{"id":4197,"date":"2014-06-09T22:50:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T22:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=4197"},"modified":"2014-06-10T07:46:11","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T07:46:11","slug":"june-8th-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/?p=4197","title":{"rendered":"June 8th 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2179\"<\/a>\"IMG_2158\"<\/a>\"IMG_1980\"<\/a>\"IMG_2191\"<\/a>\"IMG_2231\"<\/a>At Killingworth Lake this morning, one of the nesting pairs of Great crested Grebes were still incubating their eggs and providing the best views anyone could hope for with this species. A Reed Warbler sang from the small line of reeds at the small lake over the road, and a few Common Terns fished the main lake.House Martins,Swallows and Swifts hawked for insects too.<\/p>\n

Off up to my day’s destination , Kielder via Sweethope Lough and the fells of south-central Northumberland. As I have alluded to in the past, the erection of 18 massive wind turbines at Sweethope has for me, greatly detracted from the natural beauty and wildness of the fells here, nonetheless,to my relief they have not seemed to have adversly affected the many nesting Skylarks which remain in high numbers,although their songs are somewhat drowned out by the loud motors of the turbines and the wind noise they create, when , as now all 18 were in motion.No nesting Curlews or Lapwings remain though.\u00a0I did not linger at what was always a great place to stop.<\/p>\n

Perhaps 20 singing Skylarks were briefly noted ,then in more peaceful surroundings a little\u00a0further west, a similar number could be enjoyed along with good numbers of Meadow Pipits, Curlew and a few displaying Snipe. 3\u00a0 Common Buzzards in the air too. Dropping down towards Birtley, a family party of Redstarts were in panic as a Stoat attempted to catch a fledgeling,while Willow Warblers joined in the mobbing. Near Bellingham, a Cuckoo called and Sand Martins fed along the North Tyne. A Treecreeper seen and 2 more family groups of Redstarts.Many Pied Wagtails,a Grey\u00a0 Wagtail female, then on the river a pair of Mandarin\u00a0 Duck swam by,\u00a0with 4 miles upstream,\u00a0 another drake.\u00a0 At Ridley Stokoe, where parking is no longer possible, a pair of Common Sandpipers and a pair of Spotted Flycatchers were\u00a0 noted. On up to Tower Knowe,where a brood of Wrens, one of which had fledged, looked down from the House Martin nest they had been reared in. I gently dissuaded a girl who had\u00a0picked it up from taking the bird home! 6 Crossbills flew over and another pair of Buzzards circled to the north. Moving down to Sidwood, 2 Wood Warblers were well watched as they sang, and Bullfinch,Willow Warblers,\u00a0 Long tailed Tits and Blue Tits all had fledged young. Nuthatch and Treecreeper, 2 Spotted Flycatchers and Redstart, Tree Pipit and Skylark were all seen in the area.8 or 9 Song Thrushes also heard in this area. Back over the Wannies, and 2 more Cuckoos seen,bringing my running spring total of\u00a0 sightings of this species \u00a0to 22 birds,very encouraging . More Curlews here,with a pair of Lapwings and many Meadow\u00a0Pipits.<\/p>\n

A.S.Jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Killingworth Lake this morning, one of the nesting pairs of Great crested Grebes were still incubating their eggs and providing the best views anyone could hope for with this species. A Reed Warbler sang from the small line of reeds at the small lake over the road, and a few Common Terns fished the […]<\/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-4197","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\/4197","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=4197"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4209,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4197\/revisions\/4209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}