Green days....

 Sunday was a bit quiet so I got up early for a walk north along the coast to Craster. It was bright and cool with  a light S breeze. Its great to be out early at this time of year, I didn't see another person for the first two hours.

A slow wander north along the coast path was very pleasant. A few Yellowhammers, 3 Grey Partridges and 2 Greenland Wheatear were about the only things of note but the soundscape of singing birds, noisy Kittiwakes and gently rolling waves was relaxing.

The Bathing House with Longhoughton Steel, Boulmer in the background.

Craster Farm

This view south shows the majority of my local patch. We live in the village you can see in the trees. 

Kittiwake watching me.

Razorbill below my feet.

The view from Cullernose Point

Thrift and the marzipan smell of gorse.

Greenland Wheatear

Whitethroat

Yellowhammer ( do you think!)

A few other things were noted, a single Painted Lady in off, 3 Wall Brown, masses of Spring Squill in large patches all along the short turf. 

Painted Lady

Spring Squill

A carpet of Spring Squill with Dunstanburgh Castle in the distance.

This post is a bit photo heavy so I'll keep the text down a bit. On the way back, I noticed a bird flying south across the field behind Cullernose Point. It looked odd, but familiar? Green Woodpecker! Another patch mega. Not new here, but I've only had two others, winter 2009 /10 and spring 2017. I tried to take a record shot but the camera would not lock on. I must get the settings for viz mig worked out soon. I saw the bird well enough to believe it was a female...

Green Woodpecker south at Cullernose

The Weekend...

This weekend has been a bit of a damp squib. After a glorious week of sunshine and proper spring temperatures while yours truly was stuck at work, as expected, the weekend reverted back to February status. It was cold, over cast, windy with some heavy rain, but, at this time of year we have come to expect such delights.

Howick - Our village from the back field....

A nice show of Red Dead Nettle in our neighbour's potato bed looks good for the early bees.

Yesterday was quite sunny, but the cold wind kept any thoughts of new migrants at bay, in fact the only summery thing of note was a Blackcap singing near the Hall gardens. The moth trap was ok though with 56 moths of 11 species, compared to today's paltry efforts with 11 of 3!

Red Chestnut

This morning was spent down at Patch No2, Warkworth,  with JWR, where he added four new species to the year list - Blackcap, Great spotted Woodpecker, Kittiwake and Sandwich Tern. One of the Short eared Owls was still quartering the dunes early on and I managed a heard only Willow Warbler near the village the only other highlights.

Rain set in at 11am calling a halt to things, but later in the afternoon the sun came out again, so I popped down to the Howick Cliffs for some Kittiwake photos. Its a bit embarrassing but I have no idea how many pairs nest here, a colony only 300 mtrs from my doorstep! In June I'll do a survey i think...

Cullernose Point, sometimes the haunt of Robson Green...

Note the bird second from the right is wearing a yellow unmarked colour ring...Many of the birds were ringed, I read one as E12408.

Above - Kittiwakes

A Kittiwake Cacophony...

A lovely crystal clear and sunny day today, with a cool W breeze.

In contrast yesterdays upland jaunt, today was with Bunty just down onto the shore. We usually stay up on the coast path, but the weather was so nice we clambered down the cliff to get a view from sea level for a change.

200+ Kittiwakes were to and fro-ing from the nest ledges making a right racket. Its great to hear them back after the winter months at sea. the whole bay seems alive again...

This was the first bird I saw actually sitting on a  nest. It checked out one or two old nests before settling at this one. I wonder if they are exactly nest faithful, or do they get better positions with experience. I suspect the latter...

I had  a peer into some rock pools, but didnt get too involved as I had the dog with one hand and the camera in the other. I think I'll give the shore a bit of investigation this year. There aren't many blogs posting info about the aquatic wildlife that can be found in this habitat ...I might wait until the weather warms a bit first though, the water was absolutely baltic today.