{"id":1520,"date":"2013-06-29T21:09:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T21:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=1520"},"modified":"2016-10-16T19:45:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-16T19:45:05","slug":"june-28th-29th-birding-bike-rides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=1520","title":{"rendered":"Birding Bike Rides &#8211; 28th-29th June 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first of two bike rides along the leafy lanes of south Northumberland ,saw me heading from Ponteland to Ingoe Moor,via Blackheddon, Wallridge and Kirkheaton and Stamforham. Eyes and especially ears open to detect the many birds along the way. Birdsong still going strong in what is the final month\u00a0before many birds quieten down until next Spring. Always a time\u00a0tinged with regret, for this is without doubt,one of\u00a0my favourite aspects of birding.<\/p>\n<p>Skylarks and Yellowhammers buck this trend, however and continue well into the summer. On this ride, the latter outnumbered the former 24 to 15 singing males. Sedge Warblers rattled their tunes from hedgerows and rape fields, with 7 heard and seen, and Whitethroats numbered well over double this total. Some seen feeding young.Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs both sang in good numbers,but\u00a0no Redstarts sang this time,\u00a0 3 males were seen\u00a0 though.<\/p>\n<p>Four Reed Buntings noted and Tree Sparrows seemed to be present along hedges near many farms. Linnets and Chaffinches \u00a0too,were encouragingly common and males sang ,usually from wires . Three Song Thrushes sang in woods and 2 pairs of Spotted Flycatchers seen.Family parties of Great and Long tailed Tits could be heard in hedges and woodland edge,\u00a0of \u00a02 each of Kestrel and Buzzard\u00a0 and a few Lapwings and Curlews completed a good ride list.<\/p>\n<p>My next ride took me over Berwick Hill to Ogle ,Whalton ,Shilvington , Tranwell, Gubeon and Saltwick hill, and back to Berwick Hill. Again , Yellowhammer and Skylark were the most commonly heard species, followed by Chaffinch and Linniet-15 plus of all these heard. Young Swallows being fed on the wing and a dozen Sand Martins, Yellow and Grey\u00a0Wagtail. A flock of 50 Lapwings and Sedge Warbler all noted at the river near Whalton. A Buzzard carried prey to it&#8217;s young in a tree nest and a female Kestrel seen. A Tree Pipit and Redstart noted at Tranwell,where Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs again heard in numbers. 2 families of Bullfinches and 3 of long tailed Tits , Great spotted Woodpecker,several Meadow Pipits\u00a0and Spotted Flycatcher also seen.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, these areas appear to have a healthy population of farmland and\u00a0woodland edge birds ,which is very pleasing to see.<\/p>\n<p>A S Jack<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Meadow-Pipit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1521 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Meadow-Pipit-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Meadow Pipit\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Meadow-Pipit-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Meadow-Pipit.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sedge-Warbler-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1522 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sedge-Warbler-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Sedge Warbler 2\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sedge-Warbler-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Sedge-Warbler-2.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Tree-Sparrow-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1523 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Tree-Sparrow-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Tree Sparrow 2\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Tree-Sparrow-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Tree-Sparrow-2.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Whitethroat-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1524 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Whitethroat-2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Whitethroat 2\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Whitethroat-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Whitethroat-2.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Yellowhammerholywell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1525 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Yellowhammerholywell-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Yellowhammerholywell\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Yellowhammerholywell-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Yellowhammerholywell.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first of two bike rides along the leafy lanes of south Northumberland ,saw me heading from Ponteland to Ingoe Moor,via Blackheddon, Wallridge and Kirkheaton and Stamforham. Eyes and especially ears open to detect the many birds along the way. Birdsong still going strong in what is the final month\u00a0before many birds quieten down until [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1520"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9072,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1520\/revisions\/9072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}