Swifts

 While the southern half of the country is awash with rare subtropical migrant moths things are more sedate up in the far north east of England. Still, I have had a Scarce Bordered Straw and a Pearly Underwing so cant complain. I had hopes of a Crimson Speckled but now I see that not only are they very rare ( still) they are even rarer in a moth trap, with most sightings being out in the field. At Dungeness, moth-ers have taken to dragging a washing line between two of them, lightly over short vegetation in an attempt to lift one up. Ah well...

Back in the real world, on Saturday afternoon I had arranged to meet Sally, a mycologist ( fungi observer) on our estate where I hoped she could identify some of the tricky ones for me. As it turned out our wires became crossed and the meeting didn't happen, but while I was sauntering around the cricket pitch, eyes to the deck looking for fungi, I was aware of thrushes flushing ahead of me.

The bushes here are decked with berries and good numbers of Blackbirds, Redwings and Song Thrushes were stocking up. While I watched a good sized party of Redwings head skywards, my eye rested on some other birds low down just above shrub height . SWIFTS!

Swifts? three of them to be precise. Now I've not even seen a hirundine here since September and not a Swift since late August, so this was a bit of a shock. I was also aware that NW Europe was having a Pallid Swift invasion.

 As I watched these birds with the naked eye ( I had left my bins at home, you don't need them for mushrooms! What a muppet). The birds seemed to be feeding and not just passing through, so I put the word out on WhatsApp of 3 Swift sp present. 

Straight away Dan Langston replied, 'On my way'. Thank goodness, Dan only lives a mile or so away and is well up on these things having already found two Pallids earlier this year. Better still he would be bearing optical gear.

Within minutes Dan arrived and we had the next half an hour watching the birds drifting back and forward across the sky over the pitch.  At some angles they remained dark 'Swifts' as in sp, but when closer, in better light, it could be seen these were all Pallid Swifts. I've only ever seen two before, some years ago, so to have a multiple occurrence on patch was nothing short of amazing.

Dan rattled off some images, that showed enough to be sure, and at that, they slowly drifted north and out of sight.

Later Gary Woodburn had a single at Embleton Quarry that could have been one of ours and next morning three birds were over Amble and Warkworth for most of the day. With 4 up at St Abbs and dear knows how many in Yorkshire, its still worth keeping an eye on the sky.

 Just make sure to have bins and camera with you!

 

If you go down to the woods today...

 For the first time since Storm Arwen we took a walk into the Arboretum. It is not open to the public at the minute anyway, plus there are a few trees causing 'tripping hazards' shall we say.

The pond has a good showing of ducks today with 25 Teal, 10 Mallard, 9 Tufted Duck and a pair of Gadwall, a decent record for here. A pair of Mute Swans,a  few Moorhen and a Grey Heron were the only other things seen.

Further on, the damage caused by the Storm Arwen became very apparent with trees over the rides and, in some places, access totally blocked. The estate will want this cleared and made safe in time for public opening for the February snowdrops, but it will take a lot of work. Here are some images but they cannot portray what it really looks like in the field...

These pair of Beeches were just two of many huge trees lying like deceased beached whales. Those root plates were at least 10 feet in diameter.

Huge pines including a nice Wellingtonia blocked our route...

    

Late winter specials....

Off on a flexi day today and annual leave on Monday making a nice long weekend. Today, Phil Hanmer came to ours to replace an old owl box in the small wood next to our garden. The old one was dismal and last summer a Barn Owl nest failed in it due lack of protection from the weather so the new one is of much sturdier construction. Lets hope it gets used.

While out for a walk or two around the patch today, the Chiffchaff is still flickering around the Lane ditch while Brambling numbers in the finch flock have increased to 7 birds, 3 males 4 females. There were still 250+ Linnets and 50 Chaffinches with 1 Lesser Redpoll. Buzzard and Stock Dove kept the flock company in the stubble.

Down to the pond, it was quiet. There were no penduline tits in the reedmace ( prompted by one at Saltholme today!) but the Coot is still present ( please park carefully!)

Howick Hall Gardens open to the public tomorrow to see the snowdrops. There seems to be  nice show so far, all we need is some pleasant late winter weather rather than this grime, wind and rain that seems omnipresent....

Brambling. A male, probably adult but a strategically positioned twig stops us seeing an outer greater covert for contrast...

Another poor day...

Top - a real winter squall over Amble Harbour and a few minutes later the sun came out...

Not much doing this morning or during the weekend on the bird front.

Highlight for me was a nice finch flock along our lane end that contained about 150+ birds, mainly Linnets and Chaffinches but also had 6 Brambling, 2 Lesser Redpoll and a Bullfinch. 30 Siskins fed in alders nearby.

This morning was spent helping Jane get to the Xmas Fair at Howick Hall before popping down to Warkworth for a chat with John. It was mixed weather there with some quite serious stormy spells curtailing any attempts a bird finding ( Above)

Jane's stall at the Fair...

And my only attempt a bird photograph this weekend...

Take it as Red....

Autumn sunshine at Howick Hall.

Masses of Red Admirals on ivy flowers high up in the sun. Click for a larger image.

The only time the thing sat still long enough to get a photo...

Speckled Wood.

A walk around the Hall grounds this afternoon was very pleasant. Lots of butterflies on the wing - 2 Speckled Wood, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 50+ Red Admirals, including 40+ on one ivy bush all together made a spectacular sight and a lone Painted Lady flew through our garden.

A Red Squirrel rang rings around us, literally, very close to begin with but high and distant before he sat for a photo.

On the way home a Raven cronked high over the Hall and flew east towards the coast, the surrounding Jackdaws were not happy with its appearance.

Later this afternoon news of a Great Grey Shrike 2 miles along the coast at Dunstan almsot had me jumping into the car, but it will wait until the morning...maybe?