{"id":3255,"date":"2014-01-12T12:37:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-12T12:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=3255"},"modified":"2014-01-12T13:08:59","modified_gmt":"2014-01-12T13:08:59","slug":"january-11th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=3255","title":{"rendered":"11th January 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bit of a repeat of last week’s route,as a bright,crisp, sunny winter’s day saw me on\u00a0moors enjoying great views towards the Cheviots. Three Buzzards were on the wing at first light,scanning the ground for prey,with a brief interaction between two of them. A pair of Crossbills flew over , calling and Redpoll and Siskin seen too. Coal Tits sang from nearby woods , as did a Mistle Thrush, ten more fed on a fell ,with a single Fieldfare among them. A female Kestrel scanned the ground from a hedge-top , allowing close approach for photographs. A few Yellowhammers and Skylarks foraged in one weedy area.<\/p>\n

Moving on, I drove\u00a0 to an area I knew holds Hen Harriers, and after a bit of a wait, one ringtail appeared quartering the fell before heading off.<\/p>\n

Later arriving at Budle Bay, a Little Egret patroled the shallows and\u00a0 a Peregrine perched on a large rock . The fields here held many grazing Geese, with over 200 Barnacles among Pink Feet and Grey Lags.<\/p>\n

Stag Rocks, and a Great Northern Diver was again seen , 20 Long tailed Duck and a large raft of Common Scoter dived offshore. On the rocks a few Knot with 26 Purple Sandpipers. In fields behind a small flock of Goldfinches foraged ,but no Twite noted.<\/p>\n

A favourite walk ,I hadn’t done for some years , was down to the shore at Elwick . The hedgerow here held 50 Yellowhammers, the largest group of the winter for me and 15 -20 Fieldfares and a few Redwings. The adjacent fields to the south flooded in parts, contained a large\u00a0 mixed flock\u00a0 of Lapwings and Golden Plover – 1,000 and 1,500 respectively, suddenly erupting into a blur of wings , as a female Merlin shot\u00a0 through, twisting back but failing to connect at this attempt. The birds settled once more and 65 Curlew joined them on the ground. A pair of Whooper Swans fed nearby.\u00a0The shoreline here,at high tide,\u00a0was alive with hundreds of Shelduck, Brent Geese, Wigeon and waders,these including Grey Plover, Bar tailed Godwits, Curlew and Dunlin. A few Eiders and Mergansers noted offshore.<\/p>\n

Other birds of note this week, include 3 Snow Buntings at Blyth, the Lesser Whitethroat (probable Blythi ) at Tynemouth and a jaunt across the Tyne for 30 odd Waxwings at Jarrow near the Ped. tunnel entrance.<\/p>\n

A S Jack<\/p>\n

\"Jan<\/a> \"Jan<\/a> \"Jan<\/a> \"Jan<\/a> \"Jan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bit of a repeat of last week’s route,as a bright,crisp, sunny winter’s day saw me on\u00a0moors enjoying great views towards the Cheviots. Three Buzzards were on the wing at first light,scanning the ground for prey,with a brief interaction between two of them. A pair of Crossbills flew over , calling and Redpoll and Siskin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3255","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\/3255","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=3255"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3263,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3255\/revisions\/3263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}