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.

Keep it Real...

Another home working week of fine cold days at least meant I could get a walk in at lunchtime with Peggy.

The video, if it works, above was taken on yesterdays lunchtime walk where it shows the bay beside our village and Cullernose point at the back. The sea is coming off a stiff northerly breeze making for some nice rollers coming in. At night they were banging at the base of the cliffs making a huge thunderous noise.

Without enough time to have a seawatch yesterday I fancied that today might have some birds re-orientating back north . Its never very good in mid winter but there can be a few birds moving with a chance of Little Auk or maybe a white winged gull for those prepared to get frozen., so I clocked off mid morning for an hour and sat out on the point. So much for possibilities. There were no birds. This is not quite literally, but there were very very few birds at all though I managed a single Gannet and 4 Kittiwakes that were new for the year, but there wasn't even a sniff of an auk or a diver. No worries, they will come.

Around the village lane and pond field another few new additions made every days walk worthwhile. Apart from Shoveler, Gadwall and Treecreeper, 2 Woodcock did a dusk flight out from the woods across the lane to the coast fields to feed.

A site record count of 7, yes 7 Gadwall along with 3 drake Shoveler were good.

   

So that's not too bad. Before the months end I might still have another  8 or 9 good possibilities with the likes of Meadow Pipit and Reed Bunting still to be located. 

With my expectations being kept to an ultra realistic level, its good to appreciate the very common birds we take for granted. Hopefully I will get to draw a few more of those too over the year and not just the big arrivals....  

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