Author: martin

Magpies. Traditionally regarded as a bad omen, and in modern times blamed for the disappearance of many of our songbirds. Now, it may not be particularly pleasant to see a blackbird egg or chick removed from it’s nest and eaten on your garden lawn, but it is a part of the natural order of the world around us. Predators don’t (with very few exceptions) have a significant impact on the population of their prey. They can’t, otherwise what would they eat? Even very young children will have been introduced to the, admittedly simple, idea of a pyramid of numbers; millions of leaves feed thousands of caterpillars feed hundreds of Blue Tits feed a pair of Sparrowhawks. There’s a balance, that is obvious to anyone who spends time watching our wildlife, so it was interesting to hear a spokesman for Songbird Survival, on BBC Breakfast yesterday, denying that such a balance exists. Alongside him was Chris Packham, who thankfully does know what he’s talking about.

Calls for legalised control of predators (or increased control of species which can legally be controlled already) are a long way from either understanding the problem or proposing a viable solution. Sparrowhawks (which have featured in so many of my blog entries) are often brought into conversations that appear to be ostensibly about Magpies. If, heaven forbid, legalised control of Sparrowhawks is ever allowed (although, for once, the input of the EU is to be welcomed as there are very stringent laws relating to wild birds) then what next; Buzzards? Peregrines? Hen Harriers? If you search the internet you can find proposals to control the Hen Harrier population. Remarkable, considering that illegal persecution led to only 10 successful nesting attempts in England in 2008. Myself and Sarah are involved in Hen Harrier nest-monitoring and we have a raptor study area in southwest Northumberland as well. Northern Experience Wildlife Tours clients always, without fail, get excited when they see raptors; whether it’s a close view of a Kestrel sitting on a telegraph pole, a Buzzard (or two…or three…or four) soaring over a conifer plantation or a Peregrine carving it’s way through a coastal flock of waders. We should celebrate that we share this planet with such magnificent creatures, which brings us back to the Magpie; take a close look at one, try to forget the occasionally unsavoury habits, and just marvel at the beauty.

On Thursday I was the birdwatching guide for another Nature Tourism workshop based in the Tees Valley. It was cold and misty and, although the Common (Harbour) Seals we searched for couldn’t be found, we had excellent views of 7 Avocets and a Little Ringed Plover as well as a brief sighting of a Brown Hare. Friday was occupied with admin work and preparations for a night away from home in Stirling. After sampling the delights of Stirling town centre on a Friday night, I set off this morning for some off-road training in a Landrover Defender 110 (a new version of the model that has carried so many Northern Experience Wildlife Tours clients around Northumberland). What can I say? Letting the vehicle take itself up steep inclines on the off-road course was eye-opening. Time to add a few more green lanes to our inland routes I think.

I saw my first Swallow of the year on Thursday, Sarah saw hers on Friday and today they were everywhere. We managed to fit in some birdwatching and wildlife observations while away from home as well; Red Kites near Doune were busy scrapping above the woodland, Gannets soaring over the Bass Rock could be seen with the naked eye from the car, Sarah found a Brown Hare near the 4×4 course and there were Roe Deer by the A1 near Holy Island on our way back south.

I left home this morning in fairly heavy fog. The forecast was for inland areas of Northumberland to have bright, sunny weather during the day so I wasn’t too concerned. However, as I headed up towards Whitelee, to collect our clients for today’s Kielder Safari, my confidence began to wane. Two Snipe flew across the road in front of me as I passed the entrance to Whitelee Moor NWT Reserve so,once we were heading south again, that was our first stop. At least three birds were calling but failing to reveal themselves in the quite ethereal mist. Down the A68 and the fog worsened but we still managed to get excellent views of Lapwing, Curlew and a very surprised Buzzard that was sitting in a roadside field. As the visibility improved we had close views of a Goshawk as it glided menacingly between plantations and several Buzzards began soaring as temperatures rose. While we were close to Kielder Water the weather turned warm and sunny. Red Squirrel foraging around a tree close to the road was a popular sight, as was a drake Mandarin; remarkable to think that this native of China and Japan now has a population close to Northern Europe’s largest man-made lake in central Northumberland. Birdwatching in Kielder is never dull; there may not be a vast number of species, but with Goshawk, Mandarin, Crossbill and Goosander among others there’s a lot of quality. The final leg of our journey was across the Forest Drive and back to Whitelee – still shrouded in mist and where those Snipe were still playing hard to get.

After the comparative luxury of five successive days out wildlife and birdwatching with clients or with Sarah, today I had to get on with all the admin stuff that’s been piling up. No sign of our Red Squirrels so I actually did manage to proceed with the task at hand, once I’d finished checking the moth trap and releasing last night’s catch into the safety of the denser vegetation in our shrubbery. Five Hebrew Characters and four Common Quakers was the final total (rather than a couple of lines from a bizarre lepidoptera version of the Twelve Days of Christmas). The admin work was more of a mixed bag than the moth trap; bringing the accounts up to date, changing some of the detail on the Calendar and Links pages of the website, being interviewed for an article in Country Life magazine and making lots of ‘phone calls. Then I had to finalise the press release that we’re issuing about the Dawn Chorus and Northumbrian Breakfast at Lee Moor Farm on May 3rd. Finally I had a look at the Twitter profiles of all the people following us (if none of this sentence makes any sense to you then look at our profile and things may become clearer). Our ‘followers’ receive updates about our wildlife sightings and other snippets of NEWT related news and our use of this system even made the local press recently (although I really do wish that journalists would stop persistently using the word ‘twitcher’ for anyone with an interest in birdwatching – perhaps I should write a blog containing a glossary of birdwatching-related words and phrases?).

Now that our local Blackbirds have finally divided the village into territories, and we no longer have four or five regularly fighting under the apple tree, they’re all reminding each other of who lives where. I love listening to Blackbird song; rich, varied, powerful and regularly the start of the Dawn Chorus. The bird holding territory around our garden has taken to singing from the extension roof outside the bathroom window, so the alarm clock going off at 06:00 is a bit superfluous when I’ve already been awake for an hour.

I’m an evening wildlife-watching person but, at the time of year when the Dawn Chorus is at it’s most prominent, sometimes there’s nothing better than an early start. When I was a little boy and we stopped at my grandparent’s house I would get out of bed when I heard my Grandad getting up for work at 04:30. A short walk later I would be sitting by a small stream that ran along the edge of a local park. Water Voles, Foxes and skeins of geese were all things I didn’t see at other times of the day and I learnt the value of remaining quiet and unobtrusive at the right time of day. This translated itself into regular pre-dawn cycle rides to areas of farmland and woodland close to home where deer, Jays and, on one memorable occasion, a Cuckoo were the reward for this, apparently unusual, behaviour. As International Dawn Chorus Day approaches I’ll be out earlier and earlier; birdwatching, with eyes and ears, and searching for mammals before they hide themselves away for the day. My garden, Choppington Woods and, most excitingly, Lee Moor Farm will all be on the hitlist for the strategy that I ‘discovered’ all those years ago.

9am, and Church Point was devoid of Mediterranean Gulls. There weren’t any Black-headed Gulls around either so perhaps they were all enjoying a different part of Newbiggin. Kevin and Janet arrived for our Seal Safari and we made our way up the coast towards Seahouses.

An early call had revealed that the sea was calm, the weather warm and sunny, so the boat would be sailing. As we approached the Farne Islands, Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills and Gannets all passed by the boat. Around the islands, the cliffs are starting to fill with seabirds all intent on breeding. Sandwich Terns are already back, but the Common and Arctic Terns are yet to arrrive. The Grey Seals were all packed together like a big furry jigsaw, basking in the warm sunshine; quite a contrast to the edgy weather that accompanied our Seal Safaris in late October.

Back on the mainland we headed to the (joint) best picnic spot on the Northumberland coast and settled down to some very good birdwatching; Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones and Oystercatchers were on the rocks offshore, just out of range of disturbance from the holidaymakers on the beach. As the tide rose it brought a veritable wealth of wildfowl; masses of Eider interspersed with Common Scoter, Long-tailed Duck and at least three summer-plumaged Slavonian Grebes.

The journey south brought Little Egret and Garganey, as well as Lapwings with that extraordinary yellow/purple/orange/green iridescence and lots of Meadow Pipits, singing and then gliding back to Earth like paper aeroplanes. A really underrated bird if ever there was. Final stop at a roadside flash pool and there, amongst the familiar black-and-white of the Pied Wagtails was the pale grey back and strikingly isolated black throat patch of a White Wagtail. Is there a better county for birdwatching than Northumberland? On a day like today, probably not.

I don’t think we’ve had any clients over the last 15 months who didn’t have good environmental awareness and a sense of responsibilty towards the environment, whether at a local or global level, but the population as a whole must be falling short somwhere; a report this week revealed a 110% increase in the amount of litter on Britain’s beaches since 1994. There’s also an interesting difference of opinion between the Marine Conservation Society, who want the Government to develop a co-ordinated strategy to tackle the problem, and the Government, who believe that litter is a matter of personal responsibility. Any further littering is a matter of personal/corporate responsibility (it’s hard to see how anyone could disagree with that) but the litter that already pollutes our beaches and, more worryingly, the incredibly fragile marine ecosystem needs to be dealt with as well. Perhaps a strategy is needed to get our shores and seas to an acceptable level and then rely on personal/corporate responsibility to maintain that level? Northern Experience Wildlife Tours may be apolitical but any issue that affects our environment will always be worthy of comment. I’ve now spent ten years organising pelagic wildlife and birdwatching tours in the North Sea so it’s a habitat that’s very close to my heart. Added to that, we’ve got some incredible beaches in Northumberland, and we really want them to stay that way.

Yesterday morning didn’t seem too promising; grey, misty and raining when I got out of bed. However, as I headed up the A1 to collect 5 of the participants for our full-day Otter Safari, the clouds began to break and soon I was driving beneath a blue sky and bathed in warm sunshine. The journey south along the coast was made all the more enjoyable in the improving conditions and we collected our final participant from Amble. First stop was the River Blyth. With several dogs swimming in the river, otters were unlikely but everyone enjoyed excellent views of at least two Red Squirrels, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper and Grey Wagtail. Jay and Nuthatch could both be heard calling but remained hidden from view. Out on to the coast and a stop for lunch at what I think is the best picnic spot in Northumberland. There’s still a good selection of wildfowl on the coastal pools and, as we headed north, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Teal and Wigeon were all looking at their best. Wader numbers were much lower than they have been but Lapwing were crazily displaying over roadside fields and Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Curlew and Knot were feeding around the pool edges. A single Whooper Swan was an unusual sight; perhaps it forgot to leave when all of the other Whoopers that have wintered around the Druridge area departed during March? A few Chiffchaffs were singing and a Greenshank was running along the edge of Cresswell Pond but, on the whole, we were mainly finding lingering winter visitors. Then that all changed as we watched probably the three best birds of the day; Little Egret, a pair of Garganey and a very obliging Marsh Harrier. The wind began to pick-up again and the water surface started to ruffle to the point where searching for otters became a real challenge. So that was Thursday, an otter safari that turned into an excellent Northumberland birdwatching tour. Good Friday will be a photography/videography day (weather permitting) and then we have a Seal Safari on Easter Saturday, leaving Seahouses at 10:30.

The Northumberland Wildlife Trusts’s SENSE (South East Northumberland Sustainable Environment) project is about to add Choppington Woods to the list of reserves it covers so yesterday I took NWT People and Wildlife Officer Heather O’Neill for a walk around the wood. The glorious weather really shows the reserve at its best. Chiffchaffs, Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and Robins could be heard singing throughout the entire 2 hours that we were walking, 4 Jays flew over together and Siskins were much more widespread than in previous years. Frogs and toads were around the edge of the pond and a carpet of wildflowers sparkled like jewels in the bright sunshine. It’s sometimes hard to believe that the area was once the site of 2 coal mines. Now, with the help of SENSE (and the £10k we were awarded by Wansbeck -You Decide) we can work towards our aim of making Choppington Woods an outstanding community resource; reflecting the area’s industrial heritage and leaving an environmental legacy for future generations. That’s quite something to have outside your office window 🙂

Today didn’t look promising from a wildlife-watching point of view. This morning I was chairing a meeting of the South East Northumberland Tourism Association, followed by lunch and some admin work back in the office and then straight out to a school governor’s meeting. However, leaving school after the meeting, I was chatting with one of the other governors, and enjoying the warm, sunny afternoon…then I noticed four birds in a tree opposite. The distinctive silhouette with the spiky crest could mean only one thing – Waxwings. Maybe it’s because they look so exotic, maybe it’s because they inhabit northern forests (if I ever leave Northumberland then Scandinavia is very, very close to the top of the list of possible destinations) or maybe it’s because I saw my first Waxwings nearly 40 years ago and the shock of that first encounter has never left me. Whatever it is, they always bring excitement and there they were – sitting in an isolated bare tree in a housing estate close to home. They’ll all be gone soon, back across the North Sea for another breeding season, so keep your eyes peeled; any berry-laden trees or shrubs could be providing the fuel for their migration. Supermarket car parks and modern housing estates; prime locations for top-class birding.