwich Tern 26N
Arctic Skua 2N

I put my gear back in the car and climbed in ready to drive off. It was now that I noticed a whirring sound? Hold on, I thought, that's the heating fan. I had only turned the ignition part way off, leaving the fan to nicely flatten the battery! Craster is not a good place to be stranded as there is no mobile phone signal at all due to the geology of the area. Luckily I caught the attention of a kind couple who let me into their home to use the land line.

To cut a long story short, after a bit of a faff, a mechanic from Alnwick ( that must be a Limerick somewhere) came to the rescue with a boost charger and had the car going in 10 seconds.

While he was gathering paperwork for me to sign, two birds caught my eye close in going north, lifting Kittiwakes all over - it was the 2 Arctic Skuas. First ones seen this year after a two month delay. I would have missed them if the car had worked properly :)


138. Sooty Shearwater
139. Pintail
140. Arctic Skua

These three patch additions leave my score at a clean 100% of last years total, so every new bird from now is a bonus. I wonder what will be next....?

Seawatching....

Since my last post I have managed to get in a few short seawatch sessions at Craster at the north end of my patch. There are a few common species I can add to my year list if I persevere and am blessed with a little luck. My very reasonable targets were - Common Tern ( I've had Sandwich, Arctic, Little and Roseate!), Dunlin ( I live 300 mtrs from the sea yet this is a tricky species to get here due to the rocky coastline) and Arctic Skua.

You've guessed it. I am still waiting for them. Truth is I have managed a few Manx Shearwaters, lots of Puffins, odd flocks of Common Scoter, 10+ Turnstone in breeding plumage, 2-3 Whimbrel, 40+ Arctic Tern and a pod of 12 or so Bottle-nosed Dolphins.

Now many of you with landlocked patches will be salivating at these records ( especially the dolphins!) but really there is nothing there to get the pulse going. There were Gannets, Kitti's and Fulmars too, but they rarely make it into the notebook in summer or autumn unless there is some remarkable passage taking place.

I wont despair though, dolphins are always nice to see, even through fog (photoshop has removed this from the pics) and it wont be long before something of patch interest flies into view over the waves. After all its just the start of the seawatch season...

A hint of winter....

This afternoon I decided to brave the throngs of Robson Green disciples and head off down to Craster to see if I can add Common Tern to my flagging patch list.

I sat for a while in the sun overlooking a nice blue calm sea. A few Sandwich Terns, Fulmars and Kittiwakes loitered about while a Gannet or two passed by on their way back to Bass Rock.
The tide was full, making the long skeer off the harbour into an island. On here, a Whimbrel called briefly as it jostled for space with a few Oystercatchers, then a Common Sandpiper fluttered across the channel onto the the rock. Patch year tick No 1. As the waves lapped, a smaller bird appeared with the Eiders. A Goosander redhead. We get a few moulting birds in the area at this time, so this was Patch year tick No2.

As I casually scanned about wondering if the seawatching would be any good this year, a gull roosting on the rock caught my attention. An odd colour that, I thought, and went to get the scope from the boot. As suspected, it was a first summer Glaucous Gull roosting in the sun!  Not exactly what you want to be seeing in July, but its a full on patch tick, year tick No3 in half an hour, so it would be churlish to complain. Get on the list.

Now, where are the waders....

Thats it, bang centre. Click on it...

First summer Glaucous Gull, surprisingly, my first on patch since moving here 6 years ago. 

124. Common Sandpiper

125. Goosander

126. Glaucous Gull.

Its all down hill..

A day of two halves today. Out birding with John this morning under heavy rain filled skies, seeing very little then out to Craster this afternoon in much sunnier conditions.

But first, one of the years highlights for me, came not by staking out a mining subsidence pond in the Northumberland coalfields, no, but just by having a five minute sit in the garden.

I remembered at about 6pm last night that this weekend is Garden Bioblitz time, so armed with a bottle of 'Sol' and a notebook, we took a wander around our acreage. Now, its not the hanging gardens of Babylon so the said stroll took no more than half an hour in total. During that time 83 species were recorded! Mainly plants, but also birds, insects and moths from the trap.

However, a little mystery appeared to be struggling amongst our non-native bluebells. It was a Bumblebee with a  huge rusty red rear end and a yellow stripe at the front of the thorax.

Mystery Bee...

I could see it has too much red to be red tailed so the field guide was brought into play. This didn't really help either, as this patterning just didn't fit for any likely garden species of bumbler. I consulted with John this morning and after some 'chimping' on the phone during a particularly heavy shower, he suggested Bombus monticola, the Mountain Bumblebee? The habitat in my garden isn't right, we are right on the coast not up a mountain. But see here...

So this evening I have consulted some experts on Social Media ( no, real ones!). Ryan Clarke on Twitter said monticola and called me lucky, while on FB the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Soc said exactly the same! Everyone concurs so it must be right.

Amazing. Cant be many coastal records surely....

Mountain Bumblebee Bombus monticola but not up a mountain...

 So if I can get Mountian Bumblebee here, can I have Wallcreeper next please?

Right, back to today.

Highlight of our intermittent forays away from the car and flask this morning was a nice patch of Early Purple Orchid in the dunes at Warkworth. With 100+ spikes it was a pity they were all but over. I'll try earlier next year...

Early Purple Orchid

This afternoon I fancied my luck seawatching at Craster to try and end May with a flurry, and what a good decision that was. An hour or so gazing east had only a few birds but 4 of them were patch year ticks. 3 Little Tern, 2 Arctic Tern,  1 Roseate Tern and 8 Sanderling were all appreciated. In particular the Little Terns and Sanderling both not annual here...

Nearby the Craster rock edge was a vision in blue with loads of Spring Squill in flower. This is a rare plant in Northumberland, and it favours right down to the rock edges on the whin sill rock. Very nice...

Spring Squill at Craster

119. Little Tern
120. Arctic Tern
121. Sanderling
122. Roseate Tern 

Good Friday Seawatch...

Buy a DSLR only to add a Toy camera effect filter! There is a cheaper option to this...

Just back from a couple of hours seawatching from the car at Craster. The weather today is really bleak, just as it should be for an Easter Bank Holiday weekend. I fancy that the moderate south easterly with rain might just drop in an odd bird or two but I'm not wandering about looking for it today. That job can wait til the weather improves.

The sitting-in-the-car-watching-the-sea bit was much more comfortable, but there was little on the move. The full totals are as follows -

Gannet 80 per hour
Kittiwake 35 per hour
Common Gull 7
Razorbill 3
Cormorant 3
Red breasted Merganser 1
Eider 5
Fulmar 10
Turnstone 1
Puffin 10
Common Scoter 1
Shag 1
Guillemot 7
Diver sp 1
Red throated Diver 1
Great black backed Gull 5
Whimbrel 1 probable but I fluffed getting a good view due to drinking tea and eating Easter Egg.

Highlight was a tiny Chiffchaff that just dropped from no where into a clump of dock and garden refuse. It flew off again after a minute. Migration is happening...

This afternoon we had a walk down to the pond after the rain had stopped. A loud metallic sounding call, very briefly, caught my attention. A scan around revealed the regular 6 Tufted Ducks a few Mallard, a Teal, 2 pairs of Little Grebe, the Mute Swans and then - a Coot! Nice one, Coot has only appeared in 4 out of 7 year lists here compared to Waxwing that has appeared on 5, and equalling both Twite and Yellow browed Warbler. A nice one to get on the team.  

104. Coot

Unreal birds...

Another day off on holiday, getting the annual leave used up before the end of the month....

No real birding as such today but I still managed to add two new species to the patch list. Firstly, as I left Howick on my way to Alnwick, a pair of Red legged Partridges ran over our lane. Although the worst of 'plastic', being cage hoppers for shooting purposes, everyone else adds them to the list, so 'When in Rome' I say....This is the first record here since 2012.

On the subject of introductions, 2 Canada Geese flew over south honking as they went, making it to No100 on the patch list.

As the day is drizzly and overcast, here is a cheery pic from yesterday's sunny interlude...

A concrete sink at our door was planted with bulbs in the autumn and look at it now...

99. Red-legged Partridge
100. Canada Goose

New month, new birds....

Only 2 hours in the field today due to other more pressing things, but the time was very productive. Out of those two hours, 1 hour 15 mins was spent sitting in the car gazing at the sea at Craster, and the rest was a short walk along our lane with Bunty...

Over the last 24 hours or so there has been a strong NNW wind blowing to almost a gale along the coast here. It was bitterly cold too, so I thought it might shuffle some sea birds up a bit.

11.35am - 1pm Viewing from Craster had -

Little Auk  31 N
Razorbill 3+ many other auks too far off to id.
Guillemot 3+ as above.
Kittiwake 7 N 
Gannet 7 N 
Goldeneye 9 N 
Velvet Scoter 1 drake N 
Shelduck 3N
Long tailed Duck 1 duck N
Red throated Diver 1 N 

Back home, a short walk along the lane was at least sheltered from the cold wind and made even better when a nice pinky male Lesser Redpoll appeared above the burn after having a drink. Pity the camera was at home...

Out of that lot, 8 species were added to the patch year list. The seabirds are a bit premature, especially the Little Auks, Velvet and Long tailed Duck, all species I expect in the final quarter of the year, not the first.

83. Little Auk
84. Razorbill
85. Guillemot
86. Kittiwake
87. Velvet Scoter
88. Shelduck
89. Long-tailed Duck
90. Lesser Redpoll




  
 

White winged Gulls and Grebes...

Despite efforts, we didn't see any of those. I suppose this post could have been called Pallas's Sandgrouse  for that matter, but hang on.

The morning was spent hunting around Amble Harbour and the Coquet Estuary in mixed weather conditions looking for those said title species. As the wind has swung to the north for a bit, maybe there will be a northern gull next week? We'll see. Actually we did see some grebes, several Little and one Great crested, but thats not what I meant here at this time of year.

John added six common species to his patch list and for me the highlights were a fleeting view of a Kingfisher dashing across the harbour and out of sight, and a Little Egret flying from Warkworth Gut up towards Alnmouth.

After lunch, the wind increased to a blustery NW, so I popped along to Craster for a half hour seawatch to see if I could add to my patch tally. The seawatching was dire ( as usual at this time of year, but you never know) but some salvation was had by a Woodcock flying out of the scrub at the Arnold Reserve, over the road in front of my car, and off up the heughs. A nice unexpected addition.

With a flexi day off tomorrow and the weather improving, I might get out again to see if the squalls have stirred anything up.

75. Woodcock

Nice light on a Dunnock.

A couple of walks around the patch today. First of all we walked north towards Craster. This was very quiet, with only a handful of Feral Pigeons being added to the list at Cullernose Point. 85 Pink footed Geese flew south in two skeins. Back towards the village there seemed to be some bird activity in a sheep pasture that had been dug up by a multitude of moles ( that should be their collective noun in the late winter). 30+ Lapwings, 30+ Redwings, 20+ Mistle Thrushes, 2 Song Thrushes and a Fieldfare had been joined by 60+ Golden Plover.

At lunchtime a stroll down to the pond added Mallard to the PWC2015 list, while a few Siskins were singing in the trees nearby.

At dusk this afternoon another walk around the coast path was, again very slow. A female Stonechat was perhaps noteworthy, but the sea was flat and devoid of anything moving.

In the garden, the usual crowd were at the feeders...

Tree Sparrows, a dull shot taken through the kitchen window.

72. Feral Pigeon
73. Golden Plover
74. Mallard

On the rocks...

A dull breezy day today so I only spent a couple of hours out. Firstly a short seawatch from Craster, the northernmost end of the patch was uneventful, but I stuck with it for an hour and added one species to the list when 3 Common Scoter flew N. Other than that, only 3 Red throated Divers were noteworthy.

Down at the harbour and rock edges, there were no white winged gulls, but 2 Purple Sandpipers with Turnstones sheltered near the boat launch and 3 Rock Pipits were nearby.

Back home for some breakfast, then a short wander west, up the back hedge towards an emergent part of the Whin Sill known as Hips Heugh. 8 Snipe flushed from a marshy corner and 40 Pink footed Geese flew south. Yesterday's thrushes were nowhere to be seen, but well over a hundred Linnets, maybe 2 or 300 were in the field.

I also scouted out a spot for Grasshopper and Sedge Warbler in the spring. Both being quite scarce on site, though they are recorded most years.

Purple Sandpiper, Craster Harbour.

68. Common Scoter
69. Purple Sandpiper
70. Snipe
71. Pink footed Goose

Its wild out.....

Its a bit breezy out there. Today is the first time I've seen the patch in daylight since Tuesday, and remember, my house is in it. This makes the birding quite tricky, but never fear, slowly but surely the days will lengthen and before too long there may even be some birds to see after work.

The other night I was out filling some logs for the fire ( what a rural idyll eh!) when an angry hissing sound over head signalled the presence of a Barn Owl flying across the garden towards its hunting grounds. There are several pairs in this area so its not something to get too excited over, but always nice to see, its added to the year list. The following morning I had better views of a different bird, this time on Mr Cadwallenders patch at Hipsburn as it hunted the verges in the car headlights.

So, today has turned out bright and sunny but still blowing a cold gale interspersed with the odd awful, horizontal, rain squalls. A walk out with the dog still produced a couple of new additions though. In the back field, a nice flock of feeding birds consisted of 30+ Redwings, 10+ Mistle Thrush, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Song Thrush and a couple of Blackbirds, plus 100+ Linnets and a lone Skylark.

Down the lane, a cock Greenfinch flushed from below a bramble bush where it was feeding on the withered seeded fruits.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'll try and put a couple of hours in first thing...

64. Barn Owl 
65. Fieldfare
66. Skylark
67. Greenfinch.

And they're off!

Long time no see. Since the last post on here there has been a host of Christmassy running around to do, then we had a week over in Dumfries and Galloway, only returning yesterday. This visit to Scotland is the first time we have driven south into the country, staying over near Stranraer, it is at least 40 miles south of home! More of that stay later this week once I have sorted some photos.

Back to today. I was pleased to get back home to finally start some Patch Birding a few days behind the pack. As you have seen already, I am in friendly competition outside of the Patchwork Challenge too, with Steve Gale  down in Surrey who had had a nice start at home, by putting  some serious leg work in. I was keen to kick off.

It is easy to start the year by racing around after things like heron or skylark, but this time I have taken a different approach. I am trying to target scarce patch species, and hopefully filling in the common species as I go.

This morning saw me up and out before sunrise to head down to the southern most extremity of my Howick patch to look for Grey Plover, gulls, divers and grebes on the sea. The day was gloriously clear and sunny with a light frost to sharpen things up a bit, ideal winter birding conditions. As the sun rose, the day's highlight fell much easier than expected - a Grey Plover with a few Oystercatchers on the beach at Howick Burn mouth. Result! This is the first I've seen on the patch since 2012. As expected, other scarcities remained just that, the best of the rest being 3 Stonechats and a pair of Red breasted Mergansers.

The day ended on 63 species (45% ). All on foot from home.