Birdy places to go !

Although slightly out of NNBC's area, S.E. Northumberland coastal reserves have plenty to offer - today:
Cresswell Pond produced 12 species of wader: Little Stint, Reeve, Common Sandpiper, Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, Snipe, Curlew, Whimbrel, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Dunlin &Lapwing accompanied by 2 Little Egrets, Common Tern, Shelduck, Mallard, Teal, Canada & Greylag Geese, Coot & Moorhen. Also a family of Reed Warblers near the hide, whilst a Barn Owl flew over (19.00hrs) as I departed. (On Tuesday, 3 days ago, I saw an Otter from this hide but no sign today!).
Druridge: Whitethroat feeding at close range and Reed Buntings.
Chevington: Great Crested and Little Grebe, Heron, Tufted Duck, Swifts & more.
Worth a visit!

Nocturnal

Nocturnal

A late evening visit to Beanley Moor proved very productive. As I sat taking in the sounds of Owls hooting and Grey Herons croaking as they flew over, like something out of Jurassic Park, I slowly began to hear other things. 3 Cuckoos were calling from different places at the same time- the calls were mainly the familiar "cuckoo" but also a bubbling trill which would indicate a female. This went on for sometime before silence reigned once more, then as a final flourish just as I was about to leave came the unmistakable churring call of a Nightjar. All was silence apart from this one weird yet wonderful sound. 

Black Winged Pratincole

We were just starting a walk around Branton Ponds on Friday when I received a phone call from a friend to say a Black Winged Pratincole had been discovered at Bothal Pond in Southeast Northumberland, a jog back to the house for optics and camera saw us on our way and on site within 45 minutes. There was already a large crowd assembled of local birders and we soon picked up the bird at the far side of the pond preening, ok views but not brilliant, this was all about to change as it took off and started hawking for insects with a group of Swifts, this elegant wader flew around almost Tern-like and at one stage appeared to call again very like a tern, views were had from as close as 40 yards and enjoyed by all, it was still there today and well worth the trip.

Buston Links

It is weeks since I walked from Kilacrankie north along Buston Links and thought that today's fine weather was an opportunity to put that right. No more waders on Birling Carr but Herring gulls, Greater black backs, Oystercatchers and Eiders on the rocks. Walking through the caravan site Whitethroat, Sedge warbler and Linnets were calling. Walking up the slope to the top of the dunes I stopped to look over the field with new scrapes on Northfield farm and was surprised to see a Short-eared owl quartering the field. With terns calling time to look out to sea. There were twelve Sandwich terns fishing alongside twenty two Gannets - must be a good supply of sand eels. Perched in the scrub was a stonechat.
The dunes were ablaze with colour : cowslips, early purple orchids, crosswort, speedwells, bloody cranesbill, bluebells both English and Spanish, campion, violets, milkwort, mouse-ear hawkweed.
No decent bird photos but some colourful flowers.

Black-throated Divers

Our annual pilgrimage to the Long Nanny Tern Colony walking from Low Newton took us round Football Hole, where we were excited to see a pair of Black-throated Divers in full breeding plumage close to shore. Never on the surface for more than ten-to-fifteen seconds at a time, they crossed the little bay back and forth several times as we watched them for the next ten minutes. Fabulous! As always, we enjoyed the frenetic activity of  the 2500 Arctic Terns and 20 pairs of Little Terns at Long Nanny, and a Barn Owl hunting in broad daylight was an unexpected bonus on our return across the dunes.

College Valley

A very enjoyable circuit on the "new" path in far better weather than predicted. A cuckoo was calling for much of the time and birds seen were : common sandpiper, dipper, pied wagtail, raven, buzzard, pair of oystercatcher with calling willow warblers far out numbering chiffchaffs. Chaffinches were pretending to be flycatchers and swallows and martins were swooping around.
The valley is still golden with gorse but now is added the yellow of the broom. The cooler weather has meant that there are still banks of primroses and plenty of wood sorrel and violets. Tormentil is now out along with germander and thyme leaved speedwell, creeping corydalis, common milkwort (pale blue) and lady smock.
There warmer, sunny weather had brought out orange tips, small and green veined whites.
Overhead planes brought up gliders from Millfield but there were few thermals today.

Coquet Valley Today

After visiting Hazelton Rigg to see the bluebells with a friend and after a sandwich at Barrowburn we made our way slowly down the valley and had good sightings of a buzzard, forty sandmartins, a pair each of dippers, grey wagtail, pied wagtail and common sandpiper.