As we enter the now annual period of SW winds from September to mid November, it is more suiting to moth trapping than seeing migrant birds. What happened to those days of easterly patterns, drift migrants and sea watching? These days we might get one week day all autumn where a few birds appear then vanish before we can get time off to see or look for any! Watch this space, 3rd week in November, ideal fall conditions but no birds left to be grounded.
So what of the moth fall back situation? Here are the highlights in the garden since my last post. Click for bigger image...
Straw Underwing. Not common here, almost annual.
White line Dart, annual in small numbers
One of those small Coleophoras that isnt mayrella.
Pammene aurita, a scarce moth here
Psychoides fillicivora. Only my 2nd .
Bucculatrix nigricomella. A first for me.
White Point. After the first for Northumberland a week earlier, this is the first for VC68.
Kent Black Arches, This time an absolute first for Northumberland, both VCs 67 and 68.
Last Monday a Bridled Tern was reported on Inner Farne briefly. Then,
very soon after the Coquet Island wardens put the cat among the pigeons when
they reported that a Sooty Tern was on their island. The two bird theory? With
no photos of the Farnes bird, it doesnt seem plausible to me that these two
tropical terns would arrive on the same afternoon with no sightings of either
anywhere else. Apparently the Farnes team are sticking by their guns with
their original theory but the bird has not returned.
As is the way, local Puffin Cruises boats were chartered to get birders out to
Coquet where those on board got decent views of the Sooty. Unfortunately I was
working from home and couldnt make it. Next moring I was passing Amble on the
way to work so I took bins and scope hoping for a distant dot from the
mainland. Plans took a dip when there were no further sightings of the bird
after Monday night.
Bringing us back to the present, yesterday morning, the WhatsApp buzzed again
with Richard the warden reporting that the Sooty Tern was back. After a week
where presumably it had been out to sea as these terns are very pelagic, it
was now on the island.
This time I was ready to give it a go. Again working from home, I finished
earlier and headed down to Hauxley late afternoon. In the two years since the
Bridled Tern here., Id forgotten how ridiculous this is. We could see the tern
but it was a miniscule speck and in the hour I watched, it didnt fly from its
rock. Just when you think views cant get any worse, it sank back over the rock
to roost and it couldnt be seen at all.
Click to see the bird and this is at 50x mag through the scope!
So at 6pm a dozen of us clambered aboard the boat on a lovely evening and
headed across to the island. Due to the tide being quite low we still couldnt
get close in but views were at least more reasonable than earlier. The trip
was an hour long and for the first half of that the bird was nowhere to be
seen. Luckily it eventually reappeared much to the relief of all on board.
This is the 4th Sooty Tern in Northumberland since the first in 1966, and is
my 2nd after the
2020 local patch bird.
Most of the morden day records of this pair of terns in Northumberland get
misidentified on first sightings. In 88 a Sooty became Bridled, In 2020 a
Bridled became Sooty and again this year. So, it pays to keep an open
mind when one is reported but whichever one it is, they are well worth going
to see. Fantastic.
Its been a few weeks since I actually posted about some of the things I have been seeing over the warmer period. Before that though, I'll add, while we have had a nice summer, we've not had a heatwave on the North Northumberland coast. To update here is a bit of a calendar -
4th July -
A Quail was calling in the bean field behind us. It was heard a few times but it never did that prolonged dripping tap call they usually do, just an odd phrase here and there.
5th July -
The Quail again briefly.
7th July -
And again only once at 11pm.
8th July -
I didnt get Grasshopper Warbler here in the spring so it was a surprise to get one reeling at this late date in the back hedge at 11pm.
9th July -
Despite the moth trap being used, the moth highlight was only my 2nd Bordered Straw perched out at lunchtime on some Sweet Williams. I moved it to Ragwort to get this shot.
10th July -
Had an open trap morning for AWG with 12 visitors attending. We had 205 moths of 79 species to view.
11th July -
The morning birding at Alnmouth with John. The wind has swung northerly cooling things a bit. On the estuary were 5 Little Egret, 1 male Bar tailed Godwit in summer plumage, 3 Common Sandpipers, 1 Avocet.
Up viewing Foxton Bends from the road we had- 7 Avocets, 3 Lesser black backed Gulls, 1ad summer Mediterranean Gull, 4 Little Egret, 6 Common Sandpiers, 2 Greenshank and most unusually, a Whooper Swan!
Next off to Seaton Point to check the sea. 11 Manx Shearwaters N, 45 Common Scoter N, 42 Arctic Terns N, 3 Goosander n, 1 Red breasted Merganser N, 18 Sandwich Tern N, 1 ad Little Gull N, 6 Puffins.
13th July -
A bit of excitement with the arrival of a summer plumaged female Red necked Phalarope on Druridge Budge Fields. What a stunner.
In the half an hour I was there, while watching the Phalarope, an adult Hobby flew low over the hide and circled the plantation over the field. Nice views. 1 ad Mediterranean Gull flew N, plus 12 Black tailed Godwits, 1 male Ruff and 2 Greenshank.
21st July -
2 Hedgehogs below our feeders on eating a pear! 30 Sand Martins were picking at the gable end of School House for some unknown reason?
22nd July -
A large count of 48 Small Mottled Willows in the moth trap, what a year its been for this normally rare moth. A Little Egret was on the rocks at Salters Gate layby and a juv Red Kite was catching grasshoppers up on the Hips Heugh field. A patch first for me and on the garden list too.
26th July -
Finally rain all day other than a couple of hours around lunchtime.
At the Aln Estuary were 3 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpipers, 3 Avocets plus a chick, 60+ Dunlin all adults, 7 Little Egret, 15 Swifts over head.
1st August -
A gardening day with 1 Whimbrel over, 1 Painted Lady, 1 Holly Blue, 1 Comma and 1 Wool Carder Bee.
Up at the Cricket field a new plant for me, Common Hemp Nettle.
I was so sad to hear of the passing of Bill Oddie the other day. Are there any long time birders who didnt meet him at one place or another? The thing about Bill is that, unlike the other celeb bandwagon jumpers, he was a real, life long birder. And a top one too. You would see the small bumbling figure of a comic on TV, larking around on a Trandem ? or Triplet as I think its known, totally unaware of his skill and expertise in the field of natural history.
One of the things that drew me to the great man was his link to Northumberland. You will have read on more than one occasion, if you frequent this blog, of my art hero Eric Ennion and his time as director of Monks House Bird Observatory at Seahouses. Well, not only did Bill know of him, he actually knew him and stayed at the observatory with Eric and his wife! What an era that time must have been.
As with many other birder of a certain age, Mr Oddie's and my own paths crossed a couple of times in the field.
I think the first time was when I was a ringer at Hauxley Ringing Station. It was a quiet early autumn day with a golden glow to the sun as I extracted a small warbler from a 60 ft mist net in from of 'A' Trap on the south edge of the gardens. I felt the presence of a person over my right shoulder and turned to see Bill standing there watching. We exchanged a few pleasantries by the net pole about the recent birding, though I cant remember the details, and off he went, birding.
Not long after, Northumbria Ringing Group was holding its annual members weekend on Holy Island in October. Bill was invited to the soiree to give us a talk on his birding travels. About 20 of us were crammed into the back room of the Lindisfarne Hotel on the Island where we had a great evening chatting to and listening to Bill's tales. At one point he put up a slide of a juvenile (then) Dendroica warbler and asked us if we could identify it? In days before the internet and great digital images, these things weren't easy, but I recognised this one straight away even though Id never been further west than Wales. It was a Chestnut sided Warbler. Bill was most impressed!
From there, the evening descended into a booze fuelled early hours lock-in, but as the drink took its toll, Bill took the sensible option and vanished to his room.
Next day, I can feel the hangover now typing this, with the wind from the west, migrants were sparse. Head pounding, with a greenish-grey pallor and a bottle of milk in my top pocket, to ease the stomach, we bumped into Bill along the Crooked Lonnen where he had very little in the way of birds.
I didn't meet him again, but did read his write up of that weekend in Birdwatch and subsequently in his book 'Gripping Yarns'. His phrase, 'there was more bonhomie and booze than birds' summed it up brilliantly.
On 15th July 2006 this blog began as Boulmer Birder. At the time we lived in Longhoughton and every dog walk was down to the Boulmer headland less than 2 miles away. Back then a Corn Bunting singing on wires was one of the last of his kind with only one other record since. When I watched Boulmer in the 90s we had around 18 singing males on the headland in areas where the main agriculture was the growing of vegetables such as cabbages and turnips. We would walk the quiet WW2 runways and the coast often not meeting a sole. Now the area is a cordoned off no go area with Private Keep out signs on every single 5 bar gate so the burgeoning population of visitors, tourists and caravanners are corralled onto a 50 mtrs wide coast strip.
When I set the blog up I was mostly inspired by Graeme Catley's Peewit blog and his amazing photographs and his prolific birding output and Alan Tilmouth's Grocer blog ( now defunct so no link). I was never going to keep up with that but small steps followed. Since my first full year in 2007 when I made over 250 entries, the blog has slowly declined down to its lowest output of 26 posts in 2025, a mere 10% of the starting figure! The main reason for that, I'd say, is the increase in Social Media usage and the now ubiquitous use of Smart Phones rather than sitting down at a PC. But, I still enjoy the blog, so a couple of posts a month will still be forced upon you, dear readers! I wonder how many readers out of the 3.5 million hits are still visiting since the start? By the way, don't take any notice of the hit counter going forward, its just a sea of 'bot' hits, another feature we didn't see at the start or even a year ago!
Here in July 2026, those old posts seem so dated. The blog has seen a few changes over the years from Boulmer Birder to From the Notebook and on to Stewchat. We now live a couple of miles further north where I watch the patch around our village but still make visits to Boulmer mainly during migration seasons and it still turns up some good birds. Its not just birds either ( though it was never just birds really) that grace the output. You are as likely to see an insect or plant as a bird but one thing remains constant. The blog is mostly about the wildlife of Northumberland and always will be, other than a couple of weeks holiday a year to break things up for a change.
What next? For me, retirement is not far away, all being well, when I intend to put a lot more time into the things I actually enjoy doing. There will be more time for art, more time for walks for wildlife, more gardening and who knows what else, maybe a bit of fishing again? One thing is certain, you will read about some of it on here.
Thank you all for visiting and making comments on my posts, they are all very welcome. Thanks to all of the virtual friends I have made through blogging, Dean Stables, Steve Gale, Mark Skevington, Gavin Haig, the late and sadly missed Dylan Wrathall, Seth Gibson, David Bryant, Simon Thompson, Alastair Forsyth et al the list is endless! The role these individuals play should not be underestimated. Most I have never met, but I hang on to their words of inspiration as if they were old school mates.
So that's all folks here's to the future and keep blogging!
Corn Bunting, this one a bit clearer and closer from North Uist in 2014...
Its been a good spell this week for the garden mothing with several new
species recorded. Im always amazed how the list just continues onwards and
upwards after 17 years regular trapping here.
I find the main cause is weather. After a week long heatwave of record
breaking temperatures down south in June I'm sure moths disperse widely. On a local level
this occurs too. If we get a warm day inland with a westerly breeze, I think
it lifts moorland moths higher into the air and they drift out towards the
coast where my trap is waiting.
Here are the new additions other than the Scarlet Tiger -
Wood Sage Plume Capperia britanniodactylus
Wood Sage Plume only has one other Northumberland record when 30 larvae were
found in the Cheviot Hills in 2024.
Isotrias rectifasciana
Monochroa lucidella 2 of these.
Epinotia abbreviana, an elm feeder. We have a small elm I planted beside
the trap that is now 7 feet tall, maybe that has pulled it in?
While it has been very much warm enough for me, the North Northumberland
coast has not seen the roasting temperatures of the south and inland. On
Saturday it did reach 28 degrees in the afternoon but has mainly been in the
21 - 25 degree range. We had a massive thunderstorm on Wednesday night that
frightened Peggy half to death so we were up from 3am til 6am comforting her
on the settee. The wind has been a touch irritating too, with SW 3 - 5 most of
the time, but over all it has just been summery weather.
As I mentioned last time, one star this week was the garden arrival of Wool
Carder Bees. These are rare in Northumberland with only a few records around
Berwick and the Tyne Valley so these were not on my radar. In fact it was only
from photos I took of a 'Leafcutter Bee' that made me cotton on to their
presence.
To begin with a single male was photographed on Great Mullein chewing at the
furry leaves. His yellow spotting on abdomen and legs was quite obvious in
photos, a nice colourful little bee a bit like Hairy Footed Flower Bee.
After a few days I planted two new Stachys byzantina plants ( Lambs Ears, a Wool Carder favourite) . Before I had patted the
soil down around them a male Wool Carder had taken them as his territory and
was fighting off other bees. Since then both male and female bees have been
present, females taking away 'cotton wool buds' of fluff away to nest holes
out of the garden somewhere.
They are a great addition to the garden fauna.
Wool Carder Bees in the garden.
As if that nice surprise wasn't good enough, the warm weather had
another stunning gift in store.
On Sunday morning the moth trap was particularly busy with micros, the over
night minimum temperature being 17 degrees. I was being as diligent with them
as I could not wanting any to escape as there was a good chance of a garden
first in these conditions.
As I rolled back the covering towel to extract the last egg tray I was struck
by a real shocker! Sat there was a proper Blackpool Illumination of a moth, a
Scarlet Tiger! Wow, what a stunner and full Northumberland first too, for both
VCs 67 and 68. Looks like the most Northerly UK record too.
When I looked back again, the egg tray was empty. The moth was flying circuits around the trap. Shaking in case it got away, I took the whole trap into the greehouse just in case it did get out where I could at least have another chance, As it happened the potting went well and I could relax.
I had only seen my first last year at Cley, Norfolk. In my post
last June, I say, 'only found in the south' never expecting one in the garden a year
later.
My friend Ian Fisher was keen to twitch the moth so I kept it until late
afternoon then released it after a photo session. Iain Leach commented on
Scottish Moths that they had also been recorded in Dumfries and Galloway and
Carlisle in recent times, so I wouldnt take bets on us being blase about these
in 5 years time.
Unusual or extreme weather even far away can drop some interesting stuff in to
the garden...
How things can change in a week. Sometimes we need to have a word with
ourselves, to bring us back to reality, a grounding if you like. In recent
times I have not only been birding or mothing. I have been looking at
everything from Spiders to Mosses and Beetles to fruit flies. All that I have
identified or had identified for me have been carefully added to my list. What
used to be on a crappy old spreadsheet is now on a fabulous all singing and
dancing searchable website.
Today, the alarm bell has rung. While I was already awake.
Seth Gibson,
Alastair Forsyth
and
Steve Gale
have all debated the topic on their blogs, that I have read with great
interest. These three naturalists and bloggers are a real inspiration to me,
so when one speaks I tend to listen.
The thing is, with the rise of PSL there is perceived to be a decline in
actual biodiversity recording standards whereby listers are not being as
rigorous as they should be when listing a new form of life.
Where people are concerned, no recording system with a competition factor will
be clean. Looking on the PSL website, I see that Red necked Nightjar has been
included by one observer, who would need to be at least 180 yrs old to have
seen the only British record! That's their choice I suppose, but the species
on my list are at the very least, plausible, and most are accurate with a few
being aggs, or the commonest of a bunch based on distribution etc, but I if I
tick a species on that basis, I will not add a congener as I couldnt be sure
its different to the one I already have. For example I have Dandelion but not
to species, I have Mouse Spider as Scotophaeus blackwallii as it is by far
most likely but Ive not had any scrutinised. Mouse Spiders twin will not be added without both being checked and the same with Dandelions etc.
Things are added to iRecord but if they don't meet the verifier's criteria
that's ok, I'll have learned something and will move on.
I know birds,
moths, mammals, butterflies and most fish even, quite well, but once these
groups are becoming less likely to be a new addition, along comes
flowering plants, fungi and invertebrates. Anyone who has perused the Naturespot
site or the British Arachnological Society page for example, will know full
well that very few of these can be brought to accurate species level without
the use of various scientific methods and equipment. Yet we novices ( maybe
not the right word? How can I be a novice after 50 years of wildlife
watching?) still plod along trying to match species to images and text in
books on websites and in social media. Maybe we ( I) are /am deluded?
I think I know the reason. I am not and never will be a scientist. I was and
probably still am an Urchin, a Poacher, a Tresspasser, Billy Casper, BB,
Ennion, Iain Niall, a Ladybird book, a throwback to times past.
I don't have a microscope and have never really used a Dichotomous key. I
might like to, but will I ever? I'm not sure it matters enough to me but who
knows, never say never. I like to find new things for much simpler reasons,
and no, its not to add to a list. It is to enjoy the chase, the find and the
beauty. The list just keeps the treasures in an order where I can find them
again.
So I'm sure I and many others will continue in this way until we either see
the light or give up. Keep on Listing folks, but try to keep it as real as possible!
Oonops. Its one of the two...
Wool Carder Bee, added to the list today after finding my first in the
garden on Sunday. A scarce species in Northumberland
This title might crop up on here from time to time...
Since I read Graeme Lyons book and did a blog post in April I have been quite
project driven. When I say driven, I mean in my amatuerish plodding way rather
than Graeme's '6,000 species in a year' driven. Check out Seth's Blog Here to get a better idea of my inspiration...
What I have been doing when out and about birding or whatever, even at work or
shopping, is keeping an eye open for anything different and unknown to me. In
the last two months that has turned up 60 lifers. To convert that into birder
speak that would take me 10 years to get, not two months.
These records and any other stuff are added in to iRecord via the phone app or
back home on the PC. iRecord is a second project running in tandem with PSL,
where I am trying to add dots to the biodiversity map of our region. In the
period there have been 240 new records added, not including birds that go
through on eBird,, again paltry compared to Mr Lyons who will think nothing of
adding 200 in a morning, but for me, its ticking along nicely. Some of those
new species are being discovered retrospectively from photos, social media
posts etc going back to 2019.
Today I have added three to the list - Three nerved Sandwort, Raspberry Weevil
and a small Caddis Holocentropus picicornis. Yesterday I added
Pepper-Saxifrage and Meadow Plant Bug Leptopterna dolobrata. All common enough
species nationally but I've not knowingly met them before.
I could do with getting a microscope really rather than relying on the help of
others and photo ids, but I don't have lot of space for a set up. Maybe
one day...
Well, not so much flaming in the heat sense as flaming June in the cold,
annoying, sense!
This month has been a downer after that warmer week at the end of May, so here
is a catch up.
In late May a Goldfinch built a nest in the apple tree just outside my home
office window. We could watch her weaving the structure together with her
finely pointed bill and rounding the cup with her body pushing downwards. By
27th May she was sitting, so we looked forward to the family developing.
Sadly, that was not to be because after two or three days she just left the
nest never to return. At the same time a poorly looking female Goldfinch was
in the garden on the other side of the house. It may have been her, who can
say.
Goldfinch on the nest. Its a shoddy image as it is taken through an old
cottage window so as not to disturb her.
At the beginning of June, small numbers of Painted Lady arrived
with half a dozen in a morning passing through the garden and with them a couple
of Hummingbird Hawk-moths were seen.
Painted Lady looking a bit dishevelled after its flight from Africa.
Hummer on valerian on our drive.
More unusually, unprecedented in fact, was the arrival of Small Mottled Willow.
Before this year I had only seen 3 in my life, but 22 have graced the trap so
far in last few weeks. Shame there were no Eastern Bordered Straw that deluged
as far north as Tynemouth.
Small Mottled Willow
Insect migration soon dried up as the wind swung back NW with a
colder edge and has been there ever since. Other resident garden and village
wildlife included -
Large Pine Weevil, a lifer for me and randomly was found in our
bathroom. I put it on the valerian before identification so I could
get a photo.
Pammene aurana on verbascum when it should be on Hogweed...
Nemaphora degeerella seems to be having a good season.
We have 5 Mullein caterpillars across three Verbascums in the garden.
This was the biggest of them and its enjoying the plant.
The first of the garden Tree Sparrows are out and about now, with adults
taking nest material into boxes to refurbish for a second brood. We also have
House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail and Blackbirds all with young.
A week back at work after our holiday with a few things of interest at
home.
The Saturday before we came back from Glen Affric I received a Bluesky message
from Mark Eaton to say that there were two Common Cranes in the field behind
our house that would be visible from the kitchen window if we weren't 300
miles away in Scotland! Its always the case isn't it. The field in question
has been recently tilled and seeded and looked great for Dotterel but Crane
wasn't on my radar. Unfortunately a message around 8.30pm said they had flown
off south. It looked like a good garden and patch tick was left wanting.
So, a long drive back on Sunday saw us reversing up the drive at 4pm. Due to
the actual driving my phone had not been looked at all day, so a quick glance
showed a message from our neighbour saying there are Cranes in the field, at
10am! So, a scrabble for the bins and a scan of the field and there they were,
two, huge graceful dinosaurs striding through and over pigeons and rooks
looking right at home.
Get on the lists!
Common Cranes, from our house.
They graced us with their daily presence for the following 6 days, being
joined by a third Crane on the Tuesday morning! Now I have a self found Crane on
the patch list. On one morning I even heard them bugling as I did the moth trap
count!
And then there were three...
The original two were obviously a pair, maybe 2 yr old birds as there was some
grey in the neck and not as much red on the crown. The new bird was a last
years young with a lot of grey in the neck and no red in the crown.
They were last seen on Friday 22nd am, then going over Skateraw at
1.30pm...
Those were clearly the biggest highlights of the week but as the weather got
warmer the Moth Trap was not about to be outdone.
On Thursday 21st I lifted the moth trap out to count it. As I removed the
cone, no pugs or carpets flew to freedom. Very unusual I thought under the
conditions. So after counting a couple of egg trays, I saw, lying in the base
drain, a large Poplar Hawk-moth forewing. At the same time a sliver of
something in an egg tray set the alarm bells ringing. Oh no, birds had been
in, and that sliver, surely not...
I hurriedly did the remaining living moths that all seemed very subdued,and
moved the egg trays. Then my nightmare suspicions came true. In with the other
dismembered lepidoptera in the bottom were the four wings of a Lime
Hawk-moth!
This must seem a bit of an anti climax to the southern contingent reading
this, but that dead moth was only the 2nd for VC68 and the first since 1902!
Its a species that has slowly been making inroads into Northumberland and was
to expected here one day, but after a decade of blank springs this is not the
way to find a first.
So, end knocked in, that night, two traps were deployed in desperation.
Sometimes the luck of the moth Gods shines down on us. A last check before bed
around 11.30pm and there in the front garden Skinner, a lovely living Lime
Hawk-moth. Superb. The second VC68 record in living memory.
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