A Stint up the coast

On Saturday headed up to Cresswell for another year tick. The Little Stint showed well but never close enough for my lens. This female Stonechat with ankle bracelet was more obliging though.

Earlier spent some time in a stinky hide at Hauxley. The theory was that rotting seaweed would attract insects and thus at high tide lots of birds. One Redshank and five Dunlin was the grand total. A number of people visited the hide while I was there but all left in short order. I wonder if they thought the stink was me................probably was! IF had apparently found some Mandarin duck earlier in the day but Teal and Mallard was all I saw.


The holiday season clearly hasn't ended with father demonstrating how to watch birds from a hide.

Precious. He obviously hasn't yet encountered the dodgy shutter catch present in many of the local hides.

I of course ended up on patch enduring a rain shower, more midge bites and another bright spell before four SEO's appeared in quick succession. They posed for a while then started hunting. I got my usual pastel shots managing to fluff the best opportunity but man on a mission from Wallsend got some better results. Hope the wife enjoyed her beer.

And then there were.....

well it's debatable but probably six or seven. I arrived at 5.00 to find the best vantage point taken by a courting taxi driver and his gal so I set up behind a bush and scanned in the opposite direction to the loving couple. Can't let romance interfere with the birding.

Almost immediately I saw a single Short eared Owl hunting low to the North. It managed about five minutes coming within a hundred yards once before Swallows and then two pesky Crows started mobbing it. The bird did the standard anti Crow manouvere and climbed higher and higher in small tight circles till it was at least 1000 foot up and the Crow was having problems getting the lift so gave up the chase. The bird disappeard from view in the distance but re-appeared hunting again some ten minutes later. This procedure occured twice more until it eventually flew toward me, plunged to the ground and then up and off behind a gate carrying prey. Sortly after I was joined by City Birding.

We watched and the bird (or was it) re-appeared quite a way away and then Dick noticed another bird nearer the wood. This bird was much darker in plumage and both birds hunted intermittently judging by the dives, the success rate seemed quite high. The darker bird then perched by which time there were four or five of us watching.

At 6.50 the sun came out and the light conditions remained perfect for good photography for the next half hour but of course nothing flew and the bird remained on its distant perch.

As the shadows lengthend the sun went down and the light failed up came another bird quite close this being a very pale individual. We watched it hunt for a good ten minutes before it caught and stayed down. Dick, Sandy and Alan drifted off having succumbed to attack by flies and I watched with another photgrapher as all three birds re-appeared and started hunting. I then got calls form both Sandy and Dick from either end of the road that two birds were hunting on the other side and when I crosssed to the spot I should have been viewing form, Alan was watching three, possibly four birds hunting westward in the failing light.

So good numbers of birds present but still no cigar on the photo hunt.

The sky last night

Got in just after 7.00 last night having spent an hour chasing a Redstart up and down a fence line while he caught flies and I got bitten by them. Put some pasta on and settled down with a glass of pain relief looking forward to watching the Sky at Night to find out about the super nova.
I noticed Sandy's car pull up outside and thought about ducking down and not answering the door but I hoped he was going to say exactly what he did. Three Short eared Owls out hunting. I grabbed my gear and fortunately at the last moment remembered to turn the pasta off. The kitchen still hasn't recovered from the last time I got distracted whilst cooking.

Dashed down to the Carr and there they were. Two perched together and one hunting. Spent half an hour watching them as they quartered low over the grass. There was a possibility of a fourth bird but it's hard to keep track as they dive down and come back up. The site record is 14 back in the nineties I it always beats me how anybody could come to such a definative count. The nights though are closing in and even super high ISO couldn't slow the motion but I quite like the pastel effect of the one above.

The Redstart was a nice find as I nearly ignored the 'huit' call thinking Willow Warbler, Then it came up onto a dead tree and flicked its tail as they do and the ID was clinched. Total lack of success thereafter as it led me a merry dance.

Also about four Kestrels, a hundred or so Swallows getting the flies that were getting me and five Wheatear in the horses fields along with a flock of 80 Linnet.

Also found this which I'm not sure whether it's Moth or Insect. Good job Owl ID is easier.

What a haliaetus

Ah the frustrations of patch birding. Having been out early in search of Owls yesterday I had a quick wash and brush up and commenced the toil. My concentration not being so good at the moment I started my third cup of coffee at 10.00 and checked Birdguides. The air became somewhat blue........Osprey Prestwick Carr 9.30. Fffff............

I know I can't stand out there all the time but this is the second I've missed this year and to compound the fact a client rang up about an hour later.

'Did you see the Osprey'

'No' (frustratedly)

'It was great. Flew down from Berwick Hill, up North Road quite low being mobbed then off over Coates School toward Darras'

'Nice. Just passing through on migration' (I consoled myself)

'Oh no. It's been around a few weeks'

'WHATT!'

Absolute despair then puzzlement at where it is feeding as there are no large lakes near here and most of the smaller lakes are pretty well watched. May have been hiding in Blagdon with Lord Ridley or possibly on a day trip from Hallington.

Anyway dear reader you are spared crappy pics of a distant Osprey so here's some of a juvenile Marsh Harrier.

It was hunting in the afternoon last weekend and gave some great views but the weather was on the turn and the deluge commenced (saving Englands cricketers from a humiliating defeat).

It therefore landed twenty meters from the hide in which Vee and myself were joined by GB and DM. Good views through the scope but too much ISO for decent shots although the noise on the top shot is actually rain.


Spectacular bird though and honoured to be given a show.

Just popping out to check the Buzzards for a whitish one.

Ton up

An excellent weekends birding with the added bonus of the PC list hitting a century with Lesser Redpoll and Grey Wagtail. Yesterday also saw three Whinchat and a nice Wheatear along with 40 other species present.

Robins were very noticable setting up winter territories or perhaps just passing through. Chiffchaff were also singing with one noticable absentee being Blackbird. Perhaps the majority of our local birds have moved off south west and the balance won't be regained until the Scandinavian migrants arrive.



Still no daylight owls although I was out sharp this morning only to be told by a dogwalker who feared for his pedigree pooches that three white owls had stalked him down the bumpy road. I checked the area but nothing other than the usual Buzzards and Kestrels on their watch posts . I watched this juvenile Kestrel for half an hour last night with prey that it couldn't quite keep hold of and kept dropping it onto the ground only to retrieve it. I think it was more a case of poor grip and balance rather than the prey still being alive.

And finally a shot of an ever elusive but very vocal juvenile Bullfinch.

Going (South) Cuckoo

I was at home yesterday completeing bird records for August as heavy rain was forecast but it was mid morning and the sun was peaking through the clouds so once again I swore at the weather forecasters. If the bimbos that broadcast it lost an item of clothing every time they got it wrong we'd have the return of topless weather girls within a fortnight!

I digress.

I headed up the coast and found a nice quiet Ponteland hide at Hauxley. Not much doing and unusually no Geese but I could always wait for a Kingfisher whilst watching a pair of Little Grebe and their youngster. After about an hour a movement to my right caught my attention and as I turned there was a Cuckoo flying just feet from the hide. As it passed in front below the window I tried to get to my feet for a shot banging three pieces of equipment in turn on the leaning shelf. The first two (optical) were needed at that moment but the third (semenal) wasn't and hasn't been for a while.

The bird fortunately flew into a small bush and the obligatory record shots were snapped. It stayed a minute and was gone. Africa seems an awful long way from Hauxley.
Just five minutes later a 'chuit' call came from above and a bird flew twice round the larger pool demonstrating a nice white cigar on the back and confirming the call of Spotted Redshank. There being no mud I don't think it landed and probably headed south with the Cuckoo. I checked at Druridge of which more later and Cresswell where the water level is just ridiculous so nothing doing there.

The battle for hunting rights

I have spent the last three evenings and one early morning trying to get another sighting of the Owl but to no avail. Squandering time gazing into the fields not only bemuses the passing cyclists but brings a certain peace along with a better knowledge of the daily cycle of events and the odd bonus.

Currently Prestwick Carr is blessed with a number of Kestrels. Four visible from the same spot is not uncommon which probably means there are twice that number locally. I suspect it is one or two family groups and most are juveniles but I did catch this nice large female on Wednesday.

Two to four Buzzards are also present with one pair spending most of their time hunting up and down one fenceline in the centre. Not exactly the most strenuous form of hunting as they spend a lot of time perched on posts waiting also taking advantage of the electricty poles that run alongside the fence for a higher vantage point. All this suggests the small mammal population must be pretty healthy.

The Wildlife Trust (I presume) gave the Carr a trim cutting diagonal swathes through the rough pasture which from the air probably looks like some rappers hairstyle. The birds immediately took advantage with Crows picking up prey from the freshly cut areas and Magpies on the fringe taking advantage of the bounty. This probably explains all the hunting from perches as I suspect the birds just had to wait for their prey to be driven toward them by the disturbance.

The gathering of birds all looking for the same meal means arguments are pretty common. The yickering of Kestrels is a regular occurance as they argue amongst themselves or harass the Buzzards or are in turn harassed by the Crows. It's a seemingly endless cycle. Last evening I saw a Kestrel glide down from its perch onto prey and carry it to a fence post to eat where it was set upon by a Buzzard who was then immediately challenged by two Crows eventually soaring up high to loose them and back over the woods. I suspect in all of this the luckless prey was dropped either to fight another day or be finished off by the waiting Magpies.

The other benefit of time spent is bonus sightings which saw number 97 on the year list being a male Merlin that flew fast and low over the grassland. I primed the camera as it was about to land when a Kestrel dived down and it carried on its way. A female Sparrowhawk also makes regular passes trying to pick off something from the large Goldfinch flock feeding on the thistles and my spotter Bill reports a juvenile Marsh Harrier through Bellasis on Friday evening.

Frustration with photography has been a common fealing during this period. All that has occured is at a distance that makes it impossible to capture detail images and compounded by the calling of Bullfinches in the hedgerow. There's loads and not one wants to show itself! Deer are easier.