A couple more migrants have joined the slowly growing Howick list this week.

Day before yesterday a singing Grasshopper Warbler greeted me as I went out to feed the garden birds before work. It rattled away for a good while, but there was no sign in the evening or since. A passage bird probably.

Tonight a slow stroll around our village, in the evening sunshine and a call rang out over head. 2 male Yellow Wagtails chasing each other overhead then off towards the coast. Nice bright birds lit up by the low sun. 7 Wheatears were together near the fallen wall in the coast field too.

Who needs a Rock Thrush...

For the patch challenge 105 species (120 points).

The biggies...

At this time of year moth trapping can get a bit samey with day after day producing the same half dozen similar species in varying quantities. This year has been even worse with a poor, cold, spring greatly reducing garden catches, so when I inspected last nights catch, this morning I was very pleased to find two quite sought after spring species.

The pick of the bunch were only my second garden record of Red Sword-grass and, also hoped for each year, a Pale Pinion.

Pale Pinion

Red Sword-grass

Other new species for the year this morning were Early Grey, Double Striped Pug, Red green Carpet and Diurnea fagella.

Double striped Pug

Red green Carpet

Early Grey

Diurnea fagella

A new moth...

Above Top - Early Tooth Striped
Above bottom - Mottled Grey

I find these two quite tricky to tell apart. Easy when photos are side by side like this, but one, in the trap is a different proposition. I have had a good few Mottled Greys in the garden but until last night the only Early Tooth Striped I have seen were on Speyside last year. The easy way to tell them apart I think is the wing point shape. The ETS is much more rounded than the MG. Also the pairs of stripes either side of the body on ETS are quite obvious on this one...

Calmer...

A nice sunny mild day makes Jack a happy boy...

A couple of walks around the patch revealed 12 Sand Martins down at the Haven, and 2 or 3 Willow Warblers at the pond. Both patch year ticks. Also 3 Blackcap, 5 Swallow and many singing Chiffchaffs made migrant watching worthwhile. 2 Canada Geese and a Greylag flew south, and single Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell around the garden were my first butterflies of the year.

A nice Brown Hare has spent a day or two just over our drive wall, while 6 in the back field and 2 in Village wood made for a veritable Hare fest!

My phone has recovered and picks up emails, but no luck on the PC so I have enlisted professional help for next week.

Damn and blast!

PC is back.

Looks like it was repaired by a blind 12 yr old wearing boxing gloves using a fucking hammer. Now I have shagged my email passwords so not only do I not get them on my computer I cant get them on my phone either!

Shite.

If anyone needs to contact me please text.

What a load of Bollocks.

And while I'm raging....

Patch Challenge is slowly coming along with a Swallow two days earlier than expected on 13th making my list a neat 100 and 113 points.

PC world...

This is tricky. Phone blogging. My PC has had a fit and is going for repair this weekend. Normal service will be resumed when I get it back. I can still get emails on my phone...

Its all happening now...

Well its not really, but there has been an improvement since the start of April. Although its cold, days have been quite dry and sometimes sunny, without snow so its got to be a bonus.

On the 1st of the month a flock of 6 Canada Geese flew N low over the Village and today 2 Chiffchaffs  singing in Village Wood and the Pond Field plus a pair of Tufted Ducks on the pond itself were all new additions to the Patch Challenge list.

This takes me up to 96 species at 107 points. Hopefully there will be a few more additions before this month is out...

I had a report of a Ruddy Shelduck at Boulmer on Thursday so I called in before work yesterday but there was no sign...

Spring Marches on.....

Last night was a balmy 3 degrees at dusk, with a nice cloud covering and no wind, so out came the Robinson...

March was an absolutely dreadful month for lepidopterists with no butterflies and very few moths, so I was very pleased this morning to find millions in the trap. Well, 10 anyway.

Taxa
1663 March Moth (Alsophila aescularia) 2 NFY
1926 Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) 2
2190 Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) 5
2258 Chestnut (Conistra vaccinii) 1

10 Moths of 4 sp

March Moth

Gandalf's Bridge.

At a loose end this morning, mainly because the cold weather isn't really helping the arrival of spring migrants, we headed up to Corby Crag and Edlingham for a wander.

Winter was even more evident up here...

British Summer Time

...with snow lying thick on the forest tracks. Even so, the air was filled with the songs of Mistle Thrush, Chaffinch and Coal Tit, but we didnt fancy heading out at Easter through the snow. An about turn brought a nice pair of Crossbills perched on top of pines near the car on our return.

We moved off further down hill onto the old railway line that runs over the Edlingham viaduct that is seen in the 'Hobbit' film posters. The route brought us back via Overthwarts farm to Lemmington. There was no lying snow here, but it was icy cold.

Along the line track, a Woodcock flushed from the damp woods, Jays were being typically raucous and a Siskin or two flew over.

In the damp meadows at least 4 male Lapwings were displaying. 4+ Yellowhammers were in song and 3+ Nuthatch were in verge side trees.

A fallen tree over the burn had a couple of fungi to photograph for identification at home.

Scarlet Elfcup (quite a good name near a Hobbit viaduct)

Southern Bracket ( I think).

Back near the car, newly arrived Meadow Pipits must have found the snow a shock on the moor, pushing a flock of 30 or so into a rough field, lower down, next to the road.

The biggest surprise, however, had to wait until I got home. Our friends who live nearby in Howick had been alerted by the panicking calls of Buzzards overhead and looked to see a huge raptor gliding over, high, towards the quarry. The Buzzards began to mob the 'eagle' while it circled a couple of times before heading off west and out of sight. That was about 11.20am when I was west of Alnwick. They have seen White tailed Eagle before, on the western isles, and believed this is what the bird was.

They are not birders but are reliable and their fuller description of its behaviour gives me no reason to doubt their sighting. What a gripper for the patch! I've spent the last few hours with one eye skywards but without luck...

Groundhog Day...

Been out and about in the sunny weather today. Patch was quiet, but at least the wind has dropped. A short seawatch between snow showers had nothing really, well, 1 Red throated Diver S, 2 Razorbills N and a couple of Grey Seals bottling offshore.

Still not hide nor hair of a migrant, but, hey, it was a nice day for January....

Weather related...

Top - A foam filled Howick bay and below Cullernose Point takes a beating.

This last few days has shown little in the way of spring signs. Sure there are a few lambs in the fields roundabout, and hawthorn, honeysuckle and dog rose are budding, but otherwise zilch.

Without a doubt this is still winter, but I wonder for how long? This week has had snow with temps to -3 and 50 mph easterly winds cold enough to have a Toon lass reaching for her coat on a Friday night. We have had week four in the Garden Moth Scheme Survey and  my totals amount to 1 Hebrew Character. Two of the four sessions were so bad, weather wise, I didnt even bother to put the trap out. Last year over the first four sessions I had 150 moths.

As for birds, well, what is there to say. I am watching the Patchwatch updates on Twitter and see birders in the south and west complaining about having 'only' 20 Chiffchaffs and a Wheatear! What!

In January I did well with 91 patch species, but that took a drastic downturn with only 1 in February (Yellowhammer) and 1 in March ( Lesser black backed Gull) and unless there is a radical turn around on the weather forecast cant see there being any more new additions this month.

Still, I'll be out tomorrow looking to see if a battered Wheatear or Black Redstart as been catapulted onto the coast. You never know. Even a Collared Dove would do....

Roll on April.

  

  

Lots of spuggies at the feeders...

Its very quiet...

...and bloody cold!

No spring migrants, no moths or butterflies, no flowers so time for some lateral thinking.

If its an id challenge you need,  there is always something in the wide world of natural history to keep us probing. You just have to keep an eye open for the unusual.

I have just read Peter Marren's book, Mushrooms, and cant wait to get stuck in. While looking for fungi, various lichens etc also catch the eye...

A wander around some upland woods this morning after the rather slow WeBs count at Branton found a variety of life to look up later on.

Birch Polypore

Hairy Curtain Crust

Lichen Cladonia portentosa

Lichen Ramalina canariensis ?

Dogs Vomit Slime Mould 

    Now, these are very basic identifications so if you are an expert in these fields I would appreciate a comment to keep me right. The Dogs Vomit (sorry) is  past its best, but I am just about sure thats what it is...unless it actually is...

A bit of archaeology too...

On Sunday, John and myself took a trip to the most ancient of Northumberland's landscapes, to visit a site of cup and ring marked stones. There are countless opinions as to the meaning of the carvings and symbols and we will never know for sure why they were produced. 3,000 years ago, primitive man must have had a plan for them. What I find amazing is that similar carvings are found in other countries too, in a time of no communication I would have thought even a few miles away things would have evolved differently.

Northumberland contains the largest number of recorded cup and ring marked sites in Britain. These ancient markings are found on exposed rock faces in the northern hills and usually involve cup shaped depressions surrounded by concentric circles that are often joined by grooves.

Up here in this quiet, now bleak, landscape you wonder how people lived then and how people will live in 3,000 years time....

Our (public) path took us right past a newly refurbished Raven's nest where the adult let us know we werent welcome with variety of cronks, chuckles and capercaillie like 'pops'. We left them at peace in obvious view so they wouldnt be afraid we were lurking nearby.

Some rocks were covered in lichens including the Golden Shield Lichen Xanthoria parietina and the one below that I am struggling to i.d ( any help appreciated). [Dog Lichen Peltigera canina. Thanks anon.]

Near home, a flock of 80+ Bramblings was a nice find at the entrance to Howick Quarry where they fed in a game crop. The group also had single numbers of Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer, Goldfinch and Chaffinch.

Casualty...

This female Great spotted Woodpecker was the unfortunate casualty of a window collision in our garden yesterday. Maybe flushed by a Sparrowhawk or maybe not, what a shame at this time. I get a pair or more chasing aggressively around the feeders most days. I'll be on the look out now to see if there is a second hen bird for our man...

On checking the Baker Guide to Non Passerines, this bird is an adult female. there is no contrast in the wing coverts, just a nice uniform glossy black colour.


[ 27th Feb - another female on the nuts, it doesnt take long ...]

Goosanders, Goldeneye and Goshawk...

Its nice have a pleasant, fair and sunny weekend for a change.

Yesterday morning my first singing Blackbird of the year was announcing the new day in all his glory.

I went off to meet John a little earlier than usual now that the mornings are getting light sooner, and we headed off to Branton Pits to do his WeBs count a week late.

Some of the pond had a very light skim of ice showing that winter is still grabbing on to the door frame as we throw her out for, what we hope will be, the last time. The wildfowl were in fine fettle though with groups of Goldeneye and Goosander displaying around the site.

Goosanders

The Fishing Party...

We had 10+ Goldeneye, 6+ Goosander, 25+ Tufted Duck, 1 Pochard, 20+ Wigeon and 61 Teal. Returning waders included 17 Oystercatchers and 4 Lapwing, while around the car park 3 Song Thrushes were singing and chasing around, Chaffinches sang every where and, not to be outdone, even a Reed Bunting was 'shouting it out'. A Kingfisher dashed across the pond while maybe another two called unseen.

At the west pond, an imm male Peregrine was showing well sitting on one of the pylons before moving off up the valley. We checked the favoured spots for Adders but there were none, its still maybe a little too early.

One of Johns pics, better than mine...

Goshawk

After finishing the count at Hedgeley, we moved up to higher ground to scan some forest while having our tea. Soon, our goal appeared,a close view of a male Goshawk over the road showing close enough to see his supercillium in the sunshine. Its a pity my photos are so poor...

Back home, more raptors were being territorial when 4 Buzzards flew low over garden mewing their heads off. 30+ Tree Sparrows were on the feeders and checking out nest boxes and 2 Grey Partridges were in the back field.

Last Nights Mothing...

I have donated last nights moth post to Alnwick Wildlife Group. Please check them out and give it a follow...

Alnwick Wildlife Group

Cheers.

Its that time again...

Chestnut sp?

A time of confusion. I logged this moth as Chestnut the other night when it flew in the kitchen, but now, looking at the photos I'm erring on the side of a worn Dark Chestnut?

Any comments gratefully received. I do this at the beginning of every year...

Stewart and the Birdcatcher...

Steve Gale has started something here on his blog North Downs and beyond, yet again... . He askes why do we do it, this birding mullarky. I started to leave him a  comment but I got a tad carried away so here it is. Please check out Steve's blog, he's a great writer that certainly gets you thinking...

Anyway where was I, oh yes -

Why?

Why wake up? To me birding isn't a hobby or something taken up to fill in early retirement and to spend cash on now the kids and mortgage have gone. 

Its something I have done for ever, but maybe not in the form we 'birders' would recognise today. 

Aged  6 or 7 I liked books with pictures of birds or animals in. I didn't have any interest in cars or trains or football. Those things were all made by man, so by default, everything that it was possible to know, was already known. If you get the drift. Not that I knew that as a wee bairn, but I did seem to have some empathy for creatures other than my species.

I was given the first edition of Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow in 1972 aged 8. In this year my mother died so maybe that forced me to get stuck in, to blank things out, but I read that guide like kids would read Janet and John. Cover to cover. I could name the lot, and even recognised bits of text to show what bird was what, but I didnt know that people actually went out specifically to look for birds. Bird watching.

As a child, I just went out to play and took notice of the birds around the council estate where we lived. The only other people I knew who looked at birds were the older lads at school who went nesting. If you've seen the film 'Kes' I could have slotted in there, seamlessly.

I remember my first Goldfinch on a fence, my first Blue and Great Tits, known from the book, on a neighbours peanuts. My first Dunnock sneaked into view on our lawn when I was gazing through a rain spattered window. I could go on. They all came to life like seeing a famous person in the flesh for the first time, or like a footballer other lads idolised from the telly. 

My dad was the local park keeper and had to take me to work with him during the school holidays and on summer nights so I prowled around catching butterflies, frogs, hedgehogs and even finding nests in the hedges ( no eggs were taken, dad would have killed me).  

Aged about 10 or 11, dad took me to see a bloke he knew from the local working mens club. His name was Geordie. He was a retired coal miner with an allotment filled with strange wire mesh covered greenhouses. Imagine taking a young lad and dumping him in a secluded hut with an old fella these days!  The reason for it was that Geordie, bred cage birds. Not just canaries or budgies, oh no, this was the hard up north east, budgies seemed a bit too tropical, Geordie was a British bird breeder who specialised in finches. 

He was a bird catcher.

That first day 'down the garden' was a revelation. Dad kind of paraded me around several aviaries and sheds getting Geordie to test my id skills...'Whats that' he would say pointing high up to a shape in some gorse tied to the mesh of the well covered aviary. 'Siskin!' 'Male' ( or what ever) was the cry, and one after another I got them all right. There were Goldfinches and Bullfinches, Greenfiches and Siskins, Redpolls and Linnets many singing their heads off in their large secluded 'bioshpheres'.

Now I'm not getting into the debate of the legalities and rights and wrongs of this, but in 1974 no one was really bothered.

I went to see Geordie every Saturday and Sunday morning at first light where, during the late autumn and winter we would try and catch specific birds such as female Bullfinch or Greenfinches to breed from. When he had a target everything else was left to its business, so needless to say we never caught much. The few hapless individuals that were caught, where taken in a 'greenhouse' aviary with the door open and a string tied to it leading back to the shed. Male 'call birds' were hung in small cages  inside to sing and chatter to attract their own kind. If we were lucky and one went in, the string would be pulled and the door closed. No Bird Lime here, it was frowned upon, it would damage the feathers and feet of the birds.It was cruel.

During the summer Geordie and me would go out collecting wild food for his breeders, plants such as Fat Hen, Chickweed, Persicaria, Docks, Thistles and bunches of groundsel,  things like larch branches, broom and gorse as nesting cover were all  brought back. He would show me nests of Redpoll, and even Willow Warblers and Whitethroats, There were tales of Red Squirrels and Bats ( bats down the pit!?). Before I was 12 I could pick out a flying Redpoll half a mile away on call, and Bramblings likewise.

This was my learning ground for about 5 years, not Bird Forum.

Another real mentor of mine, I hope wont mind me saying, is still in the side column on the right, under the blog Abbey Meadows. Nigel lived near relatives of mine in another village several miles away. When I was about 9, Nigel was two or three years older. I used to stay over at the relations, and go to seek Nige at about 5.30 or 6 am when we would set off wandering the lanes and bridlepaths looking for wildlife. In those days Nigel had been on real bird watching trips to the coast seeing Merlin and Arctic Skua, just fantasy birds for me. I was over the moon to see Goldcrests  and Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings were widespread in Northumberland then. Nigel told me what various wild flowers were ( I still struggle with those) and he is still hunting them out now, 40 years later.

So thats HOW it all started, but WHY?

You know, I dont really know. I just know that when I am outside feeling the wind on my face and hearing my first Swallow overhead or jostling for my first Belted Kingfisher, or hearing the Tuk Tuk Tuk of a cock Pheasant waiting under my feeders in the garden, looking at the first Speedwell flowers in spring, or seeing a fleeting Stoat dash across the road, this just seems right. 

All problems are put in a different room even just for few minutes...It helps me breathe...

As for those that can just pack it all in because they dipped a Scarlet Tanager in Cornwall? Thats the real 'why'? Its all their loss... 

Thanks for your patience. Especially if you have read some of this babble before...

     

In the doldrums...

February can be like that. For me. probably the worst month of the year. Locally, most of the wintering birds have been found by the end of January, and its while before spring reaches Northumberland ( does it ever?) so its a case of getting out and about regardless and hoping for the best.

Today I walked down to Howick burn mouth and back by the coast then had a quick drive up to Craster to check the harbour. It was dull cold and breezy from the south east. Bleak might describe it. I was hoping to add to the patch list with Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Collared Dove, but even these paltry specimens remained elusive. This is the bit where I drop in 'I found a Ross's Gull' 'Which was nice', but I didnt.

The highlight would have been 2 probably Whooper Swans N but I only caught their arse end but I think I heard one call ( its not going on the list) and 8 Shelducks N along the coast, ...and nothing else.

Yesterday, my first new bird of Feb was the missing Yellowhammer, when a lone male was glowing from overhead wires above the bean field.

No 92

Pah...

Note the sun is shining and the bird is in our garden so its an old photo...

Birding Frontiers and Biotope at NTBC

Last night I went to my first bird club meeting this year ( and maybe last too?). The reason? Well, it was to see Martin Garner and Tormod Amundsen shake their stuff and hopefully provide some inspiration. This they did in spades, in fact they could have been life coach speakers, with the crowd almost whooping with fevered excitement!

It makes a change to get a double act that holds attention for the full night. A superb night and it would be highly recommended for anyone except this was their last date on tour, so if you didnt catch up with them, reflect on missing a great talk.

Afterwards we did the usual stand around and chat at the club. I say usual, it used to be usual for me. I never missed an indoor meeting for about 15 years until recently, but now the distance is a bit too far from home. I noticed another thing too, in my self imposed exile, half the attending members have changed into people I dont know! No sign of stalwarts like ADMC, Alan Jack, Richard Dunn, Nigel, John, John H, Nick Rossiter, John Richardson Tom n Mu, Les Robson, Ian Douglas, Bob Dack, Mike Holmes, Mike Natrass, Alan Johnston, Alan Janes, Lindsey MacDougall, etc etc. all ones I liked to catch up with.

This got me wondering about their absence...Some will have been busy, but others, I know for a fact, have jacked it all in. I wonder why? I wonder when I'll cut the reins and be added to the 'missing in action' list?

With the ready access to virtual birding colleagues via the internet, maybe these casual catch ups dont fill the gap they once did? More for discussion here another time...

Mmmm....Night all.

Oh we got our 2011 annual report -

One of the illustrations I did for BiN2011...