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 

Black-winged Pratincole. 2nds.

Today dawned bright and sunny, so I cadged a lift with Gary Woodburn and headed down to Bothal Pond for some frame filling Prat action...

I thought we would get there and the star of the show would behave as yesterday, casually hawking insects down to only a few yards on the near edge of the pond. On arrival the pratincole was hunkered down out of a March wind in a depression in the mud on the opposite bank. Time to get the gear ready. It'll need to feed soon and join the Swifts over in our corner.

Two hours later and the Black winged Prat was just that. It hadn't moved other than to do a bit of casual preening. A Jackdaw kicked it into a very brief flight when it landed almost immediately, then, another hour later, it wandered for 50 yards along the shore, took off and flew straight back to its 'hoof mark' and settled down again!

I think it was too cold for larger flying insects so the poor thing was just waiting it out...Never mind, good scope views were had.

Black winged Pratincole. As close as it got.

The usual position this morning as seen through the scope...

A right prat...

A rare pictureless post tonight. A great message on WhatsApp this afternoon from Bob Dack had me scuttling off to Bothal Pond to see my first county tick of the year - Black winged Pratincole. I missed last years bird ( found by the same observer) but now have had both Collared and Black winged in the home lands. Result!

I might try a second visit tomorrow if its around, as there were some great photo opportunities  today as it flew past in good light at close range. I didnt have any bins with me let alone camera, so thanks to Bob, Dave and Andy for letting me get a good look at the bird through their gear before I had to get back to work.

Northumberland List -  334.

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.

Moths

What a poor spring its been for moth trapping in the garden. Its been cool and windy more often than not so I've put in a lot less effort this year. Last night though seemed promising and I was pleased to find a small but tasty selection waiting for me this morning...

Best of the catch were two completely new species for the Howick list -

The Herald was first up.  I've only met this species two or three times before and never in the garden, so I was well pleased to find it this morning. What a stunning moth it is too...

Next was not quite so glamorous Eriocronia subpurpurella. A tiny caddis looking creature, but they all count so -

Finally I must include the Buff Tip. There were 2 this morning and they never disappoint -

Tonight I'm off up to Ford Moss for some off piste moth trapping, so here to my first Scarce Prominent! Fingers crossed....

QEII...

Another call in to Ashingtons QEII park on my way to work this morning was finally a success. I must have popped in 5 times in recent weeks to see this first summer Iceland Gull. Pretty much out of season, but nice to see locally. It soon swan to be the most distant gull out of 80+ present, so off to work...

Our Garden....

I've been pottering about with some photos and it got me thinking, about how much time I spend out in the garden. Mainly in the lighter evenings, we spend nearly as much time outside as in, so I think I'll do a periodic series on here with some garden images.

This one shows one of our garden sheds. It must be a hundred years old as it appears in some very old photographs on display in our village hall. Its a bit ramshackle but it has lots of character. Near us, the Old School House is now a holiday cottage, and on a couple of occasions the visitors have asked if we would mind if they sat and sketched the shed. We give them our blessing, especially when we are out at work they can pop in without any disturbance.

The only wildlife associating with the shed, is mainly mice inside and small solitary masonry bees that use small holes to nest in. One took up residence in a screw hole in the old door handle one year. Just to the left you can see one of my nestboxes on a small oak tree. It is occupied by Tree Sparrows this year but has had Great Tits in the past.

It is quite pleasant just to sit at the door with a beer and gaze over the fields behind. Hares, Curlew, Barn Owls and many more are often present.

Til the next instalment of 'Our Garden'...

Up the valley...

On Friday, John suggested that we have a change from the usual coastal spots and head inland this weekend. So, today we met up at Homebase in Alnwick and headed off up the Coquet Valley between Bilsmoor and Holystone, making a couple of stops on route.

Despite the poor weather, it was cold and windy with odd spattered showers, we eaked out a good day from very little prospect.

In a line of old, twisted Alders a couple of Redstart sang on territory, as did a single Tree Pipit and a Cuckoo. A pair of Treecreepers were feeding young somewhere nearby and a marshy field had Lapwing and Curlew in display mode.

Redstart.

After a while here we took a detour around Rothbury to stock up on refreshments and returned to the upper valley with a stop at Yardhope Oaks.

The ancient upland oak woods here are excellent, a nice change as woods of any kind are in very short supply on the coastal plain. There was not a leaf on the oaks yet. It looked like early April rather than mid May, but down in the shelter of the valley bottom some bird song could be heard over the wind.

Here we had 2 male Pied Flycatchers, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, another Redstart, a female Crossbill plus others heard, and a Tawny owl was mobbed by one of the Pied Flys.

Entrance to Yardhope

The Oaks

Bilberry flowers

A Wood Ants nest in full swing.

Pied Flycatcher

On the way home we stopped at Corby Crags to check for Green Hairstreak but it was a bit cold, then down to Alnwick Castle pastures ( Tom Jones is on here in August), where several Orange Tips refused to sit for the camera.

Shoveler.

A tip off from Robert, the estate head gardener, about an unusual duck on the pond the last few days, sent me along there this evening to see what was what. I half expected a dodgy 'call duck hybrid' or something but was pleased to find a nice drake Shoveler loafing around the lillies.

This is only my 4th since 2009 here with 2 being on the pond and one with other ducks on a seawatch, so it is a nice record and addition to the Patch Challenge list.

Unusually, he was paying some attention to a female Mallard and her ducklings, head nodding and grunting at her. He even chased off a drake Mallard that ventured too near to his new mate...I dont think the ducklings are his? But who knows maybe she came from another patch after mating...lets wait and see...

118. Shoveler

Swallow

As I arrived home this evening, this Swallow was on a low wire just outside our porch. As it had a background other than sky, I thought I would get a few pictures...

Sunday...

Much duller today but a bit milder. No Citril Finch excitement up here I'm afraid.

This afternoon I took a walk down to the Rumbling Kern. Common Whitethroat, 2 Whimbrel and a Sand Martin went into the book while a pair of Stonechats appeared to be gathering food for young. Back home, a Tree Bumblebee disappeared into a hole in our garden wall. I hope it nests there, after my first record of the species here being only 2 years ago.

The only pictures though were of a drake Eider trying miserably to get some shut-eye as the waves crashed around him...

Saturday...

A busy weekend for us this week with Jane's sister and family staying with us. They live down in Northants and regaled us with tales of recent temps there of between 18 and 25 degrees, when here we are struggling out of single digits. We had 18 degrees once, last July I think...

A walk around with Bunty yesterday afternoon when the sun shone was quite pleasant. I went up to the Hips Heugh and around the western boundary of the patch. A few birds were noted but wouldnt get close enough for pictures -  1 female Wheatear, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Common Whitethroat and a Lesser Whitethroat.

The Hips Heugh. Up there,a Lesser Whitethroat rattled from the gorse and a Wheatear hopped around on the short turf

Looking back down from the same spot towards Howick and the coast.

Common Carder Bee

 

117. Lesser Whitethroat

Warbler Way...

What a difference a day makes. After yesterdays throw back into winter, today was sunny and mild, if a little breezy at times.

Met up with John bright and early at Warkworth ( John's patch, but Patch #2 for me) to see if the foul weather yesterday had shuffled the birds around a bit. And had it! Spring had finally sprung with a veritable smorgasbord of new arrivals that saw John ticking away like a good'un!

First up, in the car park, a Lesser Whitethroat gave us a run around as it rattled away in the scrub, soon to be joined by a slightly more obliging Garden Warbler. Down in the reed bed, 2 Sedge Warblers were in competition with a Reed Warbler. These birds were singing against a backdrop of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Common Whitethroat.

Over head a steady passage of hirundines went north giving John House Martin and Swift as new year birds. I missed the Swifts as my bins were locked in the car! Dont ask...

Down on the estuary and pools some nice waders were in evidence - Greenshank, always scarce in spring, Whimbrel, Black tailed Godwit and a summer plumaged male Ruff had dropped in with 46+ Ringed Plover and 120+ Dunlin. A Wheatear flew up the salt marsh.

All in all John added 9 new species to his list during the morning, plus a hunting Barn Owl and Little Egret, it was a good morning to be out...

Back home at Howick two new moths for the year were in the trap, a Muslin and an Oak-tree Pug...

A walk around the patch this evening had 2 singing Sedge Warblers and a calling Cuckoo near the pond field. All good stuff...

LtR - Lesser and Common Whitethroat, Garden Warbler

Distant Greenshank

Muslin

Oak-tree Pug

115. Sedge Warbler

116. Cuckoo

Bank Holiday Weekend...

Not much birding done yesterday apart from a couple of Bunty walks and a very short seawatch. Most of the time was spent gardening and cutting grass, which I'm pleased to have done looking at the weather this morning.

In our back field there is a bit of set aside arable land in the shelter of the tiny wood next to our garden. For weeks now a flock of Linnets have fed there, and there were still 100+ this morning. While I scanned through them for something a bit more interesting ( there rarely is anything with the Linnets) a flash of bright yellow caught my eye. Not the expected Yellowhammer, but a lovely male Yellow Wagtail, with two Pied for company.

I took the dog home all of 20 yards, picked up the camera and came back out to find the birds all flying around. Luckily the Yellow Wag, dropped in reasonably close to where I stood and fed, nervously, for five minutes before taking off to continue its migration.

Its nice to see one on the ground here as most of my birds are fly overs...

Some of the Linnet flock still not away breeding...

Yellow Wagtail about to drop back in...

A vision in yellow...

And off he goes...

 114. Yellow Wagtail