Wednesday 28 July 2021

Liquorice

... All Sorts



Greenshank

At Cresswell and Amble today


Lesser Yellow Underwing?


Golden Plover

Ringed Radnorshire (Mid Wales) and is at least 10 years old.


Sandwich Tern

Farne Islands bird, no details yet.


Sandwich Tern





Cape Shelduck

Those strong southerlies??


Not expecting this.


Common Scoter

(First Winter Male?)




Minke

Thanks APr for the call about this Minke Whale.


Very good views but difficult to capture.


Common Sandpiper

Amble, Cresswell and Newbiggin today. (3-5 at Newbiggin.)



 

Saturday 24 July 2021

Nice Collection


Grey Wagtails

2 adults and 1 juvenile are now regular occupants of the Chevington Culvert.


Grasshopper Warbler

A couple of Grasshopper Warblers have started reeling again.


Barn Owl

Early morning stretch.


Agapeta zoegana
Sulfur Knapweed Moth


Common Darter

Lots of these medium sized 'dragons' emerging now. I keep checking but still haven't found a Ruddy one.

A few days back I got quite a shock to see a Banded Demoiselle high over East Chevington. I decided to take a couple of trips to Ulgham Grange where I have seen them before. Sadly no luck but a Dipper was a nice surprise.


Terns agitated


Nice!

Osprey

It headed east across the north pool before following the shoreline south. For once it was good to get the info to APr at Newbiggin and even better that he connected with the bird! A small repayment for all the birds he sends north from Newbiggin.



Not sure what went wrong with the power station this morning.


Ringed Plover

Adult and 2 juveniles at Cresswell. Guess the adults bred nearby, perhaps Bells Farm. Cresswell was host to a good selection of other waders; 2 Spotted Redshank, Common Sandpiper, 6 Knot, 6 Turnstone, 20 Dunlin, 40+ Black-tailed Godwit and a Greenshank among the most notable. 10 Little Egrets, Spoonbill and 2 Little Gulls added to the morning list.

 

Thursday 22 July 2021

Golden Oriole

 I read about Golden Orioles in the RSPB 'Nature's Home' magazine today 08/01/2022 and thought I should publish this information from last year. Only avid readers will stumble upon it, I hope and therefore not cause too much aggro.


According to the article Golden Oriole has not bred in the UK since 2009. I was shocked. I assumed there was still a small population hanging on in East Anglia. They also mentioned Wryneck as not breeding and yet there were three years of reports of birds in Northumberland in recent years all in the same area during the breeding season. I  hope that this is just kept quiet for the sake of the birds and maybe no breeding  has been confirmed.


Getting back to the Golden Oriole, here is a summary of observations made last year, with dates but no sites mentioned. All observation were within a 2 mile radius.


Observer 1 18/05/2021

yellow bird seen 

Observer 2

oriole heard singing 07:44, 19/05/2021

Observer 3

green bird seen 10:00, 19/05/2021

Observers 4 + 5

oriole heard singing (recorded by observer 4 20/05/2021

Observer 4

oriole heard singing (recorded)  brief view 26/05/2021

Observer 2

oriole heard singing 07:20 06/06/2021

Observer 2

oriole calling 17/07/2021

Observer 2

oriole calling 20/07/2021 not 100% harsh screaming call not unlike water rail but bird was moving through tree tops unseen.


Obviously this could have been a wandering male trying to locate a female or multiple birds. Prior to the first sighting there had been a small arrival of Golden Orioles along the east coast. It will be very interesting if the sightings are repeated this year (2022). However, it still leaves the dilemma, to publicise or not to publicise.



Monday 19 July 2021

Finally


Grayling

A good colony of these located by APr at Newbiggin.



Dolphin being used to tow fishing boat.

Well it might have been one of the new green fuel, carbon neutral solutions.


Ours is not to reason why ...


Devil's-bit Scabious


Emerald Damselfly


Some fairly bold (new arrivals).

Roe Deer

Fawns (or Kids)




Oystercatcher

Two almost fledged youngsters, fingers crosssed.


Painted Lady


Silver-Y


Black-tailed Skimmer

I think?


Four-spotted Chaser


Emperor Dragonfly

They never Land!


Ooh, headless female.


Finally!




Poecilobothrus nobilitatus




 

Wednesday 14 July 2021

Waders on the Move

 

July is always a good month for waders. Early returners and failed breeders first. Then adults and later juveniles. Always worth checking because you never know what they will bring with them. Beware however the range of plumage differences can pose problems. If in doubt ... it is a Dunlin.

;-)


Ruff


Knot



Whimbrel


Golden Plover

Ringed mid-Wales I guess. Couldn't read white ring code so only project details will be available.

 

Sunday 11 July 2021

Grass Guessing


Yes, time to look at something different. Decided to try my hand at finding some common grass species on the patch. Apologies for incorrect IDs.



Common Reed



Cocksfoot


Yorkshire Fog


Timothy


Tufted Hair-grass



Quaking-grass

OK, that'll do for starters.


Cleavers

Get real close and you'll see they have fantastic, tiny flowers. Yes, I still pull them out of my garden before they strangle everything else.



Centaury

Not quite sure how to separate Seaside and Common. Hoping this is Seaside.





Black Tern


Success

Three fledged Marsh Harriers. The male is still very active, regularly bringing in prey. The female not so obvious although I did catch a sighting of her today high above the field the farmer was cutting. She has already started her post breeding moult and is missing a couple of inner primaries.

Failure

Sadly the other pair failed to fledge any young. There are many reasons why this may have occurred: disturbance by wildflower planting adjacent to nest. photographers getting too close. reed planting in the pool and the loud voices, fox seen near nest, Otter in nearby reedbed, inexperienced pair or a combination of these factors.

Guess we'll never know.


You know me and my opinions on ringing, so I'll not whinge too much. Can't locate this Avocet project.




Can only guess at the colours of this one although it is probably the earl bird ringed at Cresswell many years back.


Couldn't read code for this one and didn't want to flush birds. (Might be a Polish bird.)


Coot
Coot on sea. A first for me I think.


Finally a Roseate Tern on the patch!