Red and Green...

 should never be seen, goes the old adage, indicating that the two colours may clash or indicate Christmas. In the natural world nothing clashes, there is no fashion, only beauty.

It was with this in mind, that on Sunday I was out alone, on to the Alnwick Moors towards Edlingham and Corby to look for Green Hairstreaks and hoping to get a better look at some Redstarts after fleeting glimpses last week.

It was a 50 / 50 day of success, with the Greens showing well, the Reds still not playing ball.

Starting off in a short stream gorge where 2 male Redstarts were singing on territory but despite waiting and watching leafless trees for an hour I still only managed very short glimpses of this upland stunner. I will try them again when by then the females might have them at a nest hole. Also here a Treecreeper took food into a long crack in an oak tree, and a nice male Grey Wagtail showed well in the sunshine.

Moschatel was still in flower while in the background Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler and Chiffchaff song filled the air.

Dreadful phone scoped shot of a Redstart. 

A short drive along the road, maybe a mile, where I stopped at one of our traditional Green Hairstreak Sites. Sadly the birch trees are now closing in but open places can still be found. Here, up to 6 Green Hairstreaks squabbled around bilberry clumps and as the air was quite cool they were easier to approach. While stalking the butterflies, a small single Bee attracted attention. Photos later confirmed that it was a lifer for me, Andrena lapponica Bilberry Mining Bee only discovered in Northumberland in 2020. Speckled Wood butterfly and Common Heath Moth flitted past while the years first Cuckoo was Cuckooing across the road. 5 Redpolls danced over head and several Willow Warblers sang in the scrub.

A grand Morning out.

Above - Bilberry Mining Bee showing its long jaws.

Green Hairstreaks, a tiny jewel of a butterfly.

 

One or two bits and bobs...

 Another week with no real birding. Still cant get motivated but I am out and about most days seeing whats around locally.

Moths have been dire. Maybe the worst spring I've known for numbers and diversity. The last few nights catches have been like late Feb or March with a few Hebrew Characters, Powdered Quakers and odd Early Thorn etc. A by catch visitor caught my attention this week, a tiny beetle with a big name - Notiophilus biguttatus. More jauntily known as Common Springtail Stalker, named after the way it hunts springtails by running them down to eat. Good job it was only 4 or 5mm long...

Not. Big. ( for short) A big eyed beetle...

We headed inland again yesterday morning. Our first stop wasn't a success when we were moved on by the bailliff! After some chat he was alright really and even showed us a photo on his phone of an out of habitat Bittern taken last spring on a field edge flood in Alnwick. Not bad.

Cuckoo

A few Cuckoos were around at various spots with three of them making odd sounding calls. One called only the 'Cuck' bit, one called a 'tuktuktuk' noise maybe a female, and one did the Cuckoo in the voice of gravel throated Dan McCafferty of 70's rock band Nazareth. Maybe they've yet to tune up.

Redstarts were singing in all the wooded burns, but we didn't see any females. They could be on nests. Although we were in good habitat there were no Tree Pipits either.

Redstart

Another stop along at Debdon in now pleasant sunshine, was nice with Green Hairstreak and Adela reaumurella being found on some bilberry heath.

Green Longhorn Moth Adela reaumurella 

Green Hairstreak.

 Back home, a couple of Shieldbugs were found this week with Common Green and Hawthorn in the village.

Green Shieldbug

Hawthorn Shieldbug

Its an ill wind...

 Still the North wind doth blow. Our most regular April feature.

Although migrants continue to trickle in, there are no big numbers. It just feels like its all to happen.

Since last week, on the patch, breeding has been confirmed in a few more common species with fledged Song Thrush, Blackbird and Mallard, while Long tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Linnet, Coot and Mute Swan are all still with nests. I'm not seeing much nestbox activity from the Tree Sparrows yet though, none in fact despite several males doing their banana posture display around the garden.

Over the weekend, around the village the first male Orange Tip put in an appearance, showing that once out of the cold wind, the sunny areas are warm enough for insect activity.

A couple of walks out with Peggy yesterday were very pleasant.  At last a few more Wheatears had arrived and even better, were viewable from our house when 3 males and 2 females adorned the back field. One looked bigger and brighter, despite the distance, looking good for a Greenland.

Overhead at the pond field, a kettle of 5 Buzzards squabbled and drifted high south while back at home another 3 were around the Heugh area.

All Buzzards.

    

One looks bigger and brighter than the other? Wheatears.

On Sunday morning it was back inland where places are much less busy.

Redstarts were back in, with one singing nicely at eye level from a tree top down a bank from the road. Unfortunately by the time the camera was sought, it had gone. Others were heard singing in various spots around the place.

The moors are a riot of bird song now with Willow Warblers, Redpolls, Linnets, Curlews and Lapwings all displaying while Snipe 'tick-tocked' away in the background.

Lesser Redpoll on territory.

In the bottom of a, south facing, sheltered slope insects were active. Bumblebees were very evident on bilberry flowers , with White tailed, Buff tailed, Common Carder as you would expect but also Mountain Bumbler Bombus monticola and Red tailed Cuckoo Bee Bombus rupestris. Pity they are nigh impossible to photograph! The 3 monticola all made a buzz for it as soon as I raised a lens. I'll try again when the weather is more pleasant.

White tailed Bumblebee. 

There were several Green Tiger Beetles on the tracks and burnt heather areas. Speaking of which, we were looking for Green Hairstreaks in this area. Some previously good spots are now lifeless and  charcoal blackened. In the image above you can see an area just left of the copse where the self set Birches are. Luckily some habitat remains and we found 4 of the little green jewels. a little way further down. A short spell luring Emperor Moths attracted 3 males. 

The bilberry around the tumbled down wall was buzzing with bumblebees. 

Formerly the home of Green Hairstreak and Emperor Moth... 

Green Hairstreak butterflies . 4 seen. 

A fast moving Emperor Moth.

Back home in the afternoon, reports of loads (!) of white winged gulls at or passing Boulmer where up to 5 Glaucs and 2 Iceland had passed, enticed me out to Cullernose. I can see Boulmer from here, but could I see any arctic gulls? Not a sniff. Not many gulls at all, certainly no passage. Maybe the Boulmer birds were following feeding frenzies rather than moving north? My highlight from 6pm - 7pm was 1 Bonxie and 1 Red throated Diver both N. 

April Gone.

 Since the excitement of the Red throated Pipit things have taken the predicted down turn. This is mainly due to the relentless cold and poor weather that has hung around since March. In April the winds often take on a northerly view, making finding spring migrants a losing battle in Northumberland, but this April its not just us that has suffered. This April has been the frostiest on record nationally.

We have plants around us with brown and yellow new growth due to the constant cold overnight. Even hardy natives like Dogs Mercury and Stinging Nettle are looking a tad yellow around the gills but here we are in May so hopefully things will improve.

Last Sunday we had a change of scenery visiting some spots very close to where I live, but are scarcely visited, to do the Breeding Waders of Wet Meadows survey near Dunstanburgh Castle. Needless to say we didnt find many. Only two Snipe lifted from a small flooded patch near the castle and that was it.

Of interest last week were 5 daylight hunting Barn Owls again. I have seen 14 day hunting different individuals in that last 7 days. 5 on the moors the week before, this 5, 2 at Low Newton and 2 at home. Barn Owls here are a daily occurrence, an ever presence. This however, is not a good thing. The poor birds are only out during the day, every day, because they are struggling to find enough prey to keep them going overnight. Local ringers who study them have weighed some adults from nest boxes and found them very underweight. At D'burgh, one of the local Raven pair fancied one of the owls for a snack and gave a short flight pursuit, twice knocking the bird into the grass until we intervened. The owl recovered composure for a few minutes then flew off, leaving the Raven to find more suitable food along the shore.

Raven pursuing Barn Owl with intent.

A pair of Gadwall on the small Dunstanburgh wetland were a 5km tick for me, 1 Whimbrel was on the shore and 2 male Greenland Wheatears dashed around the rocks. On the sea off the castle were some close feeding frenzies that included 100+ Razorbills in fine summer plumage.

A feeding frenzy of Kittiwakes, Gulls and Razorbills close in off Dunstanburgh Castle

Greenland Wheatear

Yellowhammer

Gadwall pair

The past week has been just as quiet only adding Whitethroat to the list on the patch.

Today we headed up to the moors west of Alnwick. 

A walk along a burn lined with ancient twisted Alders and Birch was nice in lovely sunshine. A female Redstart was nest building, a Tree Pipit was song flighting and 3 Cuckoos were calling in the background. A Barn Owl was hunting the moor ( yes, another one).

As the clouds gathered and rain began to spit, another site had a Whimbrel circling low, unusual inland here, a Fieldfare, a male Wheatear but best of all two nice Green Hairstreaks and a male Emperor Moth were good to see again after an absence during last springs lockdown.

One of the Green Haistreaks. The bottom shot looks odd because the butterfly is lying tilted over to catch some of the sun.

Female Redstart nest building in old birch tree,

 

 

May Day Bank Holiday.

I cant remember the last time we had a Bank Holiday weekend with wall to wall sunshine for three days in a row. Long may it last I say.

The weekend started well, on Friday night with a trip to Alnwick Playhouse to see a Kate Bush tribute act called Cloudbusting . Now, I am not really a big Kate Bush fan, but it was a night out, so off we went. We weren't disappointed. What a singer this lady is! Anyway, I digress, if you fancy a listen, try YouTube....

Then it was an early start on Saturday morning as I was leading a Dawn Chorus walk around Howick Hall gardens from 5am - 7am. The tickets included breakfast in the Hall Tearooms. 32 people came and we enjoyed a lovely fine morning stroll listening to the birds.

Most sightings were of common birds you would expect to find in parkland / farmland but 2 Whitethroats were my first of the year.

Back home at 8am after getting paid ( a free breakfast) and it was off to bed for an hour to charge the batteries, not knowing what excitement was to follow...

At lunchtime, word appeared on our local WhatsApp bird group of a possible Squacco Heron up the coast at Waren Mill, near Bamburgh. Whilst Squacco is an excellent bird, I have seen a few over the years and wasn't going to face the bank holiday traffic for another, and wrote it off. Then the next message was a photo from the non-birding finder... a mass of tree cover above a stream, and there, in the far left corner was a tiny brown blob. I just had time to think, hold on, I cant see any white on it and it looked very small, when Alan Curry responded with 'Little Bittern!'

Its awful when this happens. Its Bank Holiday, you have jobs to do and family commitments and a UK and more importantly, a county tick turns up 15 miles away. There was nothing left to do except, throw the gear in the car and with gritted teeth join the tourist throng to Bamburgh. Adrenaline had kicked in making it all quite stressful ( why do we do it?) so I decided I wouldnt faff about with my camera, and just go for the sighting then straight home. What a bad decision that was! Note to self - always, yes ALWAYS, TAKE YOUR CAMERA.

When I arrived at the cottages along the Waren Burn, ADMc had the bird in his scope, sitting low in some ramsons above the burn. It sat for a while then turned and wandered out of sight into the vegetation, soon to reappear a few yards along on some open mud. From here it flew upstream a short way, out of sight. Its small size was very obvious when flying, it was like a moorhen or even smaller.

A change of view point was required so we walked to the next bridge along into the caravan site. After half an hour, it appeared as if out of nowhere, only 20 yards away on a branch over the burn. What views! Literally scope filling. It flew across the water and ran around like a huge footed Corncrake, coming even closer, before flying under the bridge and our feet and along into thicker cover under trees.

What a fantastic bird. If only I had brought my camera gear I would have gotten some great images in good sunny weather too. Chris Barlow got the best pics, see one here on Flickr.

  I made do with a phone scoped shot for the record...

Female Little Bittern, Waren Mill, Bamburgh, Northumberland.

After dipping the Gosforth Park bird on 26th June 2014, I never expected to claw it back. This is only the second twitchable bird in the county and completes my set of herons on the Northumberland list.

Sunday was sunny and clear. I met John at Homebase, and as he could not get away yesterday, we headed up to Waren Mill for the Little Bittern. This time I had my camera. Unfortunately, the camera remained unused as our diminutive friend had departed. All we had of note were 2 Swifts and a Common Sandpiper on the burn.

We left, and headed up onto Alnwick Moor to look for Green Hairstreak and Emperor Moth. I had just bought a small pheremone lure to see if we could find Emperors on our local moors even though we have not seen them there before.

At site 1, I hung the lure out in a sunny spot and retired to the car for a cup of tea. I only had a sip, when the first male Emperor Moth flew in like  bullet to investigate, closely followed by a second.

After 15 mins, we had our target photographed so the lure was sealed away so as not to cause further distraction and we went to walk the moor for butterflies. At a site about 1km from the first I set the lure out again just to see if our first try had been a fluke. No, as before 2 male Emperors arrived within minutes allowing great views. It was now time to put the lure away for the day. I believe in using these sparingly to avoid disturbance, its a bit like tape luring.

As we walked back, John put up a Green Hairstreak, then another came in to spar with it on territory. This is a new site for us, so we were well pleased. There is a lot of good habitat here for them and we soon found another three giving good photo opportunities.

While we took photos,a nice Cuckoo flew in and landed on wires nearby.

Bank Holiday Monday was the same regarding weather, though a touch cooler on the coast. Jane, Peggy and I headed off inland, west of Alnwick where it was 20 degrees compared to 14 on the coast. We checked a couple of different sites for Emperors, finding up to 6 at one site and a single at another, all the while being serenaded by Curlews, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits with a few Redpolls and Cuckoos thrown in.

A brief stop at Calally failed in seeing Birds Nest Orchid but did find Redstart, Tree Pipit and another Cuckoo, rounding off an excellent weekend.

Green Lights....

This morning I met John at Alnwick Homebase and we headed down to Lynemouth Flash to see if the Citrine Wagtail was still around. It only took 5 minutes to realise it had departed overnight, so we headed up into Druridge Bay. First stop was quite interesting.

As I pulled into the roadside next to the pool north of Cresswell Pond causeway, I said to John, its a good time for Temminck's Stint this. Also this morning I commented to John Atkinson on Twitter that the shower overnight was good for grounding waders...so we scanned the muddy edges. Soon John said, 'Theres a small wader over there'. I soon saw the white belly giving it away and it immediately appeared small, so I suggested we need to get the scopes on it and bailed out of the car.

As soon as I got on it I could see it was a Temminck's Stint! Worse though, it was crouching and looked ready to flush. After a few seconds, it seemed to settle and began to feed then preen and bath in the shallow water, so I put the news out. I looked up at John briefly and then back at the bird only to see an empty patch of mud where it had been. We hadn't even seen it fly off, but there was no further sign by the time we left...

Anyway, I managed a drawing and some notes, then added colour back at home -

We celebrated with breakfast in the Drift Inn Cafe and very nice it was too...

Checking Druridge Pools and Bells Pools we had 3 Black tailed Godwits, 1 male Ruff in breeding plumage, 1 Little Owl showing well, good numbers of Swifts, and a couple of Wheatears.

Little Owl

The sun began to shine so we decided to have another look up Alnwick Moor for Green Hairstreaks despite not finding any here for a few years. Rather than checking just the known spot we ranged half a mile further over and were please to find a couple of males holding territories in the birch and bilberry scrub. Also here a Cuckoo showed well calling next to the car park.

The view west...

Green Hairstreak habitat.