Yesterday evening a Swift flew S with some Swallows and House Martins over our house, while a Yellow Wagtail moved N. Isn't migration strange...

Tonight a sharp call, in the dark, outside was either a Spotted Redshank - 'Chewit' or a Little Ringed Plover - 'Cheew'. Bugger. Pity I didnt get a second chance at it....

Some updates....

Tuesday 23rd...

This evening a walk down to the Howick Burn Mouth was quite pleasant. A large gull flock held a single juvenile Mediterranean Gull, while 5 Whimbrel flew south overhead. Back up to the farm, and my first Merlin of autumn briefly chased a swallow before moving on south.

Thursday 25th...

A Porpoise was very close in at Cullernose this morning. I managed to get some Yorkshire tourists on to it as they walked by enquiring what I was watching. They were pleased, not having seen one before..

Friday 26th...

Most unusual sighting of the year came while I was working in deepest Ashington last night. Ashington is a largish town with quite dense housing at its east end. It is one of the most socially deprived areas in the north east . So imaging my surprise at 8pm when I glanced up from a housing estate car park to see a Spoonbill being chased by a Little Egret both flying NE overhead! Absolutely bizarre...

Garden Viz migging...

A migrant Tree Pipit, this one was on Holy Island a while back... 

Not much from the Notebook action this week I'm afraid, though I have a few photos to post on here tomorrow night. Don't get too excited though...

This morning while doing the moths, first thing, on the drive, some early visible migration was taking place overhead. The metallic 'pseez' of a Tree Pipit overhead was the first thing into the book. It was quite low and was seen well in the binoculars. Fifteen minutes later a second bird came through, higher this time, but both going NE?

Next to change my focus was the wooden 'chip clip' of Crossbills somewhere high in the blue. Unfortunately I couldnt pick them out so no numbers here. There was more than one and they were going S is all I can add.

A lone Whimbrel, trilling, again moving N, was quite an easy one to pick up, followed by a Yellow Wagtail, then Grey Wagtail ended the early am movements.

A steady southerly passage of hirundines in small groups of 8 - 10 birds took place before 8am.

And all of this from the garden, cant be bad...I'll update some more tomorrow ...

Hoverflies.

Have you noticed how many hoverflies are in your garden at the minute? Go and have a look. Tonight I spent half an hour looking at the thousands in my garden. There were 4 or more on every single flower out there. Although the light wasn't too good I identified four species from photos taken -

Commonest by many hundreds to one was this above -  Marmalade Hoverfly.

Above - This one is a bigger one, Pied Hoverfly.

Then its more tricky. Above is Eupeodes latifasciatus.

And its mate, Eupeodes luniger.

 This is the first time I've really looked closely at these and I'm sure I'll be taking more notice in future. Click on them for a bigger image.

Riot!

Early this morning before work the sun shone a mellow light, glinting off the rain soaked grass. A Golden Plover, my first of the autumn, flew north, low, over the garden calling its clear, hoarse note.

A Comma was on the buddleia on our drive next to the forsythia that held the Woodpigeons nest containing a single newly hatched chick and an egg.

At 7pm it all kicked off in the garden with a set of proper juvenile delinquents. An adult female Sparrowhawk was being battered by two squealing large young ones, almost flying into the window. They landed on the fence in a flapping screaming racket so I attempted a photo -

By the time I scratted around for the camera, mother and sibling were off leaving matey quite bemused at their absence. About half an hour later the noise started again as the trio returned causing all manner of consternation in the Starling roost in the conifers...

This is the first time I've seen this type of raptor behaviour in the garden....

Oh dear me....

It started to rain at about 11.30am on Saturday and it hasn't stopped yet. I've seen nothing whatsoever to post on here other than a Whitethroat along our drive and a flyover Sparrowhawk. Hopefully we might get some of this over the next week or two attached to an easterly wind. I'm unearthing ants nests on the lawn for a Wryneck...

I believe it is due to fair up tomorrow mid morning. Great eh.

End of Summer...

For the birder anyway.

August, tomorrow, heralds the start of the autumn migration season for me.

On the local patch young warblers begin to appear in unusual spots such as gardens etc, an eye on the sky always has the chance of some viz migging, with things like Swifts and Sand Martins already on their way to more tropical climes or a drifting raptor like an Osprey maybe. Early in the morning a practiced ear can add a fly by Tree Pipit or Greenshank to the list. Birds not known as migrants can also be added to new areas as juveniles carry out a post breeding dispersal. Nuthatch is a good example of this, just check tit flocks early in the mornings.

Today, loitering around our village produced a typical late summer, early autumn, selection with 3 Arctic Terns N high over head, 1 Yellow Wagtail and 1 Grey Wagtail N. In the garden, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Whitethroat all appear to be juveniles in nice fresh plumage.

Down on the coast path, an adult Arctic Skua was in the cove while 20 ish Common Scoter flew N...

Tension builds as we hope for an easterly towards mid month...

10? Is that all?

Before I start, Birdguides / Rare Bird Alert - Any bird reports on here are usually seen at Howick unless otherwise stated. Yesterdays report of Roseate Tern and Stormies were here, not Boulmer...

Right, where was I...oh yes, Storm Petrels.

If you live in Northumberland and have not seen one of these I suggest you get to the coast pronto before they move offshore or north or where ever they will vanish to, soon. This is a spectacle that will not be repeated in the near future I bet...You may need a telescope though, I tried to see if I could locate one in the binoculars but even at relatively close range they are tiny and take some picking out.

Tonight I seawatched off the coast path (er, Howick) for an hour from 6.35pm. In the first 15 minutes I had 15 Stormies, and ended with a minimum count of 32 birds before 7.30pm. There were more sightings, but I tried to eliminate duplicates of feeding birds.

After half an hour I decided to concentrate further out than Stormie range to see if I could get a July Sooty but it wasnt to be. I did get 12 Manx Shearwaters, 40 Arctic Terns, 3 Puffins, 1 Bonxie and 1 Arctic Skua though so I'm happy with that.

A gallon of Petrels...

After yesterdays good showing of Storm Petrels off various north east headlands I could only manage half an hour this evening after work, so me and the terriator trotted down to the front and waited.

Not for long mind you as no sooner had my eye hit the scope two tiny House Martins Stormies fluttered into view. The true sea swallows these, forget the analogy about terns. As they soared and glided, and flicked their wings the sea looked just like a big pond with hirundines over it.  

Each time I moved the scope it was only a minute or two before I picked up another, with some very close in, feeding with feet pattering the waves. In total I think I had 10 birds, but there may have been more disappearing over crest and into troughs. This was a sight I didnt think possible in Northumberland even after 25 plus years seawatching here I saw more Storm Petrels in this half hour than in many dozens of hours previously.

Also of note - 8 Manx Shearwaters and a Roseate Tern plus many auks, gannets, terns and kittiwakes.

Brilliant.

Seawatching 'n'that....

Last nights northerly was still nagging this morning dropping overnight temperatures to 9 degrees.

Nothing else for it, I'm off seawatching, my first session of the year. A short walk found me atop the cliff on a mouldy old deckchair pointing east. As I expected so early in the season, the scene was dominated with breeding species, Gannets, Kittiwakes and Terns. After only 5 minutes, a shearwater came into view from the south, and not a Manx. Balearic Shearwater! A patch tick, and my first shear' of the year too. A nice dark bird showing distinctive pale belly and wing linings. It was flapping along quite slowly, zig-zagging offshore then inshore again then landing not far off but the swell took it out of sight immediately, and it wasnt seen again.

Arctic Skuas were in reasonable numbers with 8+ seen, 1 Bonxie distantly North, then a tiny, black Storm Petrel slipped over the swell for a second then lost to view. A very brief snippet but enough to add it to the list.  Two patch ticks in a day, cant be bad.

Other 'padders' were 3 Puffins ( a year tick, what a disgrace), 1 Roseate Tern, 4 Goosanders N and 2 Whimbrel S.

The rest of the day was spent tidying part of the garden and putting some plants in. A few butterflies were seen, Small Copper, Small Tortoiseshell, Green veined White, Large White and Small White, the latter egg laying on the nasturtiums. A Chiffchaff fed in the overgrown corners and a Blackbirds sun bathed between feeding its second brood.

Our Garden....

Our Drive, its coming along nicely... ;)

Sawfly larvae plundering the small birch - the insect is called
Craesus septentronalis.

A few bits of note from yesterday -

The farmer cut the back field behind us for silage on Friday night. In the process he chopped up a Grey Partridge, leaving its brood calling from the side lines. I hope they can look after themselves, small creatures hiding in the long grass have little chance to escape a big mower doing 30 mph around the field. Squatting and hoping it will go away is just a recipe for disaster.

On Saturday morning a big Lesser black backed Gull and 5 Magpies were squabbling over the partridge remains while a Buzzard picked off other exposed small wildlife.

As we watched from the kitchen window and adult Mediterranean Gull flew low around the field then moved off south. A lot of insects must have been disturbed as the sky was full of hirundines etc with many Swallows, quite a few Sand Martins and a handful of House Martins and Swifts.

In the wood, Broad Leaved Helleborines are coming into flower and Giant Bellflower is in bloom along the lane.

Not a bad weekend then...

Bloody Blogger, any ideas?

I've removed my patch list from the side bar because it has just stopped working. I am unable to add to it. All that keeps coming up is that Javascript is void??? As I have no idea what the hell that means I've removed it all.

A tick!

Last nights coastal stroll produced a few bits and pieces. A big frenzy of terns was offshore, a tad too far for the bins, but a few came close in - 2 Roseates, 3+ Commons, 10+ Arctics and 10+ Sandwich. Below the terns were a good few Razorbills with young and at least 2 Goosander.

But, for me, the highlight wasn't the flickering winged sea swallows, not even the rare ones, no. On my way into the house a call over the back field grabbed my attention and, duly, a Ringed Plover was added to the garden list! It flew low over the field in display flight mode towards the coast. On this stretch they are a difficult bird to get because its very rocky with little sand for them. I assume this is an inland bird returning to the coast to winter...

Big Ugly Bugger...

Last nights stroll to the coast path found the cove filled with terns. Well, 30+ anyway, a not bad count for this rocky stretch. Mostly Arctics, there were a few Commons and Sandwich too. Suddenly the Arctic Terns started making a 'pew' 'teu' call that I recognised as a mobbing tone, scanning around, there, almost over head, was a huge big old Bonxie, soaring like a Buzzard over the coast path. At one stage it went inland for a bit then back to the sea. Although it spooked the crap out of the terns it didnt seem too bothered and just loafed offshore. It was quite a pale mealy mottled adult, a nice early one for the year list...

Odd...

This morning on my way to work, I was driving south, approaching the speed camera at Hadston when I saw a party of 4 birds flying towards me just west of the road. They looked odd. Not young Black Headed Gulls? Nope, a group of Arctic Skuas flying north over fields and houses. It looked like two pale phase adults and two immatures. Agreed only half a mile from the sea, but for this species, a good way inland...It brightened the journey anyway...

MEGA hoo ha!

Mega alert the other day said Greater Yellowlegs, at some pool made of concrete. Now that woke me up. I missed the Solway bird a few years back so might have been keen to get this one. As the morning wore on it came on the pager again, now showing well. Showing well I say.

Then, after lunch a report came on saying Greenshank, showing well and gave the same on site parking instructions.

What is going on here? How the hell can someone, indeed some crowd, report GYL on at least 4 occasions before the realisation finally dawned on them that this was actually one of the commonest early freshwater passage waders of autumn.

Its amazing how many budding Kieth Vinnicombes are out there blubbing about scapular notches and emarginations, but a Greenshank SHOWING WELL might as well have come from Mars.

GRANK. Showing Well.

 

Over the Border...

Today myself and John took a short jaunt north over the border into Scotland. From home this was only a 50 minute drive and it was well worth it..Above, Burnmouth harbour looking as scenic as ever. From here we could just see Holy Island and Bamburgh castles in the distance..

The limestone scree here was covered in nice wild flowers with White Stonecrop, Salad Burnet, Wood Sage, Red Valerian, Lady's Bedstraw and...

Above, Common Rock Rose. This is almost non existent in Northumberland, but here it is prolific.

So it was with little surprise that we found our goal quite easily - Northern Brown Argus, above. Although worn, these tiny chaps have bottle spending their time harassing every other butterfly that dares fly into its territory. We had about 5 in a small area along with 20+ Grayling, below, 1 Common Blue, 10+ Meadow Brown, 5+ Ringlet, 1 Small Tortoiseshell and 1 Large White.  

We also came across a very showy Hummingbird Hawkmoth, that began laying eggs on Lady's Bedstraw, bottom. This must be a scarce occurrence in Scotland...  

The only noteworthy birds were a single Raven over and a lone Crossbill in some pines in the village.

A favour...

Hello all this is an appeal, well to Northumbrians anyway.

A few of you have texted me or emailed with details of Hummingbird Hawkmoths in your gardens this week. Would you be able to send me the full info please -

Your name
Site where seen, if garden address please.
Six fig Grid Ref
Date
How many.

If you are kind enough to send this info I'll forward on to Tom the county recorder. Or alternatively you can send directly to him using the  Northumberland Moths website link on my moth blog, link left.

It would be good to get numbers of the little hummers on this, clearly, an influx year.

Thanks again.

Hummingbirds...

After hearing that Mike Hodgson had a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in his garden the other day, I decided to keep an eye open at home. No joy on the flowers, after all these migrants are quite scarce in the north east, I mean this isn't Dunge or Portland...

So, at 5.30pm when I was about to take Bunty for a wander I opened the door into our porch to be greeted with an almighty buzzing and beating around the tomato plants. Thinking that the mother of all bumble bees needed to be released, I was over the moon to see this little hyper active critter bashing up and down the glass, having just come in through an open sash!

After a photo session It flew off faster than a racing pigeon high into the sky.

I think the person was right who said 'Everything comes to he who waits...'

Over the sea to Skye II

Part I is on the moth blog, link on the right...

Last week was spent on holiday on the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides. Despite having covered most regions in Scotland, this was our first time on the isle. Rather than go on in details just see pictures and comments below...

Our cottage for the week, Gramarye, The Braes. Google it.

The road down to the cottage...

The evening light on the hills from the garden...

The view the other way towards the Isle of Raasay...

It just didnt seem to get dark. This photo was taken at 11.10pm. Wheatears were still hopping from post to post down at the waters edge.

It wasn't all sunshine. Some dramatic, heavy showers...

One morning a party of 9 Bottle nosed Dolphins appeared as we had breakfast outside. They could be seen tossing salmon into the air...

Some of the neighbours didnt look too good ...

You can see how the 'Black Cuillins' get their name. Click on it to see the cottage in the middle to give some scale.

The scenery was truly amazing. You should have been there....

The view from Elgol looking towards Soay. No idea who the bloke is but those dogs look familiar.

This is one I've stuck together in photoshop to give a better idea of the vistas...

Jane and the terriator enjoying the sun. From here a dozen Black Guillemots were on the sea and a few Bonxies were on a low island just out of shot to the right...

One of the trips highlights for me were the fantastic hay meadows. Full of wildflowers with not much grass we located three calling Corncrakes in two locations. One was here in the distant field full of ox-eye daisies...

Plenty of  Hoodies around. Unusually these were quite confiding in supermarket car parks etc. Ravens were all around the coast too...

In the wildflower meadows and even on roadside verges orchids were in abundance. The Greater Butterfly Orchid was one of many seen along with Lesser Butterfly, Common Spotted, Heath Spotted and Northern Marsh Orchids.

Another great highlight was at Neist Point the most westerly part of Skye. Two Minke Whales were feeding only a hundred metres offshore and showed well for over an hour. Although I have seen Fin Wale, Sperm Whale, Pilot Whale, Killer Whale and Cuviers Beaked Whale, this, the commonest of British whales has always eluded me. Superb. Also here were a few Common Dolphins and Porpoises upping the list to four cetacean species in the week.

Families of Twite were all around the coast. I had a colour ringed bird that I will submit later.

A new plant for me was Oblong leaved Sundew. I have seen Round leaved Sundew in many areas but this one was nicely different.

Species that managed to evade the camera were two Otters together on the first night from the cottage, two Golden Eagles over the cottage and Rock Doves ( or as near as you can get) were all over.

A great week was had.

Marauder.

This morning was nice and sunny with some cloud, a blessed relief after yesterdays effort. JWR and myself headed off west to do his WeBs count.

The gravel pits looked well in their pseudo-summer finery ( after all we can't string two nice days together to merit the name 'summer') with drifts of Birds Foot trefoil and Sheeps Sorrel dotted with clumps of Ragged Robin. Purple Loosestrife and Knapweed in bud hinted at the next generation of flowers to follow on.

Only a few birds were noteworthy - Great Crested Grebe, Little Ringed Plover and Goldeneye being the main attractions with odd Redpolls calling overhead.

A sweep around with my newly acquired net turned up a few new moths ( see the moth blog for details) then John located this -

A female Adder trying to catch some rays.

Next as we wandered back a bird speeding towards us over the pond prompted the cry 'Hobby!' as subbuteo in full hunt mode dashed by too quick to get a pic. I suggested that it was heading to a Sand Martin colony at our next stop.

Onwards after a pastie and tea, to finish at another pit across the main road when our hooded marauder turned up bang on cue.

This one is from John...

This time, no fly by. It circled the lake and riverside, mobbed a Sparrowhawk harried some hirundines then soared off up into the blue after about 5 minutes of great views. Our pictures cant do it justice. Click on them for a better idea....

This evening as the weather reverts to type, windy and dark with heavy rain spattering the windows, the Cuckoo is calling constantly under pressure right next to our garden...