Window to Wildlife

 A drizzly morning was unexpected, and not ideal for our inland visit to high moorland today. A road closure also disappointed, meaning we arrived at the valley later than planned after a lengthy diversion. We continued to be affected by low cloud over the high moors, but were determined not to let this spoil our day. We set out from the car park at Hethpool, following St Cuthbert’s Way, and were rewarded for our brave efforts by a Whinchat perched briefly on a thistle. Over the next few minutes we watched it flit up and down from bracken, to fence, to shrub, enabling good views, even if they were all fairly fleeting. On the way back to the car park Sue was delighted to spot a Dipper on the burn, and although this quickly disappeared from view, a youngster on the opposite side of the bridge hung around longer for a photo opportunity. Juvenile Dipper As we drove across the estate on single track private roads, we encountered several Black Pheasants, which are melanistic variants of ...

 A less ‘birdy’ day today, as we crossed the causeway to Holy Island, an iconic location of Northumberland. With Sue’s previous experience, we arrived nearly 45 minutes earlier than the recommended crossing time and were able to get across to the island ahead of the main rush.  This worked. very well, as we were able to visit the church and wander the area around the priory and experience the deep sense of peace and tranquility from this special place without disturbance. Here was a sense of the distractions of the world being stripped away and resting into the awe and wonder of God’s presence and creation.  We sat awhile overlooking the sea towards the Lindisfarne coastline. A line of black stones caught my eye,  but looking through the binoculars it soon became apparent this was actually a line of hundreds of seals. Later, form the mainland, we were able to hear their haunting calls echoing around the bay. A shoal of Goosander drifted past, around 20 birds, followe...

 Today we were booked onto a 3 hour boat trip to the Farne Islands, departing at 9.30 am. We were a bit concerned on waking to see the bay was thick with a sea fret, and feared the trip would be cancelled. Fortunately, by the time we were due to sail the sun was pushing though and it transformed into a glorious morning with calm seas and blue skies. This truly was an amazing trip, which definitely had the ‘wow’ factor. We had barely left the harbour before  we were seeing our first Guillemots floating on the sea, and then, my first sighting of a Puffin with multi coloured bill. Seeing a Puffin was the reason we booked this trip to Northumberland, so I was thrilled to finally encounter these delightful birds. They were less tolerant of the boat than the Guillemots, frustratingly either diving or flying away as we approached, but we had excellent sight views and also good binocular views, including the classic mouth full of sand eels. They were highly entertaining to watch, peda...

 We started today at the tern colony at Long Nanny burn, near Beadnell. Parking at the back of the dunes we climbed a sandy ridge and encountered a wide expanse of beautiful golden beach stretching around the bay, with hardly a soul in view. About a mile from the car park there is a roped off area which is used as a nursery for breeding Arctic Terns. We found some birds resting or feeding in this area, and a single tiny chick was in evidence - apparently there has been much predation this year, primarily from stoats and corvids. A few Ringed Plover were seen here, making short rapid runs, then checking around, before speedily scurrying forth again. Arctic Tern Most of the terns were actually lower down the beach, closer to the damp sand and tidal pools left behind as the sea retreated. Scanning through with the scopes we could see several first summer birds with black rather than red bills scattered amongst the adults. A few Little Terns with their white foreheads, egg yolk yellow ...

 After daily reminders from Jenny that a Eurasian roller was still present in Suffolk I finally made the effort to go to see it and took advantage of the trip to visit several other local sites which were of interest to me.  My first stop was at the tiny village of Ampton where I normally find my annual tick for tree sparrow and this year was no exception as I saw one within 20 seconds of getting out of my car.  After watching it for a minute or so I quickly moved on to the next venue which was Lackford Lakes, a Suffolk wildlife trust reserve which had been reporting a juvenile glossy ibis for a few days.  I was told by someone in the car park exactly where it had been seen recently but he had not seen it that day when he had walked around earlier.  When I arrived at the hide 3 other birders were there but they had not seen it and so after 10 minutes I gave up waiting for it to show and moved on to try to see the roller. I had seen a number of birders along the ...

 Well, it has been a drizzly,  miserable start to to our first ever visit to Northumberland, with the kind of conditions that would not see me venturing out in Shoreham! However, different rules apply on holiday, where time is limited and there is much to see, so we started with a bang at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, a renowned seawatching site.  In the murky conditions we were not hopeful, but while waiting for Tim I saw some interesting looking ducks, just too distant to identify - possibly male Eiders or Shelduck, showing quite a lot of white. By the time we were able to get back and look with the scopes there was of course no sign of the birds. However, a small group of Manx Shearwaters, with distinctive long narrow wings, alternating flashes of dark back then white underparts as they ‘sheared’ low over the water were a brilliant compensation and a new tick for the year. Some fast flying auks with rapid wing beats sped across in a line, almost certainly Guillemots. A single ...

 With apologies for a bit of poetic licensing on this post!! To celebrate Tim’s birthday we made use of a voucher I had been given on retirement for afternoon tea at the Grand hotel. We arrived a little early so started with some alcohol... We were pleased to note we were not going to completely miss out on birdwatching opportunities with the appearance of a bearded tit and Reed bunting at our table... The food was excellent, with some dainty savouries, posh sandwiches with no crusts, cream tea and an assortment of cakes Suddenly a Kingfisher came into view... And finally, birthday cake! The following day we headed up to London to see Tim’s daughter Nicola, where we visited Kew Gardens and Richmond Park and this time managed to see some real birds - the infamous Ring-necked Parakeets were noisy and abundant at both locations and a new annual tick. Jay’s were also present in good numbers. At Richmond Park a pair of Red-crested Pochard flew in and were also new to the list and a Tree...

 For those of you who are subscribed to the blog, there seems to have been a problem with the posts for 24th and 25th May when viewed on email. I suspect this is because I added a video of a Goosander  to one post and maybe the file size is too large. If you view via windowtowildlifeblogspot hopefully you will be able to see the posts properly! 

 Another glorious day and we were determined to make the most of our trip. Most of us were up early for a pre breakfast walk from our accommodation, departing around 6am. We took a track up the hill and found a small group of Swallows perched on the wire, truly beautiful birds, gleaming blue feathers shimmering in the bright sunshine and a deep rufous chin. We found some Llamas and Alpacas owned by our accommodation providers and used for Llama Walks on the moors. Next we returned down past the cottage and out onto an area of common land, with short, nibbled grass strewn with rocks and dotted with brilliant golden-flowered gorse bushes. Set against the blue sky and in the morning light the scenery was spectacular. A few Linnets and plenty of Blackbirds dominated the scene, Willow Warblers called from scattered trees and a Buzzard was found sat in a low tree, before lazily taking a short flight to a further perch. As we neared the road there were a few more trees around, and this pr...

 The weather was much improved today, so we decided to head off the moor to Labrador Bay, a small RSPB site renowned for Cirl Bunting. We had swotted up on the song the previous evening, and as a result we were tuned in and almost immediately heard a bird singing and were quickly able to locate it perched on the nearby hedgerow.  Cirl Bunting A Devon speciality, this was a lifer for Sue and Andy, although Tim and I had previously encountered them walking the South West Coast Path.  Whilst there, we also managed excellent views of a Spotted Flycatcher. Spotted Flycatcher Meanwhile over the sea, a few Fulmar were soaring, although too far away for photos. Next we headed to Dawlish Warren. Unfortunately the tide was wrong for good wader views, but we did manage to locate a singing Greenfinch at the car park as well as Linnets, Pipits, Skylark, Stonechat and an obliging Reed Warbler which chuntered its monotonous song and showed well as it climbed a reed in a small marshy are...