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 !!!!

That was the week that was !!!!!!!!!!!!

Just catching up on whats been happening or not in this case, spent last weekend camping at Wooler, but absolutely lousy weather Bank Holiday Monday at Glendale Show but not my cup of tea, an evening down at the bridge saw several Daubentons Bats but far fewer than I have seen in the past, there is a very large encased pipe that you could walk on across the river and the bats used to whip past you, but alas now its fenced off plenty of Tawny Owls calling for what seemed like most of the night........... one remark heard as a couple packed their gear away at the site which I thought was humorous (posh voice) " Darling where do we keep the Arxe !!!, your bag or mine ".
Called in at Blyth harbour on the way to St Mary's and the erection of more gates and fences, looks like it's turning into area 51, making Winter Gull watching very difficult if not impossible.
Several Roseates on the rocks but well out , a couple of Whimbrel over but rather quiet.
Had five Migrant Hawkers in a small group all hung up within about 10' of each other and 2 on the same branch but in thick cover so all distant shots also Peacocks a few Painted Ladies Red Admirals & Tortoiseshell and a very raggy Wall Brown, on to Cresswell the water level is up again as you probably already know and the strong wind didn't help either , 5 BlackTailed Godwits, 2 Bar tailed , Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank & several Dunlin dropped onto the sandbank but all left very quickly, what looked like Little Stint up at the far end still on the main pond but right of that small mound with the channel behind, it stayed there even when everything else flushed .

Cresswell Butterflies 25-8-09

Tuesday was a much warmer day and a lot more Butterflies around one small area I stopped at on the way Cresswell had 25 Painted Ladies, 8 Peacock, 10 Wall Brown & a few Tortoiseshell, but no Hawkers which was what I was hoping for, ST's blog had many more Butterflies on this day.
Cresswell still had the Semi-P now settled on the pond with a fantastic showing of waders including 30 Black tailed Godwits, Wood Sandpiper & 3 Curlew Sandpiper, the hide getting rather busy now .

On The Buses 19-7-09

Another slightly of topic post, just to show there are other things than birding, well when its quiet anyway .
Sunday the bikes came out and it was off pedalling to Whitley Bay via the coast path , 8 Painted Ladies in one small stretch & 5 Whimbrel South, tide in at St Mary's so we went past straight to the car park where there was a Bus Rally loads of old buses beutifully turned out but these wernt just to look at you could get a free ride on just about the whole lot so we qued wanting to get an open top bus but alas we ended up on an old London Decker, straight upstair nostalgic memories coming flooding back as a kid you went for the front seats which actually had kids in already , so having got seated the bus pulled off with a start, throwing you back in the seat, it was OK at first but the lack of air and the sun bleaching in through the large glass it soon lost its appeal , and going around a sharp bend I thought it was going to tip over , actually thats what we used to do as kids all pile into one corner to try and make it tip a bit more , but not so good when your middle aged.
The tide dropping I peeled off to have a look at the rocks, Common, Sandwich & a few Arctic Terns with Golden Plover coming in many still in some summer dress, worth a look at over the next couple of weeks for Roseate Terns , or Juv Med Gull (tell me if you do ) got back home it was time for a bottle of red in the garden looking at how high the weeds are growing from the comfort of a lounger, canny day out in the end.
I forgot to get a photo of a new bus it had an advert on the back "get a weekly ticket for the price of a tank of petrol " am I missing something here !!!!!!!

St Mary's Island and beyond from the cliffs

Whitley Bay and beyond from the prom

cute or what !!!! you can just imagine a group of birders pilling out of here on Holy Island , all kitted out with the latest optics, surplus from ww11 probably

Bus logo or is it livery ?

I have know idea what these are, much like my posts in general, but you can still enjoy them .

It's not easy trying to get a shot without someone in it

They used to run a n old bus on Scillies , remember getting it back to town one day.

Aidensfield ...... Not sure if this is from the TV or not !!

Everyone wanted to get on this old bus.

More Dragonflies 30-06-09

This is 2" long , wing cases on the top & the jaw that shoots out is just below the eyes,with the exit hole just before the wings

Another run around the ponds looking for Dragonflies found 6 Emperors, 3 Four Spot Chasers, and only one Common Darter , 8 Painted ladies,3 Red Admirals, numerous Ringlets and Meadow Browns, I found a few Exuviae, the case left behind when Dragonflies emerge from their larval stage ,one which I think is from an Emperor was too far out, but having stepped in "something " earlier I decided to wade in and get it new trainers or not Ringlet more and more every day

Ruddy Darter

Female Emperor egg laying , I have seen this many times the eggs are not visible in these shots , they look like small yellow flat discs. Here being mobbed they kept grabbing at the wings from behind

Coming in from behind to grab the wing

I found this case, fairly sure its from a flown Emperor

This is another from a Damselfly possibly, difficult to get a size as they are always out of reach

Four Spot Chaser

Another Four Spot Chaser

23-6-09 Northumberland Coast

What a fabulous day weather wise spent the day up the coast started at Snab point a couple of Harbour Porpoise, Cresswell, then to Druridge and walked through to Ladyburn lake more Butterflies about ,Common Blue, a few Painted Lady, Meadow Brown, 14 Little Gulls at East Chevington and 6 1st Summer Arctic terns, its looking good here I like to just sit and scan through them. they lift and settle, so its scan again, there must be a marsh tern here soon,checked the sea from the dunes a few Manx north, and three groups of Scoter the nearest one had 60 and another looked to be over 100, Auks everywhere, back at Druridge and checked the bay looking for Porpoise in the calm sea, 2 Red throated Divers, a great Northern Diver, Puffins close in , a group of 11 Manx very close in, looking fantastic in the early evening light a few more all moving North and numerous Gannets feeding ,nothing unusual in the day just a good day out ,no coat no fleece, just a decent hat.



Stonechat Cresswell

Cinnabar Moth

I think this is Hemlock Water Dropwort

Common Centaury

I have seen these moths many times , forgot the name for now will have to look it up later.

Druridge Pecker's in the form of Starlings

For non locals the view north to Amble at high tide

Ladyburn Lake to the rear

and the view South


While on the dunes at Druridge this Spider caught my eye. when I touched the grass stem it lay along its length the colour blending perfectly legs held forward to completely hide its profile, which I could not get a photo of