Saturday saw us making the short journey to Newbiggin, to attend the launch event for Scone Mad. Colin and Jackie, the owners of Nevins Nibbles, have an incredible range of scones and the public were voting to select the 100th variety. With the contenders including Jelly Bean, Boost and Chili & chocolate, the competition was going to be close. We’re looking forward to finding out the identity of the winner. Even this interlude had a birdwatching theme; 2 adult Mediterranean Gulls were soaring over Newbiggin as we sat out in the sun, and Nevins Nibbles has played host in the past to meetings of the legendary collection of hardy, seabird-obsessed Northumberland residents that form SWAN (Sea Watchers at Newbiggin).

Later that afternoon we headed to Redesdale to pre-walk the route for this Wednesday’s ‘Birds of Redesdale’ walk. Common Sandpipers were swee-wee-wee-wee-weeing along the river, Roe Deer were bounding through the long grass and Painted Ladies were seen in very good numbers.

Sunday was our first stint as wardens at the Osprey Watchpoint in Kielder Water and Forest Park. Over 80 visitors were entertained and informed by the four wardens and the weather was glorious (for most of the time anyway…). After 7 hours at the watchpoint we were driving home – towards some ominous looking clouds. Sure enough, the first drops of rain began to hit the windscreen, and then the heavens opened. Thunder and lightning accompanied the deluge and we rounded a bend only to find a cyclist in the middle of the road. The chain had come off his bike so, with the thunderstorm inching closer we suggested that he put himself and the bike in the back of our car. The journey to Morpeth saw us driving through a lot of deep flooded roads so he would have struggled to get himself home without getting into real difficulty. We dropped him at Ashington and eventually we arrived home, with a 1hr journey having taken 2hrs, and steaming mugs of hot chocolate were in order as we dried out.