On Tour - Northumberland - Part 3 The Farne Islands

We booked on to a boat to the Farnes for the afternoon. The Farnes Islands at this time of year are just fantastic, being dive bombed by Arctic Terns and getting close and personal with a whole variety of sea birds and of course the enigmatic Puffin, there can't be a better place to be in the world to get so close to the birds.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.......

On Tour - Northumberland - Part 2

We called in at a number of reserves on the coast south of Amble on the Tuesday, my favourite reserve though at Hauxley was closed because of major refurbishment works, opening again today (24th) I believe, sad to have missed it, we will have to wait until our next visit to the North East.

So we started at Druridge Pools, (Northumberland Wildlife Trust) visiting both hides and the screen, with the undoubted start being the Spoonbill,

there was plenty of other birds about of course, plenty of Shelduck with ducklings.

 A pair of Swallows had a nest in one one of the hides, we were as quiet and still as possible and they got used to us, not before giving us an angry look from just outside the door though.

 Plenty of Tufted Duck about

 as well as of course Black-headed Gulls,

 and a flock of about 8 Black-tailed Godwit.

 Not many Lapwings, but one patent with a youngster

Also seen at Druridge, Curlew, Teal, Gadwall, Kestrel,Coot, Moorhen, House Martin, Swift, Shoveler, Canada & Greylag Geese, Great Crested Grebe, Redshank and Mute Swan.

From Druridge we drove the 5 minutes down to Cresswell Pond, again NWT, the start here were 5 Little Gulls resting up on the scrape,

and a couple of Tree Sparrows sunning themselves,

There were a few Avocets along with chicks, but mainly right over the other side of the Pond, not good for a any photography. One little start was a male Reed Bunting singing his head off to the right of the hide,

there were a couple of females about, but they weren't interested.

In addition at Creswell; Shelduck, Tufted Duck, Cormorant, Little Egret, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Redshank, Sedge Warbler, plus the Hirudines, Corvids and Gulls.
We stayed a while before driving to the Ice-cream shop in Cresswell Village, purchasing said Ice-creams and sitting on a bench overlooking the sea, just in case any dolphins passed by. (Happened to us a few years ago!) But not this time.

Time to head north again, this time stopping at East Chevington (NWT) for Marsh Harriers and aq late afternoon cup of tea. No sooner had we made the tea when,

a male Marsh Harrier came through bringing something back to the nest, a great end to a quiality days birding!

On Tour - Northumberland - Part 1

We have recently returned from a week in Northumberland, staying in Seahouses as it's handy for the boats to the Farne Islands. I know this sounds mad but we went to Seahouses via Edinburgh from the West Midlands, but all will be revealed!

Our daughter lived in Edinburgh and her partner was away on business for a couple of weeks, so we went a day early stayed over and took her with us a good plan where much alcohol was consumed and a good time had by all, before we took her up to Berwick on the Sunday to get the train back.

We didn't want to burden Jen with birding, but we did do a walk from Craster to Dunstanburgh with her and picked up a few feathered friends along the way, the biggest surprise was what at first I thought was a Sparrowhawk flying near us, turned out to be a Cuckoo, wasn't quick enough to get the camera on it though.

Birding highlights of the walk, Shelduck,

 Fulmar,

 Kestrel,

 Kittiwakes,

 and Razirbills.

In addition, Skylark, Linnet, Shag, Kittiwake, Starling and Swallows were seen.

After a great evening on the Saturday at a particularly good seafood restaurant in Bamburgh we took Jen to the station on the Sunday, then paid a visit to St Abbs Head, back over the border in Scotland. A lovely walk with a surprise as we set out....

 Great views,

 plus plenty of Guillemots and Razorbills.

Upton Warren early June

Due to a trip to Scotland and Northumberland and a lot of other things going on, I haven't had chance to do a post about a visit we made to Upton Warren NR back on the 3rd. So as my memory isn't what it was, I will keep it brief and just post a few pics, the primary goal was to see the Avocet chicks as we know that we probably won't get many chances to get to Upton before they are all grown up, but we start with some Canada Geese,

 Now the Avocets,

 some youngsters are almost fully grown,

 but there is still some squabbling among the adults,

 a few Lapwing showed well,

 as did the Little Ringed Plovers

 as did the one LRP chick (although sad to say from reserve reports I don't think it made it)

A very young Avocet,

Jackdaw,

 Little Grebe,

 and a Willow Warbler

A loveley afternoon as usual.

Looking Up in Trafalgar Square

After a busy afternoon of theatre going and even a museum visit, we found ourselves in Trafalgar Square, where we spotted a Peregrine Falcon zoom into the square and disappear into a recess at the top of Nelson's Column. We parked ourselves for a while on a nice bench in the sun with a good view of the top of the column but the Peregrine didn't come out again while we were there. So we assume that it is nesting up there, a good spot on a cultural day out, quickly followed by a fly through of a Ring-necked Parakeet, I know they are now quite common in London, but a first for the year none the less.

No photos with this post as my camera was safely tucked away in B64!