A nice sunny warm day with an ever so slightly irritating SW5 breeze...

Last night there were 3 Brown Hares feeding in the back field. As my sister in law has not seen one she suggested I take a photo for her...



Above - 2 Hares for Lillian, in habitat...



Above - and closer up...

Then it was off up the Harthope Valley with JWR for a wander...



Above - The views up the Carey Burn were spectacular...



Above - All of the Hawthorns were in blossom but this bush had more blossom than leaf. It was laden down with it...




Above - A few Beetles were on the track, a nice shiny Dung Beetle that reminds me of a blackcurrant fruit gum, and this metallic green thing...



Above - Then JWR spotted this, a Mother Shipton moth, a lifer for me. I have often looked in silent envy when Dean posts one on his blog. I didn't even think they occurred in the county. They get their name from the wing patterns that look like two witches facing each other. I'll look out for them more often now.



Above - My first Small Copper of the year. We had 3 Small Heaths too, but none good enough to photograph...





Above - Tree Pipit and Whinchat near Langleeford. Birds were elusive today with most being heard with fleeting glimpses - 2 Green Woodpecker, 6+ Lesser Redpoll, 2 Whinchat, 2+ Tree Pipit, 6 Redstarts singing, 2 Cuckoos, 3 Buzzards and a single Red legged Partridge. Both Blackcap and Garden Warbler were singing, but there was no sign of any Ring Ouzels...

The weather today was split into three. Early, sunshine with a light S3, noon, 100% cloud S5 spots of rain and evening clear blue skies with sunshine.

This morning we walked to the Pond Field. The meadows here are starting to come along nicely with many Northern Marsh Orchids in flower ( above).



On the pond itself, the Mutes have hatched out 4 cygnets, the Little Grebe is building for a second time after its first nest was flooded out and the young Herons sound very large now and are making such a racket in the trees.



Best thing though for me, was this battered looking Speckled Wood butterfly. My first in Northumberland and long awaited. they are very rare this far north on the coastal strip, I'll be looking out for a better specimen when the second lot are on the wing...


This afternoon a mystery was finally solved in the Village Wood. Over the weeks I have noticed eggs of Woodpigeon and Song Thrush lying on the paths and wondered where they have come from.

Today there were 9 Kittiwakes, 1 Pheasant and 2 Woodpigeons all broken and drained.





This bottom image shows two punture marks where the Carrion Crow has caried the eggs from the Kitti colony back home for breakfast...

New Link...

Please check out the new blog link in my Artists column on the right - Wildlife with Pen and Brush from Stuart Brocklehurst in Yorkshire ( not far from Dean Stables?). Great fieldwork right up my street....now, where's that sketchbook, its been too long.

This morning Jane was out with Bunty in the Village Wood and noticed two Red Squirrels up a pine. One seemed a tad too adventurous and went to the very tip of a topmost branch before falling off, and 50 feet to the ground below!

Jane dashed, panic stricken, to rescue the daft tufty that must surely now be in a bad way, only to see it leg it back up the tree to meet its friend and carry on as before...

Made of stern stuff these lads....

Above - 'Blood-veined Dock' a variety of Wood Dock Rumex sanguineus var sanguineus. A rare 'hortal' found in the woods at Howick...




Above - Birds Nest Orchid in three stages. Sprouting, in flower and gone to seed from last year. There were 10 spikes in the area mentioned a couple of weeks back. This time there was no 'creaking' in the woods.

3 Whitethroats were in the Village Wood along with two Roe Does, one in reddish summer coat the other just beginning to moult out of its greyish winter coat.

A Buzzard flew from the wood just behind our shed and away to the Heugh...

Sorry no pictures today, not much time, then when we went out at dusk the light had gone...

A few interesting things today started with a Cuckoo (87) calling in the Village Wood. Heard both morning and evening but when I looked for it, it went all quiet and refused to reveal itself.



Above - Cuckoo taken in China last year. Despite full measurements we still couldn't decide 100% what species it was! Looked like ours though...

Also today, a Great spotted Woodpecker flew from a ditch after taking a bath, 2 Stock Doves, 1 Whitethroat and a Kestrel were in the Village Wood.

Tonight we have just come back from a walk to the Pond. Not much birdlife at this late hour but 4 Noctule Bats were hawking around overhead. Much larger than the common Pipistrelles ( 2 were in the village), when looked at closely in flight they seemed much slimmer winged and even had a long necked appearance. They were about Swift sized. They called distinctively too, a sharp 'tzzzick' like a smaller Dipper call...

Up to 3 Roe Does, or it may have been the same one, were seen at varying times.

Turtle Disaster!

An early start this morning. Up at 5.30am and away by 6 had me on Holy Island at 6.30am before the tide closed the crossings. I like this state of tide because it leaves you stranded without the hordes of tourists that flock here.

The weather was fine and bright with a moderate SE5, not the ideal weather we wanted for migrants. In recent days there have been Bluethroat and Icterine Warbler on here and I was hoping for similar!





Above - Some habitat shots first. A lot of new starters often query the whereabouts of locations on the island, so the top two are of the Excavations and the bottom one is the lonnen behind the school.

There was a nice scattering of commoner migrants in the dunes but the rares didn't materialise. The best though was a real suprise when a Nightjar flushed from the Vicar's Garden and then flew back and forward along the main island road before vanishing over the car park! I've never had a migrant 'jar in the county before...

Other birds of note were a nice Wood Warbler, a male Pied Flycatcher and a Spotted Flycatcher at the Snook, a few Garden Warblers, Whitethroats, Willow Warblers and Chiffs dotted around, an imm female Marsh Harrier flew N, 4 Whimbrel were seen but birds were heard all morning and the causeway was lifting with 226+ Ringed Plover, 107+ Grey Plover with more Dunlin and a few Sanderling.



Above - Marsh Harrier looking like a black kite....



Above - Pied Flycatcher.



Above - Wood Warbler ( eating a St Mark's Fly!)



Above - Northern Marsh Orchid.



Above - Some of the Grey Plovers on the mud flats. Nice.


Not such a disaster you might think, but Jane rang me at 10am to say that my neighbour Julie had seen a Turtle Dove bathing in a puddle on the road less than a hundred yards from my house at 9.30am and you might get where I'm coming from. I was back looking for it at 11.40 but there was no sign. I have stocked the garden with plenty of seed in the hope it might join the Collared Doves in the morning...

Despite the BBC weather forecast on Radio4 saying that England had been grim, dull, overcast and rainy while some sunshine had been in Scotland, our whole day was clear sunny and warm with a light E3.

A pair of Lapwings (86) turned up in the back field today, the male tumbling and calling all over, the hum from his paddle shaped wings could be clearly heard.

Along the coast path a single Whitethroat was the only thing of note.

Dukes and Pearls.

A day off work today to head of to the west on a butterfly mission. I met Roger at his house before heading off to Gait Barrows, a woodland / limestone pavement reserve in North Lancs near Morcambe Bay.

Two special targets were on offer for me, Pearl bordered Fritillary and Duke of Burgundy butterflies. The Duke in particular is a very rare and declining species that needed to be looked for before its too late...

Our first stop was a wood on the other side of the hill to Gait Barrows above Leighton Moss, where we found our first Pearl bordered Fritillaries. We had about 5+ pristine individuals including a mating pair that allowed a very close approach.





Above - Pearl Bordered Fritillaries.

Also here were 1 Speckled Wood, 4 Orange Tip, 1 Small Heath and 1 Large White. A cool easterly breeze kept the butterflies into sheltered sunny corners. 6+ Speckled Yellow Moths defied photography attempts.

From here it was only a very short drive around the hill to Gait Barrows for our second and main target of the day - the Duke of Burgundy. A tiny butterfly with a wing span of no more than an inch, it proved more of a challenge to locate. With the help of some local knowledge we were soon in the right spots and found at least 4+ individuals defending tiny territories in the wood.






Above - Duke of Burgundy.

There was a good selection of butterflies here including 2 Brimstones, 1 Green Hairstreak, 2 Dingy Skippers and 2 Speckled Woods with a few more Pearl bordereds thrown in for good measure.

Another highlight in here was a large Slow Worm that made off too quickly for a photo!



Above - Dingy Skipper.



Above - One or two of these tiny micro moths were flitting around too, I think I've seen them on Dean's blog? Dean can you help with the i.d? [Its Pyrausta purpuralis - Thanks to Skev for the i.d...]



Above - We had a few Early Purple Orchids in the wood and at Silverdale...



Above - And about 50+ Green winged Orchids that were just past their best in the Silverdale meadows, a new plant for me.

A successful day then and all in beautiful scenery and bright sunshine. Nowt finer!

Above - My Family....

A cold north easterly force 2 today, but the bright sunshine was really warm. The car had a white frost on it when I got up this morning. That'll be the bedding plants nipped off then!

This evening we had a walk along the coast path with Bunty to see if the breeze had dropped off any migrants. It hadn't. It was very quiet on the bird front with only the usual Whimbrel, 3+ Stock Doves and the fledged Stonechat family for interest. Even the sea only had the local Fulmars and Kitti's. The highlight was my first Wall Brown of the year - on a wall sheltering from the cold.



Above - Wall on a wall...

I see that this easterly breeze is set to continue with the chance of rain later in the week? Well, if it does, we might get the chance to see if it really has just been the lack of suitable weather patterns at this time that has stopped us getting the Bluethroats we used to get. Peak time is the 12th - 22nd May. Try Holy Island the day after rain around the Chare Ends or the Excavations... I have great memories of a male and female together running around the walls of the old Lime Kilns...



Above - Whimbrel, the usual one.

Cold and cloudy at first but later on it was a lovely sunny warm summer's day. Wind was a light NNE1.

First thing this morning a female Yellowhammer was feeding below our feeders. 2 Roe Does were in the back field where the bucks were yesterday alongside a Brown Hare. The Lesser Whitethroat was rattling his tonsils out all morning.

While waiting for John to pick me up, a Swift casually glided north over the garden. I had a wander along the lane and was pleased to find a singing Garden Warbler (85) that eventually showed quite well. Adding to the village sylvia collection this morning were 2+ Blackcaps and a Common Whitethroat in song.

We took a visit north and found Holy Island was looking its best in the bright spring sunshine but birds were few and far between. A distant Short eared Owl and 5 Wheatears were the highlights so we turned our attention to the dune flora and insects.



Above - Common Vetch.



Above - Garden Tiger Larvae. They were all over the place.



Above - Burnet Moth Larvae. 20 on a Birds Foot Trefoil. For such a common moth, this is the first time I have seen the caterpillars. I assume they are 6 spots?



Above -A groggy, fresh Cinnabar Moth.

We got back about lunchtime, to find this Swallow, below, in our Kitchen. I retrieved it from the window cill and it was released non the worse for its adventure. Jane had been sitting outside and had not seen it go in!



In the afternoon we potted up some planters outside and I heard that distinctive whistling of Whimbrels. Looking up, 7 birds were heading overhead, north, towards the Heugh. A male Sparrowhawk was hunting in the garden copse and a male Siskin had supper on our feeders at 7pm.

This morning I decided to try and have a look for the Lesser Whitethroat in the back hedge. It wasn't singing in the usual place, but a short stroll along the hedge found him rattling away further along. Although I had some very brief but satisfactory glimpses, there were no real photo opportunities.

While stalking him, 2 Roe bucks came galloping down towards me from Hill Plantation obviously in some sort of dispute. They ran past me and off towards the coast. About ten minutes later the defending buck came trotting back, victorious, after seeing off his rival...




Later the 3 Buzzards were in the air together over the Heugh.

Well this blogger is painfully slow tonight. Evolution is quicker than this...[ this post was so slow in fact it took me till Saturday to upload the pictures!]

Today [er, Friday] was sunny with some very heavy and cold showers with and irritating strong SW7 blowing too.




Before work a male Yellowhammer was at our feeders in the garden as was the female Great spotted Woodpecker. The Lesser Whitethroat was still singing over towards the back hedge. I'll see it this weekend hopefully...

At tea time I ventured down past Seahouses Farm to the Rumbling Kern. 4 Wheatears were along the track south, the Whimbrel flew from the bean field to the shore, calling this time. Thats the first time I've heard it whistle in three sightings. Unusual.



At the shore were 3 Reed Buntings. 3 Turnstones (81), 14 Sandwich and 3 Common Terns (82), 21+ Oystercatchers and just after I put the camera away my first Swift (83) of the year flew south nice and slowly and well lit maybe enough to get a shot. Unlucky there.

A lot of flowers in bloom now along the coast path with still masses of Primroses and Violets alongside Vetch, Red Campion and Ribwort Plantain.

This evening male and female Tawny Owls (84) were calling from Village Wood.

Two posts for the price of one tonight as I didn't have time to update yesterday.



So here goes. Wednesday was sunny with a light SW2. Lots of bird song outside the back door first thing this morning including Lesser Whitethroat ( I still haven't seen it but it is No 78 for the month), Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff. 2 pairs of Grey Partridges were flushed by a dog over the far back field and a female Great spotted Woodpecker has found our peanuts along with 5 Goldfinches.

After work, we walked into the Pond Field where 2 Jays (79) lifted off an open patch of meadow, shocking me into Hoopoe mode before common sense prevailed!

Not far along into the wood I was very pleased to find 5 spikes of Bird's Nest Orchid beside the path. Only my second ever ones after twitching some last year at Calally. A great find and apparently new to the 10km square ( thanks for the info Nigel).

The day was rounded off nicely when I took Bunty for a final short stroll at 11.30pm and a Barn owl (80) floated over our village green and off over the fields. I'll get that from the kitchen window one of these evenings I'm sure. I lifted a large Toad from the road to safety too, not that there's much traffic here at this time.

Today. Fine, cool mod SW6, sun and cloud.

The Lesser Whitethroat was singing near the garden again this morning but not close enough to see. A Lesser black backed Gull flew over NW and on to the garden list.

This evening I went to photograph the Bird's Nest Orchids and found 8+ spikes though some were tiny and none were in full flower yet.



Some strange 'creaking' in the woods nearby had me thinking and it will need checked out one evening at dusk before I say any more...

So the patch list for May is already on 80 and one or two more still to come...

Oh, and here is a patch map. Takes up about just over 1.5 km squares.

A breezy day, SW6, but generally fair and dull with brighter spells.

This morning there were two new visitors to the garden feeders, the first was a male Siskin that made an early departure when the Starlings arrived, then a Tree Sparrow (above)(76) showed up.

I was straight out with Bunty after work. We did the usual circuit around the coastal path, bathing house and back by the lane. There wasn't much of note really except 90+ Kittiwakes sitting on the sea, 2 Great black backed Gulls (77), 3 Arctic Terns ( loads were offshore but too far out to identify with bins) and an Oystercatcher on the rocks.

Near the lane end in with the cattle was a nice male Blue headed Wagtail. Although distant, my feather perfect image below shows it to be most like the 'channel' type wags. At one stage it chased a Goldfinch around the field in a blur of colour. Also here, 2 House Martins and a huge female Buzzard just overhead.

CatBoxNest.

Above - No prizes at all whatsoever for the person who correctly guesses the species that has taken up residence in the cat travelling box. Its just taking liberties....The bird can just be seen in the top right corner, or its tail can.
The pic was taken yesterday in our friend's wood shed while we were looking after her cat!

Back to today...

Typical Bank Holiday weather I suppose. Dull, overcast with some showers and a breezy SW4.

A couple of walks around today, taking in the Coast path, Village Wood and the village. The only additions to yesterday's May list were House Martin (74) with a single at the lane end, and Curlew (75) when one flushed from the same rocks that the Whimbrel was on yesterday. Later, the Whimbrel flew over into one of the fields.

Offshore were 6 Sandwich terns, 2 Arctic Terns and 2 Guillemots very close in. A pair of Oystercatchers were making a right racket at the waters edge.

At home, a Reed Bunting was singing in the village, a Buzzard was having eight bells knocked out of it by 3 Carrion Crows and a pair of Stock Doves were in the wood.



The Mistle Thrush was still feeding its young in the village. They are now large and just about capable of fending for themselves. Our Blackbirds nest has hatched now too and the parents are back and forward all day...