25th May.
An evening in the sun at Prestwick Carr brought us some good warblers
and a very pleasant walk, but our patience was best rewarded by the stunning
sight of a male Redstart back lit by
the sun.
26th May.
The offer of a lift up to Druridge
Country Park
allowed Sam and me to spend the day in the area and walk down to Creswell Village.
With a few diversions along the way we must have walked quite a
distance, but we were well rewarded for that and not only by bird species,
although they were good. The area is much more than just being about
birds. The sun shone much of the time
and there was just enough breeze to keep us cool.
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Starting at the country park, as we walked to the hide we
heard Little Grebe calling and Common Whitethroats and Willow Warblers singing. It was however the butterflies, mainly Green Veined Whites, damselflies and
other insects which initially caught our attention. Once into the hide and looking south over
East Chevington North Pool we were soon counting Little Gulls. Later in the
day we bumped into a couple of guys who informed us they had watched two Little Gulls at East
Chevington. We assured them
that there were far more than that whilst we watched.
Green-veined White Butterfly
A Little Egret
moved slowly down the west side of the pool and a Great Crested Grebe was
found sitting on a nest. Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns were all present. We had better sightings of many of the birds
once we had moved to the hides on the east side of the pool and it was from
there that we counted at least ten/eleven Little
Gulls, some of them on the rocks near the island and others in flight
across the northern end of the pool.
Very attractive gulls. Also to be
seen here were Cormorants, Grey Heron,
Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, Canada
Geese, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted
Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Oystercatcher and other gull species.
As we moved south along by the reed bed there seemed to be
ever increasing frantic song from Sedge
Warblers with the occasional Reed
Warbler being heard and seen. Reed Buntings were everywhere today as
was the song of Skylark, Meadow Pipit
and warblers including Grasshopper
Warbler towards the north east end of the pool. A Song
Thrush was not to be out done and sang briefly. Swallows,
House Martins were numerous and occasional Swifts were seen. We didn’t
find Sand Martins.
The dune areas were beginning to look colourful, although
I’d spoken on arrival with a guy out for the day to take botanical photographs
and he advised that plant life would be at their best in about a month’s time. We were happy to settle today for the masses
of Cowslip and the newly flowering Bloody Cranesbill (Northumberland’s county
flower I believe) along with an assortment of other plants. It also seemed that Wall Brown Butterflies had newly emerged as they were flighty and
numerous. So flighty in fact that photographs were impossible. Without doubt Green-veined White Butterfly
was the most numerous today. Once we had
walked past South Pool and down to the mouth of the burn we walked back into
the dunes and watched a very calm sea for a short time. Cloud patterns forever changing meant that in
turn the light patterns along the stretch of sand and dune did likewise. Both Red-throated
Diver and a surprising Great
Northern Diver were quickly spotted.
Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannet and Eider Duck were also seen. We took careful note of the now fully fenced
off area, but found nothing there or nearby, in fact only one Ringed Plover was seen on the beach near to the tide line. One of the top sightings of the day was when
two Whimbrel landed on the beach
almost directly in front of us. They
remained there for a short time before flying off to the north. We stopped in the area between dunes and
footpath for our lunch were we found comfortable logs to sit on and we spent
more time watching a stunning pair of Stonechats
than what we spent eating. Skylarks showed well here too, and then
I got my eye on a female Marsh Harrier
which showed very briefly over the reed-bed before dropping again. Minutes later a male Marsh Harrier gave a much better showing as its unmistakeable
flight pattern was watched for a couple of minutes. A Grey
Heron was found in the spot where we are now used to finding it.
We eventually made off in the direction of Druridge Pools
and on arrival here it wasn’t long before we were rewarded with a pair of Garganey and it was in this area that
Sam found a Lizard that disappeared
before I could get my eye on it. The Garganey were the star attraction here,
but there were also plenty of Shelduck
and Shoveller present. Also on the pools were Mute Swan, Greylag Geese, Mallard,
Gadwall, Teal and Tufted Duck and we saw plenty of
cygnets and goslings today. Lapwing and Redshank were also both present.
Tree Sparrow was seen here
too.
Lapwing
Lapwing
Another walk through the dunes and look across the sea
brought us a Great Crested Grebe on the sea well off shore. It was time now to make for Cresswell. It was a relaxing day today with no real rush
at all, apart from the fact we had to catch what turned out to be the last bus
from Cresswell to Blyth.
The greatest interest along the route was a pair of Yellow Wagtails showing well in the
fields north of Bells Pond. We watched
these at length. A couple stopped to ask
us what we were watching and when I confirmed they weren’t blue headed off they
drove as if not that interested. We
continued to enjoy the pair of Yellow
Wagtails which had been a very good find by Sam.
I looked over Cresswell Pond from a distance from the brow
of the hill and we discussed the fact that the building here had featured on TV
recently. I suggested that perhaps the
building had been cleaned out before they went in with the cameras! An unlucky Brown Hare lay dead on the
road. It wasn’t long before we had the
telescope on the Spoonbill on the
west side of the pond so as to get a distant sighting just in the event of the
bird deciding to take off before we got down there. As it happens it didn’t seem interested in
leaving, but preferred to snooze, although we did have a good view of the spoon bill before it became hidden.
Little Egret
B the time we were at Cresswell pond I was really warm and
it seemed to be the warmest part of the day.
Cresswell in the evening is a wonderful place, but we did have that bus
to catch. We did have time to spend at
the pond. Of course there were plenty of
Avocets here, at both ends and
around the side of the pond. We were quite surprised to find a Common Gull here. Two Little Egrets were present, although
the second one didn’t appear from the reeds for sometime and a Ringed Plover flew in. A Sedge
Warbler sang constantly from in front of the hide the entire time we were
there and still more Reed Buntings
were appearing. We watched the Tree
Sparrows as we made off towards the village to catch our bus.
It’s a boring journey by bus at the best of times and it was
made worse by me having nothing left to eat and feeling really hungry by
now. I was dreaming of fish and chips as
we got to Blyth, but we still had to complete
the last lap of our return journey so any such banquet had to be forgotten.
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