April

 Last time, I mentioned the possibility that we were experiencing a ‘false spring’, however, it has continued until this post too. In my notebook, the last time precipitation gets a mention was on 16^th March with an odd drizzle shower. Since then, we have had dry but cold weather, often in bright sunny days. 

 Another sunny day on the 29^th March brought the first Hairy footed Flower Bees or our garden. Always an absolute pleasure to see as they bump from flower to flower in a cartoon like fashion.

 By the 29^th, up to 150+ Kittiwakes were back around the Howick / Cullernose cliffs while 31 Whooper Swans flew N in two parties of 22 and 9.

 Another Boulmer search on the 30^th found that the female Black Redstart was still present, but the male was long gone. 9 Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks. In the afternoon on a visit to Amble we found a colony of Tawny Mining Bees in a raised bed by the Memorial. Lots of small males danced around the soil interspersed by a few bright tawny orange females.

 March bowed out with more Whooper Swans heading over Howick back to the Icelandic breeding grounds. 27 came over very low, you could almost feel the down draught from the wing beats.

 The first week of April finally saw an emergence of butterflies around the patch with several Peacocks, a Comma, a Red Admiral, 2 Small Tortoiseshells and a few Large White. More Hairy footed flower Bees and a few Dark Edged Bee Flies too.

Dark edged Bee Fly

Comma

Hairy footed Flower Bee, male.

A late afternoon walk at Boulmer on 4^th  was still cold but a few migrants battled on. A smart male White Wagtail  was with half a dozen black and white Pieds, a Lesser black backed Gull flew N followed by 3 Sandwich Terns. A good number of 32 Shelducks kept company with a  Pale bellied Brent Goose.

Pale bellied Brent with the Shelducks

Male White Wag...

For a change on the 6^th April we walked from Cullernose Point to Craster, hoping for a Wheatear sighting but that plan failed. We did make it worthwhile though with a close Raven, the first Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcaps, 4 Swallows and 2 Sand Martins of the year.

Now the evenings are lighter there is more time to be spent in the field ( while neglecting jobs at home), it could just do with warming up to 15 or so degrees…

 In the fine spell, a few moths kept the trap going while a nice spider graced the bathroom...

Acleris literana

Brindled Pug

Early Tooth Striped

Harpactea hombergi only my second, both from the bathroom.

Purple Thorn

Finally, on a cool sunny day last Sunday we checked out the new scrapes at Alnmouth Buston Links. It looked well for waders and wildfowl but not today.4 Shoveler and 2 pairs of nesting Lapwing were the highlight, 3 Whooper Swans moved N while the first Grasshopper Warbler of the year reeled unseen from a thick bramble at Hipsburn.

Male Lapwings very vocal and acrobatic.

Shoveler

This Yellowhammer sang from the ground in the car park at the cricket club for 5 minutes.

Industrial Oyks and the (Not so) Secret Wood.

 This post is another all-over-the-shop cornucopia of wildlife sightings locally.

Lesser Redpolls.

In April I like to keep an even closer eye on my bird feeders than usual because there is always the chance of a Brambling or Mealy Redpoll on its return migration. Who knows, even a Hawfinch is a possibility. 

To keep up the Mealy hopes I make sure the niger is filled each morning. This has attracted up to 20 Goldfinches at a time and a couple of Siskins on some days. The other day two Redpolls appeared, both Lessers and one was injured with a broken leg. That didn't seem to hamper it as it fed well for a couple of days before departure.

While it was sunny in the garden on Saturday a Holly Blue kept me company. A second was along the road by the Village Hall. The slow moth trapping continues with a nice Chamomile Shark being the highlight. This is only my 3rd here in 15 yrs.

Chamomile Shark

The ever present ( in spring anyway) Hairy Footed Flower Bee males.

Above - Holly Blue butterfly. Still earlier that usual...

This Pale Mottled Willow is the county earliest by 3 weeks. Maybe a migrant?

Industrial Oystercatchers.

On Sunday we visited a new spot, a little bit further than usual but not much. You might have seen me mention our severe lack of decent woodland up here, well this spot had a quite a large area and some of it quite mature too. Mature enough to hold a single singing male Redstart that was typically camera shy as they often are.. The whole area looks good for plants and insects too when the weather warms up a bit.

Today we found a couple of pairs of Marsh Tit, including one at a nest site. This is the best year I've had for these for a decade. Long may it be so. 

Marsh Tits prospecting a likely nest site.

Also around the area were good numbers of Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers with 3 Buzzards, Brambling heard and Siskins singing. A carpet of Bluebells were on the cusp of opening.

It just shows, no matter how long you live in a place, there are always discoveries to be made if you only look...

They're here!

 Since my last post, just for a change, the weather has been biblical. Gales and Rain. Even today it is pouring and cold with a mod NW wind. Everywhere is flooded, roads, fields, woods, even our tiny village pond now encompasses half the Village Hall car park too. Still the Toads were singing in it last night.

On Sunday we had our first Swallows, Sand Martins, Willow Warblers and Wheatear all at Alnmouth. Didnt get a single pic of any of them due to the wind.

There were plenty of Bees there too with Red tailed, Early and Buff tailed Bumblers, Hairy Footed Flower Bees, all males, no black females yet and a single Vestal Cuckoo Bee.

Vestal Cuckoo Bee

Male Hairy footed Flower Bee, it can be seen well in this shot.

Red tailed Bumblebee

On the home patch, 3 Swallows south along the coast path on Monday were my first, but since then the weather has put a block on any further additions.

A nice adult Lesser black backed Gull was with Herring Gulls on new plough watched from ou kitchen window making the garden list #61 now.

Lets continue to hope for a more prolonged dry spell soon, we need to release the over wintering Hedgehog before it gets much bigger ( 1100 gms!) but need a better forecast than this... 

It feels like spring.

 

Alnmouth with Coquet Island in the distance.

Sunday was a calm and pleasant day, getting brighter as it wore on and for once spring was in the air. What breeze there was, came from an ENE direction building hopes that we might come across something out of the ordinary. Unfortunately we didnt turn up anything rare but we still had a good morning seeing a few migrants.  

I met John at Alnmouth Cricket Club at 7am. A stroll down to the water works and flood meadows was filled with bird sounds. Lapwings and Redshanks displaying, Geese clattering around, a Water Rail squealed from a dense patch of phragmites and the sound of Chiffchaffs rang from every tree tall enough. 

A field near the track held some Mad March Hares, in April, with 8 or more chasing and boxing around.

Brown Hares mating.

 While watching these, a pair of Shoveler flushed from the small pond to settle again on a flash near the river.

Next we took the car down to the estuary. From here we covered the rest of the patch including the shore, bracken hill, and the estuary itself.

At this time there is an odd mix of birds of both summer and winter. There was a lone Barnacle Goose swimming up river beside a drake Red breasted Merganser, 25+ Wigeon, 20 Teal, 153 Curlew, a Goosander and 80+ Pinkfeet North while newly arrived birds included a female Wheatear, 4 Sand Martins, many Chiffchaffs, a Little Egret and 15+ Shelduck . There was no sign of the Avocet John had here mid week.

Little Egret

Incoming Sand Martin.

Stonechat on shed in the dunes.

Teal looking very smart in the sunshine.

Wheatear flew from beach and relocated in paddock on top of bracken hill.

 Later in the morning the warm sun brought out a few insects - 2 Small Tortoiseshells and a scatter of Hairy footed Flower Bees.

A small solitary bee, I'll need advice from specialists for this one...Andrena scotica. 

A male Hairy footed Flower Bee showing is feathered legs and the white blaze...

Small Tortoiseshell, the first butterfly of the year for me.

Back home at lunchtime, I was pleased to give the lawn its first cut after a wet March. Now I can let the meadow kick in. In the garden were more Hairy feet and 2 Peacock butterflies...

Peacock in the garden.

  

Broken record.

 Its cold again. Frosty this morning at 0 degrees. Still no Willow Warblers etc etc.

Last night around 6pm a nice male Brambling dropped into our feeders for 10 minutes. Its not around today so I assume it could be in Norway by now, where it might be warmer than here.

Brambling at our feeders

Up near the main hall car park, the 3 mtr patch of lungwort is the place to be for insects. 12+ Hairy Footed Flower Bees but only 2 females were great to watch as they scrapped and chased through the dead stems, Garden Bumblebee, Common Carder Bee, Red tailed Bumblebee and 4 Dark edged Bee fly were all filling up at the nectar station.

Garden Bumblebee Bombus hortorum

Male Hairy footed Flower Bees

Vaccine blues...

 Yesterday Jane and myself headed up to Berwick for our first COVID jab. It all went like clockwork and we were back home before lunchtime. I had read about the aftermath of the injection and all the people I had spoken to had suffered some side effects to a greater or lesser extent, but its all worth it in these times of pandemic.

I felt fine until after about 9pm last night when the shivering started. My fingers went white and I couldn't keep my legs still for nagging aches. Despite taking paracetamol this continued all night and this morning I felt like I had a big hangover. Still, I thought I better try and shrug it off and get out for a walk to Boulmer.

The morning was beautifully clear and sunny if a little cool. Yesterday, both John and myself had opted not to twitch the 20 miles south for the pristine Citrine Wagtail at Lynemouth. Even though it was a stunner, I've had a few in the county, so would have preferred to see something more local.

As it turned out, it was a very quiet morning bird wise. Nothing was moving at sea and land migrants were equally sparse. Still, the first Wheatear of the year was flitting around Longhoughton Steel and a few Sand Martins trilled overhead. Otherwise, 13 Purple Sandpipers, 5 Grey Plover, 250+ Pinkfeet N and a singing male Greenfinch were all the headland had to offer.

I turned over a few stones on the dune edge and found a Hairy Rove Beetle Creophilus maxillus, but didn't have any pots or lens to get a shot.

Young Grey Seal

Male Wheatear.

Around the garden yesterday and today, Hairy-footed Flower Bees were active, still all males, alongside, Garden, Tree, Red tailed and Buff tailed Bumblebees. An early Orange Tip was in the village wood.

The reason why they are called Hairy footed Flower Bees.