February 12 2012

Out today with Alan and we start by heading inland.  First stop was Bolam Lake, where there were no Brambling to be seen. We did however, have a fly over Jay, Great Spotted Woodpecker’s drumming, more than one singing Nuthatch and this Great Tit.

Also here, two Grey Squirrel, deep into former Red Squirrel country (we don’t see any)

We leave here and head to a spot that is north of Bolam, south of Hartburn, west of Meldon and east of Middleton. I would say exactly where, but the woman who lives there, who gave us a guided tour, does not wish the location public! Anyway just off the road, is an un-harvested field of oil seed rape and the birds are lovin’ it! We had Goldfinch and Linnet, 200-ish of each, 150 plus Tree Sparrow, 60 Chaffinch, 50 plus Reed Bunting and  6 Brambling  being the pick of the best.

A brief stop at Angerton Lake gave this Blue Tit.

 

On the lake is a single Whooper Swan, sadly with a broken wing. I’ll bet that this bird is included, when the bird race season starts, it’s going nowhere!

We carry on and go to Harwood village. The feeders are quiet as there is a Sparrowhawk sitting on the fence watching and waiting. A Jay is heard, but no Green Woodpecker…

Up the road at Harwood Heads, these male Crossbill were singing nicely.

 

Further on, a stop at Billsmoor gave us a look at thirty-three Fallow Deer, this is with the point n shoot.

So we head onto the ranges, the roads are open, no flags are flying and we find this Great Grey Shrike!

Not expected, it set the pulses racing. An excellent bird! Also up here are 2 pair of Stonechat. Nice to see that the last two hard winters hasn’t killed off the upland birds.

From here we just have a steady drive back, racking up the Buzzards as we go, by the end of the day we have seen 23! Not bad for Northumberland. We end the day at Prestwick Carr with six Short-eared Owl’s.

During the day we had a pair of Peregrine, doing what they do at this time of the year. She was even doing a bit of house keeping.

February 3 2012

Today I was mostly here,

which is just outside of,

on the road,

and parked looking north.

I was photographing,
 
they were also doing this



 
also here was this

and this smart

June 17 2011

Having done nothing on day one of my long weekend, day two would be different!

I left the house with the sun shining and warmth, but the forecast was for that not to last, so I was in a race with the weather.

My target today was Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary at Sweethope Lough. It’s the only site where I have seen them in Northumberland, but I have succeeded every time when the weather has been in my favour. The closer I got to my destination, the cloudier it got, till the point where it was actually raining as I drove the last mile. Light rain, but still wet!

When I parked the car it had stopped raining, but the temperature was down and the cloud cover was total; no chance, what am I doing?

I’m here, I might as well have a look…

 

…and also a Green-veined White…

…the only two butterflies I saw!

Common Buzzard were just that, common. Every where today, from Cramlington to Sweethope. Plenty of Common Crossbill to, at Sweethope and then nineteen at Banks Pond on the way back (on Wednesday morning, I had nine fly over the house). At Banks, three Four-spot Chaser and an Emperor, but no pictures.

February 27 2011

No lie-in for me this morning. After the day out on Tuesday, I was all too keen to get back up there with them and have another go, and the weather forecast was favourable for what I planned to do.
I arrived on site at 6AM, just as the eastern sky was starting to brighten, which it did for about 30 minutes and then I was let down by the BBC weather forecast; I don’t know why I chose to believe what they said, but it was windy and wet!

Black Grouse were seen in three different areas, one of which was lekking. 11, 7 and 3, that was the Blackcock, 5 and 4 were the Greyhen.

Red Grouse, Common Snipe, Curlew, Lapwing and Golden Plover were all displaying as dawn was breaking, but all went quiet with the change of the weather, so I changed tack and headed North.

Turning onto a small forest road that passes an outcrop of rock, six Common Buzzard are in the air together and a Peregrine is on the rock, soon joining the buzzards in the air. Further up the road, another six Common Buzzard are in the air and with them are two Goshawk.

Driving further into the forest, I stop at an area with a good all round view and have a Sparrowhawk, a Goshawk and a Buzzard in the air together. I tried to get pictures of  any of the three together, but the Sparrowhawk was avoiding the Buzzard and both of these were avoiding the Goshawk.

not the best image you’ll ever see of a Goshawk



Plenty of Crossbill, about forty (finally managed to record a singer) and plenty of Great Spotted Woodpecker, four seen together and two heard calling but just out of sight and a Green Woodpecker heard yaffling off in the distance.
And you know, when you get that feeling that you are being watched?

January 27 2011

Another long weekend started today, too many days at work in one block to get to this point; Work gets in the way of my life!

So I’m up early, but my planned early departure is delayed until I can get to the Royal Mail sorting office to collect a couple of parcels, 3 new books to read.

I leave here and head to Harwood (again). I want to try and record Crossbill singing, and again, I heard them, but failed to record the song. I did get some nice flight calls and a bit of courtship. The male was sitting higher than the female, with both birds calling and plenty of wing flicking, but no song...







 
One of the benefits of the long walk into the forest was that I saw the Great Grey Shrike. No pictures I’m afraid, the light was very poor, in fact it was snowing very lightly almost continually when I was in the forest and the bird was too far off (plus the fact I didn’t take the camera with me!).
Shrike habitat

I head back via Morpeth, where I have another look for Hawfinch and this time I connect. I took a picture as well, it seems to be just as bad as all the other pictures I’ve seen of this bird


And then it’s homeward bound with a stop at the pub on the way. The pub being the Burton House in Cramlington and only because it has Waxwing in the car park; at least 60 this afternoon.

Ian suggested on Monday that I would get some recordings here, sadly it’s far too noisy, with buses and lorries and just general road noise, I need to find some somewhere nice and quiet!

January 18 2011

I’ll get straight to the point and start with the bad news; Grey Squirrel are at Beacon Hill! It’s a bloody disaster!!!

A bit of a mammal day today, a Fox trying to get itself killed under my car on the A1, another catching voles at Harwood, a Brown Hare, a Roe Deer and two Grey Squirrel at Beacon Hill, I appreciated them all apart from the grey’s.

Stopping early this morning to get robbed at the pumps, a Song Thrush was in full song at Annitsford, spring is on it’s way.

Beacon Hill was on the agenda and it did not disappoint, with lots of birds having a bit of a tune up in readiness for the spring that is just around the corner…

I managed to get close to a Great Tit and it performed well


From here to Harwood where a Coal Tit was very obliging and while here a couple of Crossbill flew over. I saw many more and managed to record one singing but by this time the wind had increased and I am unable to remove the wind noise, so I’ll just have to go back and try again.

Heading back towards the coast, a text from Ian confirmed that the Red-necked Grebe was showing well, so I headed to the South Harbour at Blyth for a go myself, alas it was not to be. A call from Ian gave the gen, that the bird was doing a circuit and only occasionally coming close. It did come close when I was there, but I was looking directly into the light and by the time I had repositioned it was swimming back out into the middle of the harbour…
  
and, no prizes, it’s not a mystery, what do you think? (hover over the image for a clue)

Common Crossbill

Harwood, Northumberland