Green days....

 Sunday was a bit quiet so I got up early for a walk north along the coast to Craster. It was bright and cool with  a light S breeze. Its great to be out early at this time of year, I didn't see another person for the first two hours.

A slow wander north along the coast path was very pleasant. A few Yellowhammers, 3 Grey Partridges and 2 Greenland Wheatear were about the only things of note but the soundscape of singing birds, noisy Kittiwakes and gently rolling waves was relaxing.

The Bathing House with Longhoughton Steel, Boulmer in the background.

Craster Farm

This view south shows the majority of my local patch. We live in the village you can see in the trees. 

Kittiwake watching me.

Razorbill below my feet.

The view from Cullernose Point

Thrift and the marzipan smell of gorse.

Greenland Wheatear

Whitethroat

Yellowhammer ( do you think!)

A few other things were noted, a single Painted Lady in off, 3 Wall Brown, masses of Spring Squill in large patches all along the short turf. 

Painted Lady

Spring Squill

A carpet of Spring Squill with Dunstanburgh Castle in the distance.

This post is a bit photo heavy so I'll keep the text down a bit. On the way back, I noticed a bird flying south across the field behind Cullernose Point. It looked odd, but familiar? Green Woodpecker! Another patch mega. Not new here, but I've only had two others, winter 2009 /10 and spring 2017. I tried to take a record shot but the camera would not lock on. I must get the settings for viz mig worked out soon. I saw the bird well enough to believe it was a female...

Green Woodpecker south at Cullernose

Its all down hill..

A day of two halves today. Out birding with John this morning under heavy rain filled skies, seeing very little then out to Craster this afternoon in much sunnier conditions.

But first, one of the years highlights for me, came not by staking out a mining subsidence pond in the Northumberland coalfields, no, but just by having a five minute sit in the garden.

I remembered at about 6pm last night that this weekend is Garden Bioblitz time, so armed with a bottle of 'Sol' and a notebook, we took a wander around our acreage. Now, its not the hanging gardens of Babylon so the said stroll took no more than half an hour in total. During that time 83 species were recorded! Mainly plants, but also birds, insects and moths from the trap.

However, a little mystery appeared to be struggling amongst our non-native bluebells. It was a Bumblebee with a  huge rusty red rear end and a yellow stripe at the front of the thorax.

Mystery Bee...

I could see it has too much red to be red tailed so the field guide was brought into play. This didn't really help either, as this patterning just didn't fit for any likely garden species of bumbler. I consulted with John this morning and after some 'chimping' on the phone during a particularly heavy shower, he suggested Bombus monticola, the Mountain Bumblebee? The habitat in my garden isn't right, we are right on the coast not up a mountain. But see here...

So this evening I have consulted some experts on Social Media ( no, real ones!). Ryan Clarke on Twitter said monticola and called me lucky, while on FB the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Soc said exactly the same! Everyone concurs so it must be right.

Amazing. Cant be many coastal records surely....

Mountain Bumblebee Bombus monticola but not up a mountain...

 So if I can get Mountian Bumblebee here, can I have Wallcreeper next please?

Right, back to today.

Highlight of our intermittent forays away from the car and flask this morning was a nice patch of Early Purple Orchid in the dunes at Warkworth. With 100+ spikes it was a pity they were all but over. I'll try earlier next year...

Early Purple Orchid

This afternoon I fancied my luck seawatching at Craster to try and end May with a flurry, and what a good decision that was. An hour or so gazing east had only a few birds but 4 of them were patch year ticks. 3 Little Tern, 2 Arctic Tern,  1 Roseate Tern and 8 Sanderling were all appreciated. In particular the Little Terns and Sanderling both not annual here...

Nearby the Craster rock edge was a vision in blue with loads of Spring Squill in flower. This is a rare plant in Northumberland, and it favours right down to the rock edges on the whin sill rock. Very nice...

Spring Squill at Craster

119. Little Tern
120. Arctic Tern
121. Sanderling
122. Roseate Tern 

Gropper and Squill.

This morning, along the Lane, I heard a short snatch of a rattling song in the hedge next to the road. I peered over into a sunny open patch and saw a nice Grasshopper Warbler creep from under a bramble and out onto a twig only a few inches from the ground. It sang, on and off, in short bursts and looked quite tired. Maybe the white frost this morning hadn't agreed with it, I know it didn't make me too happy either...

It was no more than 15 feet away, and with the naked eye I could see its yellow gape as it churned out its very un-British sounding song... Also here this morning were Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Sedge Warbler.

Please click on sketch for a larger image....

Later we had a walk along to Cullernose Point. The sea was bright blue and the sound of Kittiwakes filled the air. But, it wasn't the birds we were after...

Coast Path to Cullernose Point.

It was a scarce plant that until now had eluded me in Northumberland.

Spring Squill

The Spring Squill is a tiny plant that flowers in the salt sprayed turf of cliff tops and shore edges. It is more of a plant of the north, I've only ever seen it on Orkney, and I think Northumberland is as far south on the east coast as it comes. In previous years, I seem to have miss timed my visits and couldn't find it at all.

Today, quite a few were just coming into flower in the short turf between the rocks just above the spray zone. Its very small though, no more than an inch tall, so if you go looking, be careful not to tread on it.

Also around the point were lots of Thrift, Tormentil, Sea Campion and the smell of Thyme, not yet in flower, coming from the rocks when photographing the Spring Squill.

Thrift

Odynerus spinipes.

This Mason Wasp is, I think, Odynerus spinipes. On checking the Gateway Maps, this doesnt seem to be recorded north of Cleveland. I suppose these things will be less monitored than moths so there are probably loads...

 All in all, a very pleasant morning...