Saturday, January 02, 2010


Today was blowing a force 8 ENE gale and it was bitterly cold. A lot of the snow has melted but the roads are still icy.

I toted the bins and scope around the village this afternoon just to get back into the swing of things.

In the copse next to the garden were 3 Bullfinches feeding on nettle seeds, 4 Redwings and 3 Song Thrushes feeding on a frost free sheltered bit of field. I had another 5 Song Thrushes in my short walk and another half dozen Redwings.

A short freezing seawatch over a mountainous high tide was, as usual for the time of year, quiet but I was pleased with 24 Kittiwakes including one with Black headed Gulls feeding in the Rumbling Kern cove. 3 Red throated Divers and 2 adult Gannets flew N.

On the way back a flock of 7 Lesser Redpolls and a male Siskin were in the usual spot but there was no sign of my suspected Mealy from the other day.

Here the 2 Ravens were soaring and harassing a Buzzard. The Ravens were bigger so the Buzzard was probably male. One Raven briefly did some upside down display rolls while calling, which is always good to see.

The oddity of the wander was a single Canada Goose wandering around the back field for most of the day.

Looking at my stats for 2009 I see that I had 60,558 hits in the 12 months. Now, with 53 followers, there has been a massive increase in traffic since last January. I hope every one continues to pop in and leave comments...Cheers.

5 comments:

ST said...

There will be plenty more like me, not listed as followers.
BUT
You only have 52 listed followers oh great Sage.
Because you can't follow yourself.
No doubt you will prove me wrong.
;-)

Birding about Northumberland said...

Always a delight to read your blog Stewart, I saw 2 Buzzards close up on the way to the airport last week as they flew right in front of the car one on the way there,one on way back Marvelous birds.
All the best for 2010

Emma Anderson said...

Happy New Year, Stewart.

Ipin said...

Nice holiday pics Stew! Did you have any skylarks yesterday at Howick? Hundreds of them at Druridge today... keep up the good work

Stewart said...

Happy New Year Emma, and thanks for all the support all.

Steve - Yes you are right I forgot I was following myself, that was a cock up ages ago. But it is 53 now...have a look :)

Iain - Yep 300+ still here, possibly many more. I hadn't counted the rape field and I see there is still a big flock in there.