The waiting game

With buds ready but not bursting the trees await some warmer weather to produce leaf allowing easy counting of the many Rookeries in the area. Most nests appear complete with pairs just biding their time till spring finally sprungs. 

This male Tree Sparrow has been singing next to this hollow tree for the last two weeks so appears to have decided this is his pad which may upset the Willow Tit pair who bred successfully there last year. The Blue Tits in my garden are busy seeing off all other blue types and had a go at a pair of Willow Tits who visited briefly yesterday. It looks like kitchen nest box No1 is the choice of their abode for the third year running.

On the Carr this chap is notable for his solitude as the flock seems to have dispersed but I keep flushing him from the roadside although this is the first time in six I've managed to get a pic. Meanwhile the Curlews have finally started to arrive about one - two weeks late although one or two never really departed as the sodden ground remains. Fingers crossed it looks ideal for Spring wader passage.

Ups and downs

Busy week at work, busy week in the garden. As with most gardens this winter Siskins are a regular visitor and nice to see a pair hopefully ready for the season,

After a barren five years Tree Sparrows have returned to my garden peaking at seven with hopefully more to come. But then there is poor Robin

First noted about a month ago in my garden I thought it had a plumage aberration but being very skulking and chased by the other birds I never got a good view. On Sunday it finally came into the open but wasn't flying very well at all. The picture shows a disease, probably fungal, that has removed all head feathers leaving the skull exposed and the eyes restricted. On Monday I found the bird dead looking like it had been attacked by others and I suppose thankfully its suffering had been ended.

Paired in waiting

Early morning Jackdaws all perched in pairs ready for the day and the months ahead. The two at top right must have had a tiff.

Sundays webs count was in two halves. Well it normally is, the first part from Redheugh to Scotswood Bridge carried out in clear cold weather with Shelduck present in good numbers but Lapwing and Plover noticeable by their absence. Then, as I was counting the Herring Gull  colony on the roof of Roll Royce Engines the greyness that had been creeping up from the east turned into a white out. I retreated to the car and nipped up the road for a paper and pie. The next three quarters of an hour were spent reading the paper and watching the snow. Then, just as it came, it cleared and part two from Scotswood to Newburn was commenced. Very timely although quite a bit of snow had fallen the final roost of gulls at Newburn Riverside was counted in bright sun but with the ever present risk of snow the camera remained in the car.

The thwack of willow on Hawthorn

I'm lucky to have one of the rarer Northumbrian species as a regular on my patch. The Willow Tit is a declining species but seems to be doing well locally having bred consistently over the last ten years. Some confusion may be involved with the Marsh Tit whose stronghold is the area in the Wansbeck valley west of Morpeth. I had a discussion recently with a follower of this blog from Whitley Bay who had some doubts on ID especially after an encounter further north. Basically, the Willow Tit has a mat cap whilst the Marsh Tit is glossy. Regular sightings make the difference obvious as the cap of the Willow perches on the head rather than the Marsh which is more round but the best ID is the call. Willow Tit offers frequent contact calls but often re-inforced by the warning chur, normally threefold.

Marsh Tit gives a distinct per-chow call which I hope Richard may have on his records.

Road to nowhere

A week battling with my browser finally saw me give in and install Chrome which allows me seamless access to my blog so now I can unleash the frustrations of the previous few days. Saturday saw me travel up county looking for big birds displaying but all I got was windmills. Bemoaning  the visual destruction of a beautiful part of the world I carried on to Harwood.

This is how it should be. The view from Winters Gibbet although some bird action would have been nice. Not even a Crossbill to enliven the day and old winters head is still missing with a sorry homemade dummy in its place.

Yesterday it was another trip, this time on business but Druridge is almost on the way to West Thirston isn't it. Wellies on to negotiate the most useless (not to mention dangerous) piece of boardwalk in the area.

Then distant views of the Redhead on the southern pools. A Short eared Owl also put in an appearance but the cold eventually got to me and I returned home for a bacon sarnie. Now today they tell us more than one rasher of bacon a day is harmful. Precisely which planet are these people on..........thus far I've survived salmonella in eggs, CJD in beef, e-coli in beansprouts, horsemeat in burgers (not to mention whatever the employees of fast food outlets add for a joke) all washed down with anti-freeze laden wine so I think I'll take my chances with the mixed grill please.

Going grey

 

Taking time off from my scare crow duties I found a bird going grey just like me. Unfortunately in my case it is a decline in virility and in his an increase as breeding nears.

Cormorants are getting more common on patch with these four over flying my house on Saturday last. Probably Big Waters birds heading out to the new fishing ponds that have been created north of Ponteland.



I bet the anglers are pleased as the birds are dab hands at fishing!

let me in

After two days without internet access I got back on line only to find Google re-directing me in circles so I've resorted to the phone.

Finally caught up with the Glaucous Gull at Shields on Monday but after a couple of shots from the High Lights I descended to the Quayside and of course it had gone.