{"id":1959,"date":"2013-06-11T07:57:41","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T06:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2013-06-11T07:57:41","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T06:57:41","slug":"one-cuckoo-flew-over-the-pipits-nest-birdwatching-in-the-cheviot-valleys-09-06-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/birdwatching\/one-cuckoo-flew-over-the-pipits-nest-birdwatching-in-the-cheviot-valleys-09-06-2013","title":{"rendered":"One Cuckoo flew over the pipit’s nest; birdwatching in the Cheviot Valleys 09\/06\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday was another trip into the Cheviot Valleys<\/a>, with two of our returning clients.\u00a0 We first met Pete and Janet at the Bird Fair<\/a> in 2008 and this was their third trip with us (plus a trip that they organised for their local Natural History Society in 2009).\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to meet up with them, and the prospect of a trip into the Cheviots was a mouthwatering one.\u00a0 You just never know what you’ll find, or see…<\/p>\n

The trip started with two species that we didn’t find on our Cheviots trip on Thursday; two Brown Hares<\/strong><\/em> were sitting by the ‘wader puddle’ and, one of our target species for the day – two Ring Ouzels<\/strong><\/em> flew over us, calling, as we started the first of the days walks.\u00a0 Janet soon spotted a juvenile Dipper<\/strong><\/em>, and we watched as an adult flew in and fed it.\u00a0 Grey Wagtails<\/strong><\/em> were all along the valley, a Spotted Flycatcher<\/strong><\/em> was living up to it’s name admirably and a very obliging Tree Pipit<\/strong><\/em> perched close to the path.\u00a0 As on Thursday’s trip<\/a> we heard, but couldn’t see, a Common Redstart<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Every so often, something happens that leaves us marveling at nature…and Sunday provided an extraordinary spectacle.\u00a0 As we sat eating our lunch by a small stream, enjoying close views of Lesser Redpoll<\/strong><\/em> (a species we’d been hearing all morning although only seeing as small flying dots) I noticed a bird flying across the valley.\u00a0 Initially it looked like a Kestrel<\/strong> <\/em>– until I raised my binoculars and the pointy-winged, long-tailed, shape resolved into a Cuckoo<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It headed down into the heather and was immediately chased by a pair of Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 They pursued it part way across the valley and it dropped out of sight behind the trees…only to reappear a minute later, chased by more pipits<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Landing in exactly the same spot in the heather it was chased away for a second time, by four pipits<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It rose higher and then began soaring, with the flap-flap-glide that is so characteristic of a Sparrowhawk<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 More Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em> joined the attack, presumably revealing their nest locations, and the bird suddenly closed its wings and dropped like a stone, out of sight behind the trees.\u00a0 A minute later and the Cuckoo<\/strong> <\/em>was heading across the valley again, dropping back in the same spot as previously.\u00a0 This time it was driven off by a pair of Red Grouse,<\/strong><\/em> that came charging down from near the summit of the hill, and it flew back and out of sight behind the trees, only to reappear a few seconds later with more Meadow Pipits<\/strong><\/em> in tow.\u00a0 In total we watched it make ten visits to what was presumably a Meadow Pipit<\/strong><\/em> nest that it was targeting.\u00a0 By the ninth visit it spent several seconds on the ground with angry pipits<\/strong><\/em> swirling around it’s head, which we could see sticking up above the heather, and the tenth visit was a prolonged one too.\u00a0 After that it flew back across the valley and didn’t reappear, so perhaps it had been successful in laying an egg in the pipit<\/strong> <\/em>nest.<\/p>\n

Our final walk of the day produced another example of birds defending their nesting territory, as the plaintive cries of a pair of Curlew<\/strong> <\/em>echoed around the steep valley sides and we looked up to see them flying at a Common Buzzard.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>The buzzard<\/strong> <\/em>continued on it’s way and the Curlews<\/strong> <\/em>dropped out of sight above the ridge, only to reappear a few seconds later as a second buzzard<\/strong> <\/em>flew down the valley.\u00a0 Excellent weather, stunning scenery and clients whose enthusiasm and knowledge adds so much to the day \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday was another trip into the Cheviot Valleys, with two of our returning clients.\u00a0 We first met Pete and Janet at the Bird Fair in 2008 and this was their third trip with us (plus a trip that they organised for their local Natural History Society in 2009).\u00a0 It’s always a pleasure to meet up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,5],"tags":[57,148,264,172,257,134,207,208,259,263,131,285,258],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birdwatching","category-cheviot-valleys","category-northumberland","tag-brown-hare","tag-common-buzzard","tag-cuckoo","tag-curlew","tag-dipper","tag-lesser-redpoll","tag-meadow-pipit","tag-red-grouse","tag-redstart","tag-ring-ouzel","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-spotted-flycatcher","tag-tree-pipit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}