21-24th November 2013, A lovely few days in Northumberland

We enjoyed a brilliant few days with our friends John and Karen last year in Northumberland. The choice of destination for this year was easy, same place! Last year we had wonderful weather and some superb sightings of wildlife, lovely strolls on deserted beaches and some grand evenings in a comfortable cottage.

The evenings and the cottage could be relied on, the rest was down to fortune. We left Yorkshire on a very damp Thursday, flooded roads and a closure on the A1 meant detours and a slow journey to Warkworth, a few miles north of Newcastle. We arrived eventually and got settled in for the evening, John and Karen arrived too and we spent a very pleasant few hours discussing our plans and studying an ever improving weather forecast.

Friday morning and we were at Low Hauxley Nature Reserve in good time, the breeze was cool but the sky was bright and a mute swan sailed by on the large pond.

Wigeon were plentiful as we strolled around the reserve..

We had a while in a hide that looks over some habitat designed to attract all manner of wildlife..
a female pheasant strolled past...

A robin sang merrily...

Tree sparrows and blue tits were abundant...

A dunnock appeared...

A male pheasant unsurprisingly followed in the footsteps of the female...

And a goldfinch showed briefly...

We wandered down onto the beach, rather bracing but extremely pleasant...and a heron stalked the shallows...

Apart from a redshank which was rather distant there wasn't anything else about...

Back up in the reserve I was extremely fortunate when a little grebe appeared at close range for the camera....

 

 

We weren't sure of the identity of these but a friend confirmed them as female long tailed ducks, rather long distance shot..

 

 

 

 

We found a female chaffinch..

 



 

 

Some young swans came close by the large pond...

 



 

 

And eventually the sun went down on a grand day..

 



 

Another evening of fine food, an odd glass of wine or two and some planning ensued, Druridge Country Park and East Chevington Nature Reserve were our chosen destinations for Saturday.

 

 

The weather forecast was not as good and it rained early on, by the time we were getting out of the car it was dry though. The cold did not matter, we were well wrapped in plenty of layers of gear.

 

 

The first sighting was another female long tailed duck...

 



 

A rather long distance goldeneye...

 

 

 A large flock of geese flew overhead...

 

 

A chirpy robin sang for us...

 

 

Black headed gulls in non breeding plumage were numerous...

 

 

 

 Out at sea what was probably a black throated diver paddled and dived...

 

 

A female common scoter came in a bit closer...

 

 

 

 Delightful sanderlings marched up and down the beach...

 

 

 Another great day and the forecast for the following Sunday was encouraging enough for us all to decided to spend another half day of wildlife searching before our respective journeys home.

 

It was such an ordeal to consume more great food and wine, honestly!!!

 

We made our way a short distance to the south to Cresswell Nature Reserve, conveniently on the way home and well worth a visit.

 

On the way we stopped by the river Coquet in Warkworth, cormorants amazingly low in the water were hunting.

 

 

 An immature male eider sailed near...

 

 

 And of course, my ever present heron :-)

 

 

 Down at Cresswell the scrubland around the reserve produced sightings of male and female stonechat.

 

 

 

A pied wagtail fluttered around...

Redshank were in neighbouring fields..

Birds seen and identified here, not just by us but some knowledgeable locals too included black necked grebe, red breasted mergansers, teal, widgeon, lapwing and kestrel, all sadly too distant for the camera except lapwing which wheeled overhead.

 One last walk on the beach and the marching and comical sanderling...

 

And then sadly time for home, our goodbyes with John and Karen are as warm as our welcomes, such good friends are we all that we know there will be another time.

May it be as glorious as all the others, cheers mates!

 

Many thanks to all who look, don't forget if you do add a comment they come to me first for moderation.

 



16-18th November 2013, More short walks but plenty to enjoy

 

Still limited to short walks near home at the moment but at least the weather was kind over the weekend. I decided to have a walk around my home valley of Airedale on Saturday and it was a great delight to find some fieldfares back and feeding, they are still very nervous but will become easier to approach as they stay longer.

 



 

This wonderful oak tree is a fixture (literally) on my walks around here...

 



 

 

Robins are becoming very prominent with their cheerful songs ringing out from fences, trees and buildings...

 





A look westwards up the valley provided some lovely colours...

A rabbit basked in the sunshine, though it wasn't very warm!

Goldfinches are another very visible bird at the moment, often in groups though this one seemed happy enough with its own company.

Heading out to the east of Silsden I found a chaffinch posing...

A juvenile swan went all bashful on me :-)

Leaving the canal towpath I used a lovely little lane to return to town, the trees and bushes that surround the lane often yield good bird sightings. Today I could see large groups of long tailed tits, feeding and moving around almost non stop, I had time enough in hand to wait a while, and a while longer and still more! Eventually I found one willing to stay still long enough for me to get a decent photograph..

I didn't have a lot of time on Sunday but managed another canal walk, the light was dreadful but it was dry and a little warmer.

My first sighting was a robin perched on a fence...

The chattering, rattling alarm call of a wren alerted me and I paused by the tree from which the noise emanated. I focused the camera lens on the area where the noise seemed to be and waited, sure enough eventually a wren emerged into a clear view for me.

And a bonus too as its mate emerged too...

With a little time for another short wander on Monday I decided on Rombalds Moor as my destination, straight away a red grouse on a wall top although the sun was in the wrong place to capture the colours well.

The views up Wharfedale were beautiful...

Another grouse offered a better angle...

Up the valley and towards Lancashire the skies were dramatic...

And finally as we relaxed in the evening a lovely moon shone brightly...

As always, many thanks to all who read and comment, don't forget the comments come to me first for approval. Many thanks to new reader Tom who has corrected some of my uninformed though enthusiastic identifications of insects and dragonflies, I continue to learn :-))