May\u00a0 4th; \u00a0Good views of the Purple Heron found by Dave Elliot (his 2nd at this site) in flight and then preening\/fishing along the reed edge of the south pool. Only the 4th county record in most local birder’s lifetimes. Also showing well,with a food pass, were three Marsh Harriers. The male calling as he flew. Over thirty Common Terns and one Arctic fished the north pool,with a few Sandwich Terns. \u00a0Several Swifts noted and many Swallows and Sand Martins. In a field overlooking the south pool a Whinchat foraged with 2 Wheatears ,as several Skylarks sang above. A Cuckoo (my 3rd this week) looked for food from a fence\u00a0– line. Sparrowhawk and Buzzard also noted.<\/p>\n
Heading inland to leafless central Northumbs, 2 male Pied flycatchers sang at Nunnykirk,as did Treecreeper and Nuthatch. At Wingates, 2 Tree Pipits song-flighted and a Buzzard was mobbed by a pair of Kestrels. Lets hope they avoid the enormous wind turbines now here. The wind was cold and getting stronger at a very strangely quiet Holystone,with Nuthatch possibly the only noteworthy bird!\u00a0The Coquet at\u00a0Hepple held several Common Sands, and Redpoll and Siskin in the trees. 6 Mistle Thrushes seen and a solitary Lapwing on a fell,where thre are usually c12 pairs nesting, with 20+ Meadow Pipits and 11 Wheatears feeding. The latter clearly not yet paired up or on territory.<\/p>\n
May 5th; An early bike ride to Holywell,at 6.45 I was beaten to it by plenty of dog-walkers Much warmer today. Whitethroats on the increase,with 10 seen ,also 6 Blackcaps, 2 Sedge Warblers and 6 Reed Buntings. A few Yellowhammers sang and some Large White butterflys seen. 2-3 pairs of Lapwings, Sand and House Martins with the local Swallows. A pair of Common Terns had returned today,inspecting the island ,and\u00a0a single Swift seen. \u00a0 A.S. Jack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
May\u00a0 4th; \u00a0Good views of the Purple Heron found by Dave Elliot (his 2nd at this site) in flight and then preening\/fishing along the reed edge of the south pool. Only the 4th county record in most local birder’s lifetimes. Also showing well,with a food pass, were three Marsh Harriers. The male calling as he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-691","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\/691","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2825,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}