Spooky

A very heavily cropped image of Barn Owls interacting on Holy Island a couple of weeks ago. Obviously the quality is poor but i loved the pose of the top owl, if only it had been 30 metres closer. Again, i know that the image is spilling over into the border but worth the mess.
To try to make up for it here is an image also from Holy Island of a Long-eared Owl along Straight Lonnen not 50 metres from where the Barnies were observed but 14 days earlier as i recollect.

It's been quiet on the birding front for the last week or so and the camera hasn't been out of the bag much. I called past Prestwick Carr yesterday and had a first for me there with the sighting of a Kingfisher by the ditch up by the first sentry box. Heavy showers and occasional sunny spells accompanied me while there and i had a few sightings of Common Darters and Hawkers sp. as their wings glistened whilst airborne and the temperatures rose briefly in those sunny spells. Sparrowhawk, Redwing, Curlew and Goldcrest some of the highlights before heading along the bumpy road which was a lot quieter. The spotting of 2 Noctule Bats over The Carr as the light was fading and shortly before leaving by THE WANDERER OF PRESTWICK CARR ended a pleasant visit. Peter captured some nice moody images tonight. 

St. Marys and Lindisfarne

I've cobbled together a few images from the last week or so. I visited St. Marys Island last week, as did many others, and found it difficult to compose a post as every bird seen had been reported on and felt like i was just repeating.. I was out with John, Howdon Blogger on Saturday and spent a fine days birding with this gentleman but again found it hard to post as he had covered just about everything we saw.

This little fella was lying close by the causeway at St. Marys.

I had a brief view of the Arctic Warbler on Saturday but a Long-eared Owl along The Crooked Lonnen in a hawthorn looked stunning in the morning light and huge numbers of mainly Barnacle and Brent Geese originally on the sands north of the causeway and east of Beal Point which later lifted and flew past us as we sat in the hide at Lowmoor Point were impressive sights. They came through, wave after wave, for some fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes or so with a couple of Spotted Flycatchers, Robins and Thrushes all around on the ground was super in fine sunshine and slightly sheltered from the jostling wind in the Priory grounds.

Priory posers.

Lindisfarne Castle fly by.

Straight Lonnen views.

A few more images from Wednesday.

Red-throated Diver

Juvenile Guillemot

Sandwich Tern

 

.........and a few more Gannet images

The Red-throated Diver was seen as i returned to the car having walked 16.7 km from Druridge Pools to Low Hauxley and back with a small detour out to Chibburn Ponds with sightings of numerous Common Darters and a single male Southern Hawker. Quite a few juvenile Guillemots were seen on the North Sea and a smattering of Sandwich Terns, all very vocal, at a few points along the way. A Wheatear and 2 Rock Pipits seen together on seaweed on the beach with 2 male Long-tailed Ducks a little distantly out to sea nice diversions but the juvenile Gannets attending what looked like a diving class just off the beach stole the show.
Found large numbers of Common Darters as expected at my usual stopping off point at the educational dipping pond at East Chevington, many of which were enjoying the reflective heat of the timber posts and rails heading towards Druridge Country Park

DIVE ! DIVE ! DIVE !

With Mr. Cheviot lost in France, well on holiday there i went out for a walk on my own. The plan was to park up at Druridge and head up to Hauxley. Before that i called in at Cresswell for 25 minutes to see what was about. Three smart Yellow Wagtails in the field playing footsie with a couple of sheep seemed to be a good omen but although there were plenty birds about a few Black-tailed Godwits were the highlight. The birds lifted on numerous occasions but it was never apparent why.
I haven't looked through all of the images i captured but in between Druridge Country Park and the car park at Hadston Carrs i had over fifty juvenile Gannets plunge diving very close to the beach. As you can imagine i was sidetracked for some time............

Nice little sequence by this pair.

I know what this is........BUT DO YOU ???

A couple of heavily cropped images of a common bug you can see any day you venture close to water. They were taken at Big Waters yesterday while the Grim Reapers set about the task of  producing more mud for the mass influx of waders to be viewed from the hide in the coming weeks. The Blogger from Howdon helped out by pushing some grass about with a rake while the stars of the show did some hard graft. I was in the hide initially but felt soooooo guilty that i had to leave as i couldn't watch further.
Anyway...........what is it ?

More common than you think. Approx. 2cm long.

Kent Odonata

I visited Kent last week and spent the majority of the time with my grandchildren but i was allowed out for one foray. Stodmarsh was the choice and here are three images i captured.

MIGRANT HAWKER in flight.

RUDDY DARTER

COMMON DARTER

 The weather was beautiful all week and dragonflies were on the wing everywhere we went. On my day at Stodmarsh i didn't see any damselflies at all and the only day i did was when we had a trip to Bedgebury Forest which is almost on the border with Sussex. It is run by the Forestry Commission and one of the main reasons we all went was so my son could take his bike on the very challenging mountain bike trail. While he did this i sloped off for a couple of hours to explore the Pinetum and the ponds. I did see a damselfly this day and what a corker it was...........the image i captured WASN'T however. My longer lens seemed to struggle and i only had my 50mm lens and not my 100mm macro in addition and the subject would not let me get close. So my only encounter thus far with this species ended up with a shocking photograph.

WHITE-LEGGED DAMSELFLY