Morpeth Circular Walk 1-4-11

Friday and its the 1st of April went up to Morpeth for a walk west along the river, passing through Carlisle Park over to the river then along to Scotts Gill woods back over towards Morpeth in a sort of circle.

near the Castle a a pair of nuthatch checking out a  tree hole Chiffs in good numbers thought I might get a Willow Warbler  but no , 2 grey wagtails near the stepping stones, Goldcrests calling but not seen , a pair of Goosander near the old bridge  and another  Grey wagtail, found the flowers I was looking for  in the woods, more Chiffs ,Wrens chasing each other around and singing frantically , had a look around the ruins of Newminster Abbey very overgrown area but they seem to be cutting back the ivy etc: I like  Morpeth it has some great walks in nearly every direction, talking to a dog walker he told me of a good site for Green Woodpecker which I will have to check out , I always find them a hard bird to get good views of !!!

 Toothwort pushing up through the leaf litter

 Wood Sorrell

 Butterburr all along the sandy river banks

 leaves bursting forth

 Yellow-star of Bethlehem, thanks to Nigel of  Abbey Meadows  blog for this one.

Sepals are as long as the petals

Some nice old trees around this one is hollow will check it out sometime for Bats

Cresswell 31-3-11

31-3-11 Another trip to Cresswell  it was not too bad when I left home but Cresswell was wild a West wind that nearly took you off your feet , viewed the pond from the path up by the farm sheltered from the wind but  with the nice warmth of the sun, American Wigeon still on show ,ended up down at the hide the water with plenty of white tops a nice rainbow over the farm at Hemscott. A total of 3 Med Gulls in with the Black-headed's ,the American Wigeon as did all the Wigeon moved from the grassy bank to the pond and back again, the hide was getting a bit of a battering with the wind so I decided to head home but 2 Sandwich terns dropped in on the spit gave me another year tick. 

Rainbow from the hide cresswell

 Keeping low with the strong wind ,feeding as they lay down.

 Choppy waters

Heading back to the bank where it walked out and fed again

Killingworth Lake-Whooper !

Called at Killingworth Lake  on Tuesday 29-3-11 only the one male Goosander present about 60 Tufted Duck ,2 Great Crested grebe, a few Pochard my first lesser Black-backs of the year and still around was the Whooper Swan,I had scanned for it on arrival but thought it had gone walking the roadside path there it was just near the edge ,it seems to have a hint of juvenile plumage on its  back  I wonder if it is a youngster that strayed from the rest and just settled here ,it does have a ring on which I managed to get a photo of unfortunately just the section with the BTO address if anyone has further details I would be interested, no sign of any Goldeneye today usually a good spot for them . (Apparently the Whooper Swan was ringed at Killingworth  in January this year, thanks to Ian fisher for the information)  

Cresswell pond 28/3/11

Stopped off at Woodhorn area to look for the Greenland White-fronts which were in a field with Pinkfeet & Greylag  ,5 birds and also a European one took a few photos they seemed settled here with plenty of eyes to watch out as they feed about 12-15 Pinkfeet in with the flock.

Cresswell the next stop, American Wigeon  picked out near the pool edge although distant, about 120 Pinkfeet in the field next to the hide and a single Brent Goose with them , a pair of Mergansers on the pond the male with bouts of display as where some of the Goldeneye only 2 Snipe noted they are thin on the ground these days, not seen any Otters around for some time either, used to be seen regular here. A Heron took an Eel by the sand bank and after making very sure it was dead swallowed it actually swallowed it about three times as it kept coming back up ,it then spent a great deal of time trying to clean its bill in the water and a couple of times pushing it in the sand. very pleasant day adding some decent birds to my Birder on the Bus list. 

 Greenland White-fronts Woodhorn area

Eurasian White-front Woodhorn area. 1st Winter?

 American Wigeon Cresswell pond

Single Brent in with the Pinkfeet Cresswell pond a bit hazy looking into the light although the American Wigeon came onto the grass much nearer the haze was to strong.

 With many determined pecks and a few spearings the prey succumbed sort of ! when you watch Otters eat them they do it with such ease.

 Cresswell Pond looking West the Wigeon flock is just left of the fence

Cresswell Pond looking onto the sand bank, road and dunes beyond

Bird Twitter

I was out one day on the bike just with my bins I stopped to look in some treetops a guy asked me if I was a "Bird Twitter ", which I had to smile at he must have meant Twitcher as anyone with bins is one according to the press etc:, even heard the term used in historic TV dramas long before the term was actually coined ,I have no idea when this was nor even care, but as this chap told me of all the rare birds he had seen in the area  I kept looking into the trees , "are you listening " he asks yes I said trying not to laugh at the phrase "Bird Twitter" going through my head. Lately I have given it some thought perhaps this guy was more hip than I  thought ,what is Twitter I hear the term a lot , also facebook and a host of other sites , I used to think I was keeping up with new innovations etc., but reality is I do not have a clue about this rapidly moving world of the social nitwork . Years ago I had to make the decision to either buy a Betamax or VHS recorder  ( these where an electrical device to record from your TV onto magnetic tapes ) I paid about £480 for a Betamax thought to be the better quality format go figure !! , So perhaps I will wait and see what happens to Twitter and the rest  before I look any further, in the mean time does anyone want to buy a Betamax Video recorder I 'm sure there is also some original tapes probably with some episodes of  programmes long forgotten  !!!!!