Dragons & Terns....8-7-10

Thursday the 8th I again started the day looking for Dragons called at Summerhill lane pond , teneral Emerald , Four Spot Chaser keeping in shelter and out of the wind , a Black tailed Skimmer down on the road as was 4 Tortoiseshell .

Cresswell only had a Common Sandpiper but I did not go into the hide to check the sand bar, Druridge at the screen end my first Common Darter of the year .

East Chevington checked out the north pool numerous Terns collecting now , my first Common Tern juveniles, a single Little Tern and two colour ringed Arctic Terns both standing in water so not sure If I got the combos right they could be off an old scheme, will try and get some gen, apart from a few Dunlin with a couple of juveniles also that was about it.

Common Darter.........imm male would be my guess
More Five Spot Burnett's but still not in large numbers
Stoat checking the verge for Rabbits that had just been out sunning themselves

Four Spot Chaser

Sunny Days.........30-6-10

Not much new for me in the past few days spent a day along the coast Dragonfly activity was minimal checked a few sites which all takes time, Emperors at every location but always on the wing & 4 Black Tailed Skimmers at Woodhorn stopped on the way past QE2 lake single Common Sandpiper on to Cresswell & Druridge then ended up at East Chevington took my seat ,scope & tripod down to the south hide and was going to sit there for a few hours , just a single Roseate , amongst the Terns & 5-6 1st Summer Arctic, single wader in the form of Summer Dunlin, as I sat waiting for birds to drop in I could feel my eye & head pressing into the scope eyepiece , cripes !!! I was falling asleep shook myself and tried again but after a few more minutes I was nodding off again............. so if that Bridled Tern had dropped back in or anything else for that matter,I would have missed it

Betony
Black tailed Skimmer

My first Ringlet of the year but I saw many by the end of the day
Five Spot Burnett Moth only a couple but I'm sure by now there will be many

My(not very exciting) Week Birding

My week Birding is summed up very briefly , a run to Holywell sat frozen in the hide nothing special around as was a run to Cresswell checking a few spots both on the run up and back , the level dropping slowly attracting small roost of waders and about 100 lapwings, still no information re: the colour ringed bird from last year actually one of two , great Crested Grebes still around and 1/2 dozen Goldeneye, a few Yellowhammers with Reed Buntings in the corner garden which has had most of the bushes etc ripped out for a new fence, sure there is plenty of Wigeon around ,also Teal & Tufted, Pinkfeet numbers still high ,but boy was it dull .

Thurday and I had to go up to Morpeth so later I had a walk along the river then up into Borough Woods towards Mitford just for the walk , as expected a couple of small flocks of Tits, numerous Nuthatch, 3 Great Spotted, Jays four and one in a horse field , not a bad little walk along here plenty of open areas and other paths to take to make the route more circular .

Goosanders on the river still but again light a bit dull , its still odd to see them coming for bread ,walked back into town and through the new Sanderson Arcade , reminded me of the arcade at Newcastle , I think that was called Sanderson as well ,they pulled that down to build Eldon something or other ,(Garden ) ???

Three small flocks of Long Tailed Tits

Common they may be !!! but try and get near them

Craster, Budle ,Stag, Long Nanny

A few days up the coast last week ,the weather was fine but the birding quiet, still a brood of Swallows at the campsite which also held a roost of Pied Wagtails with at least 60 coming to roost in a tree in the middle of the park,plenty of Buzzards around, with Tawnies calling at dusk a set a side field that I thought would be good for Short Eareds was now ploughed over, a small pond nearby had an Emperor and Common Darter but these the only Dragons I saw despite the fine weather.

Cycled along to the Long Nanny which had a huge Gull roost and about 80 Curlew by the stream Newton Pool water level up with absolutely nothing on , Common Porpoise seen from several locations.

A near summer Red Necked Grebe off Stag Rocks and about 100 Linnets in a crop of peas with a Merlin trying to catch one , Monks House Pool a single knot, 30 Snipe 40 + Teal, Budle easily a 1000 Black Headed, with also an adult Med Gull the furthest north in the county for me , 2 Greenshanks 40 Bar Tailed & 30 Dunlin near the road with a strong heat haze affecting the distant views, Craster near the harbour lots & loots of Butterflies on Red Valerium was hoping for a Humming Bird Hawkmoth, but not this year, plenty of Silver Y's.

Still a very pleasant few days in a fantastic area.

Only one left on the nest by the last day

Red Necked Grebe off Stag Rocks

Digiscoped shots from the rocks

Little Egret Budle it's been here for awhile now

Some early evening shots from near the castle

Dunstanburgh from the fields a small pond here with Mallards & Greylags

Silver Y

The Castle from Craster harbour

Not had time to look this up yet it had a curious flight

A Rook end !!!!

SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 19-08-09

Wdnesday 19th the only shot I got showing palmations as it walked on the beach

There is nothing like the report of a bird on the pager whose name is in capital letters, so I went up to Cresswell got to the north end not a sole in sight so I checked the pool and the first bird I saw looked like a good candidate, no expert by any means on waders although I do have a interest in them .

The more I looked at it the more I thought this is the bird I saw on Monday of which I tried to get some digi shots of , and these still in the camera as I have had computer problems again ,anyway there was a report of Little Stint on Monday that had been seen from the hide but this bird at the top pool thought by me and others to be it , all I can say is at the time I thought its not the smallest Little Stint Iv'e seen and rather long legged , very difficult to digiscope in the strong wind, and I did not give it much thought after that.

Here are photos of Monday & today, there must be some cracking images of this bird given the crowd of today.

Monday 17th the best digiscoped shot although the head would be behind something but you can still make out the bill.

Monday 17th

Wednesday 19th on the beach when it looked like a totally different bird

back on the pool

strong wind not helping in digiscoping

A couple of grabs in flight

Dragons again 22-7-09

Wednesday was a brighter day so I headed again for jimmy's Pond but I checked out the pond from Tuesday pulling in a layby and walking back a bit there it was just yards from a path, but at the side that has no access , still its worth a look now and then , the land looks earmarked for building but there was someone cropping the hay.
The sun came and went plenty of Common Blue Damselflies and Blue -tailed, masses of Butterflies, with the odd Painted Lady, and a few Small Tortoiseshell, but the actual pond had very little it took about an hour before anything showed being a single Red-veined Darter, then Black-tailed Skimmer followed by another this time they alighted on the rushes but only very briefly and would fly off and disappear for ages I was going to leave a couple of times but it brightened up but still nothing more showed.
Cresswell, 30+ Lapwing and a couple of Dunlin,Druridge Pools only had a single Common Sandpiper and the Mute Swans with cygnets which still seem very small, so I thought to try East Chev, at least I could check out the Terns south end of the north pool, but I forgot about the amount of rain we have had so the pool had no dry area several terns plunge bathing including a single Roseate, Common Sandpiper also here.
I think this a Ruddy darter

Red-veined Darter, only this one which showed briefly

Black-tailed Skimmer, at least resting on the stems, albeit very briefly

This caught my eye at first I thought it was just something caught up

but looking closer could see this spider inside, there is something else but can't make it out. I have increased the shadow to make it stand out better

It seems to mantling something, the nearest I can get is Comb Spider??? with egg sac??

Common Sandpiper