Chilly.

We've had another cold spell this week. We woke on Monday to find that there was a good couple of inches of snow covering everything and it was freezing. Monday and Tuesday temperatures ranged from -3.5 to 0 degrees making the midday sun melted snow as slippery as glass by night time.  Wednesday was a bit milder, up to 2 degrees but today feels baltic with the ground still solid.

Various dog walks around the village and coast path have been free from bird excitement though the year list slowly rises.

On Monday I was pleased to see that the snow had brought the pre New Year Water Rail back to its favoured spot in the burn while a few duck came back onto the pond, 5 Gadwall, 2 drake Tufted Ducks and 11 Teal. 

Tuesday was the coldest day pushing a good few Fieldfare into the village with 2 coming to apples in our garden vying for territory with a belligerent Mistle Thrush. 4 Roe Deer wandered the back field looking at the piles of brash where their shelter wood had once been and a Tawny was hooting at night.

Today I walked Peggy at lunchtime down the Teepee track and back, returning by our lane. It seemed quiet but the notebook tells it differently.

190+ Curlew, 14 Golden Plover, 1 Stonechat, 80 - 100 Yellowhammer in the village stubble, just a small field too and as we got back into the village a juv Peregrine was circling very low over our gardens and roof tops a couple of times before slowly flying south.

Its all about the timing...

 I am on a days leave today. Using them up before the year end. Around 10 am I walked Peggy down to the small pond in the estate to see if the rough sea had put any ducks on it. It really is a small pool surrounded by trees so is never getting much, but a Gadwall or even a Green winged Teal is a possibility so I went for a look.

It was really quiet and still, very little moving. 14 Teal, a pair of Mute Swans, 3 Little Grebes and a few Moorhens were all I could see, then, at the very back along the edge, a Water Rail ran half the length of the pool into some bulrushes. Nice, to get a reasonable view here. 

We were about to continue our quiet stroll when there was such a rushing of wind noise! I almost ducked and looked around, it sounded like someone waving a branch around, nothing, then I looked up to see a big immature Peregrine in full speed stoop at a Woodcock! The wind rush was from its wings, it sounded like a jet. The Woodcock must have just come in off when the Peregrine stooped, luckily for it, it plunged into the willow scrub at the back of the pond, forcing the falcon to slam the brakes on and back peddle over the tree tops. The Woodcock was gone, and the Peregrine slowly made its way west without a meal.

On the way back up the track, I was giving the pond another look when a second  Water Rail flew right through my binocular view and landed in the same spot as the first. There was such a squealing in the rushes then silence again and the pond returned back to its usual self... a bit of lucky timing is always helpful

It is these small things that make watching a local patch so enjoyable. Its not always about rare and scarce...

 

The spot at the back where the swans are is where the Water Rails ran into and just left of there is the Woodcock sanctuary!

Late autumn...

Sea Buckthorn

A very Scandinavian looking Blackbird newly arrived.

The day started off quite cool with a light grass frost in shady areas, but soon warmed up into a very pleasant late autumn day.

I met John at Amble Marina car park at 7.30am to give the patch a once over.

As the weather was from a light westerly direction, passerines were not going to be too inspiring so we wandered around looking for bigger game.

First off a stroll along the road path to Warkworth and back checking the river Coquet for wildfowl, grebes etc. The tide was low, encouraging 7 Little Egrets and a handful of Grey Herons to feed in the shallows. 200+ Wigeon were widespread along the route with a good few Mallard and a scattering of Teal. A couple of Rock Pipits added to the show with an very odd high flying Great Tit dropping in.

A good few Blackbirds were on various berries in the car park and John saw a Kingfisher fly upstream, while I had to make do with hearing the whistle call only.

Two Peregrines were exciting near Beal Bank, one big female moving off SW while a bright male left a kill on Helsay Farm and circled the fields for a while.

Geese were obvious around here with 100+ Pink feet and 50 each Greylags and Canadas.

You can just about see the male Peregrine here...

  Next move was along to Birling Carrs to check the sea and game crop along the coast. Small birds were all but absent in the seed field which was surprising, but 3 Goosander flew over S.

The sea was more interesting being well up by now. It was calm allowing good viewing conditions.

A scan of the bay had 20 Red throated Diver and a cracking Black throated Diver that flew from the south and dropped in with small group of Red throats quite close in allowing good views in the scope. The first water based bird I've seen for ages and certainly brightened the morning.

Black throated Diver, Birling Carrs.

Also here were 1 Great crested Grebe, 13 Common Scoter and a male Goldeneye with a few Guillemots. Out on the carr were 18+ Grey Plover, 10+ Knot and 2 Sanderling.

Bck home, a Chiffchaff was investigating the bird bath and a Tawny Owl showed sat out on a telegraph pole in the darkness at tea time.

Roll on Spring....

Took a flexi day off today and it just happened to coincide with one of the most glorious summer mornings we have had this year.

 Met up with JWR at Amble first thing to cover the Coquet Estuary patch. Although the primary goal was to look for waders, this turned out to be a bit slow, so attention was diverted elsewhere. As we scanned the couple of hundred Dunlin out on the mud, a Peregrine flew right over our heads, putting everything to flight.While around the car park lots of young tits and warblers etc had grouped up to feed in the warm sheltered hedges.

Peregrine

juvenile Chiffchaff

A call into Amble to check the harbour found no sign of the Caspian Gull, but a moulting adult Mediterranean Gull was in its usual spot along the Little Shore and a Kingfisher made a brief appearance right in the harbour car park!. Up to 12 Goosanders were in the area. After a very short call into the CO-OP, John was just commenting on the blooms on a privet in the car park when we noticed a Comma feeding there. This was very short lived as it dived over the embankment never to be seen again.

A walk from the Warkworth beach car park down the north side was very pleasant but quiet bird wise. Best were 3 Little Egrets, a Sanderling, sev Turnstones and a few Common Sandpipers.

Field Grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus 

Border Blues....

A day off after a Bank Holiday Monday is always a good thing. Today I met up with John and we headed north of the border, all 5 miles of it, to the Lamberton / Burnmouth area, not far along the A1 past Berwick. This place is only 35 miles from home, so for us its considerably closer than swathes of SW Northumberland.

With a reasonable weather forecast in the offing we were hoping to catch up with the colony of Small Blue butterflies residing on the cliff slopes here. The sun soon emerged from some scattered low cloud to create a warm pleasant afternoon, ideal for butterfly hunting.

We parked at the small car park for the cliff top nature reserve just east of Lamberton and walked north along the scenic coast path. This dramatic and picturesque coastline, in days past,was home to smugglers and seabirds, but now, the smugglers have gone leaving the area to the wildlife. This piece of coast is good for Peregrines, Small Blues, Yellow Meadow Ants and true cliff nesting House Martins, and today we saw them all, quite easily.

Added to those, we also had several Small Heath, Wall, Peacock, Green veined White and a Ruby Tiger moth.

Smugglers den...

Slope where we had 3 or 4 Small Blues...

Above - Small Blue butterfly. 

Peregrine.

Down the road at Burnmouth, Spotted Flycatcher, Blackcap and Willow Warbler were the only birds of note, while a showy Orange-Tip was best of the inverts... 

Above - Orange Tip.

Happy Easter.

Jack Snipe.

What a glorious day Easter Sunday turned out to be. Being a Bank Holiday I met up with John at Warkworth an hour earlier than usual, 6.30am, to try and avoid the local crowds of tourists. This turned out to be a good decision, as all of our 'good birds' were seen in that hour.

Things began when John spotted a Water Rail running around the edge of the reed bed. I'm not sure but I think this might be the first we've seen here? Nearby a Chiffchaff was in full song, whilst a flock of 9 Magpies argued things out like a parliamentary debate. We began the walk from the car park into the rising sun, when a lovely Barn Owl flew in from the golf course. Back lit by the sun, its a shame it was too distant for photos.

From the track south, we scanned the sunny edge of the reed bed to see if the Water Rail was back out when something unusual caught our attention. You could tell that something was up by the silence. We weren't talking. A wader down in the reed detritus looked odd. It was John who spoke first, saying something like, 'Go on, say it'....I commented that this snipe did seem to have a short bill, but being just armed with binoculars, I couldnt be sure, it might be due to a muddy tip.

To resolve the conundrum, I wandered slowly closer for a better view while John watched. The bird, moved into the reed edge then lay down. We both stalked the target. At good range, a Common Snipe flushed from the spot, and called its scraping shout before vanishing. Thats that then, just a Snipe. Still suspicious John moved another few yards closer, when a second bird jumped up - a Jack Snipe! The two bird theory proved without doubt. The bird, flew lowish over the phragmites and dropped over at the other side, out of view.

What a start to the day! Jacks are a scarce bird up in these parts.

We continued down the track met by one of the wintering Short eared Owls being mobbed by a crow before viewing the estuary proper. An immature male Peregrine came in, low from the east, to make a dawn raid on the unsuspecting waders. He seemed unsuccessful.

The rest of the morning was largely uneventful but with 5 decent birds down at 'the gut' we couldnt complain. Maybe next time there'll be some summer migrants...

A very heavily cropped Peregrine attacking out of the sunrise...

Raptor Fest...

Peregrine, top, mobbing Buzzard ( looks like a sea eagle in this pic!)

Peregrine, top, over 4 Buzzards.

Walked over the back field towards the heugh first thing.

I was pleased to see 4 Buzzards in the air together, just hanging in the wind, when suddenly, a Peregrine came in from the south and was having none of it. Determined to stop their fun, she dived at them a few times before boredom set in and she moved off north, leaving the sluggish Buzzards to get on with it.

No sooner had the Peregrine gone, 3 Kestrels came out of the wood nearby and began displaying and calling. It was nice to see 8 raptors sharing airspace in the space of a few minutes.

A pair of Grey Partridges and a pair of Reed Buntings were in the marshy field corner, and a Grey Wagtail was on the burn in the village....

Catch up time...

The last two days have seen me 'net-less, mainly thanks to BT/ Yahoo!. Back in October this server became obsolete but I just persevered with it regardless. The other day it finally gave up the ghost leaving me as stranded as an Alnwick Christmas shopper. Its funny, but BT didnt make my bill obsolete...


Anyway, after days of tampering I'm now using Google Chrome as a browser. Its much quicker than the one I had.


So, back to the blogging.


As the snow has continued to fall and temperatures have stayed in the negative, I have stretched my Christmas holidays and am now off until 4th Jan.


Yesterday when I left the house to take Bunty for her morning walk I heard the distinctive call of a Peregrine.


Looking around there was no sign of the hunter so I pressed on to the coast road. As all of the landscape is pristine white I knew I had a canny chance of locating the Peregrine, but not as easily as I did. 


In the centre of our back field there she was, in a drift of pigeon feathers having breakfast. As I got to the coast path more calling, but this time quite agitated so I assumed a crow was trying to get his share of the kill. At the next convenient view point I was well pleased to see not the expected corvid, but two Peregrines sitting next to the food! After some debate as to who was the rightful owner, one bird flew up onto a fence post to watch while the other finished off.


I managed to get three of our non birding neighbours on to the birds, and they seemed quite pleased to get Peregrines on the doorstep...

No snow...

Day 10 of our freeze and this is the first day it hasn't snowed. It was cold and frosty with a nice clear blue sky.

A lethargic, lonely looking Larky....

Keen to see if the hard weather movement was continuing I took Bunty up to the coast path, walked south to the Bathing House and back via Howick Lane. We were out from 8.40 - 9.35am...

First up, while I was feeding the garden birds, a Waxwing, alone for a change, was up in a tall tree in the copse calling like mad, seemingly looking for its colleagues. It soon departed to the south.

Viz miggers up near the coast path were -

Woodpigeon 223 S and 21 N I am always unsure whether these are locals looking for new feeding spots or are they really moving off to milder climes? Those moving south were quite high and steady in their flight so I feel they weren't just going down the road...
Curlew 9 S
Skylark 4 S thats all with about a dozen in the fields. A sharp drop off from yesterday.
Brambling 4 S
Pinkfooted Geese 57 S
Tree Sparrow 1 S high along the shore.
Goldfinch 25 S in single figure parties.
Siskin 2 S
Greenfinch 1 S

Other than those appearing to migrate were -

Peregrine 1 adult male S later seen going N at 4pm presumably back to roost.
Woodcock 11 including 4 in one gorse bush.
Snipe 1 or 2 in the back field.

A Grey Seal was 'bottling' close in while 3 Roe Deer were in the open looking for food. See accidental shot of one below. You can clearly see its a buck...