March just ticks over..................

This week I can't remember just where I have been I did go to St Mary's on the bike a couple of times and also back to Druridge Bay ,most of the duck on the fields south of the track, still plenty Teal and several Shoveller 30 odd Tufted and a very large Otter spooked everything it went onto the small island for a second or two ,back into the water and disappeared, it was good to see Teal so close to the Oddie hide unfortunately your looking into the light ,no sign of any Geese ,and no sign of any Twite only 3 Red Throated Divers on the sea and a few Wigeon ,with 1 Stonchat on the fence of the dunes, Cresswell had 8-10 Tree Sparrow down the track to the hide the water level having dropped exposing the sand bank, and attracting Curlew Redshank & Lapwing .

Thursday I came across some Newt fencing , not the most attractive stuff I have seen about 1 mtr high used to confine in this case Great Crested Newt or other creatures, also used to confine prior to moving snakes etc, from a site due to be developed, not something I have seen before , but obviously a search on the net shows it is very commonly used , I remember the days when Newts where very common and could be found in most ponds , or is my memory wrong and they were even then on the decline.

I had to go to Cramlington so I called in at West Hartford 40 plus Teal and a couple of Gadwall with a dozen Oystercatchers, I took a detour to get to the water without spooking eveything only to have a Heron fly low over the water lifting the lot and they all settled out of sight , no small birds of any sort here this day , but it does have the potential for anything to drop in , I wonder what its lifespan will be as development can not be far away !!!!