Muggy weather

keilder


herterton house gardens

Well we went out yesterday (saturday) eventhough it was drizzling rain but getting some fresh air seemed like a good idea as we've both had this viral infection thats doing its rounds again! It probably wasnt the best day to go out as the rain hardly let up so we just explored for a few hours around black middens nr bellingham, falstone a really pretty little place and then keilder lake.
The sightseeing boat was out on the lake at keilder so i thought id be brave and try to go on it with hubby (malcolm) and the dog...but im terrified of boats and when i saw how the jetty thing for you to get on the boat was bobbing up and down in the water and wobbling like anything...i bottled it im embarrassed to say :( One day maybe i might try it again!
Sunday morning seemed a little better than yesterday it wasnt raining and the sun was trying to burn through, so packed a lunch etc and headed off up the coast, but decided after passing amble to head inland to see if the weather was any better, but it was really warm everywhere eventhough it was still cloudy. On our travels we passed Herterton house gdns next to hartington hall and decided to have a look around. This is well worth the £3 enterance fee if your ever up that way as theres 5 gardens to walk around or sit in, and it is just amazing that the old couple who own this beautiful property maintain it all themselves and they must be at easily 70 yrs of age! but still treat the obvious hardwork they put in everyday as a labour of love..they're an inspiration. They told us one of their advertsing signs fell down on the rd outside so theyre loosing buisness from passers by, but the council want £1000 to put it back up (disgraceful) but they said they couldnt afford to pay that as they didnt know if theyd live long enough to reap back the £1000 through entry fees!..such a shame theyre a lovely couple and its taken them 33 yrs to get to where they are today.
After leaving the gardens we drove about and ended up near the ranges at otterburn along through wainfordrigg, high carrick and we sat for a while and watched a couple of pairs of plovers at laingshill that must be breeding there and a curlew breeding in the next field. The road ends quite abruptly at laingshill as the m.o.d wont let you go any further on so we had to turn turned around and go back again. Theres a small layby called billsmoorfoot not far along the road next to duns farm/caravan park so we pullled up there to let the dog out, stretch our legs and have a sandwich and 4 army trucks pulled up next to us and out piled a couple of groups of soldiers off to play games in the small wood behind the farm....not the best place for some peace and quiet so needless to say we didnt stay long. Apart from the few plovers and the curlew we saw nr otterburn we didnt get to see many birds except for a pair of greenfinches and a chaffinch next to a railway crossing.
Well we're off to shropshire on the 4th july for a weeks holiday so will be offline, but hope to get out in the evenings after work for an hour or so before we go, weather permitting.

Ewarty shank/Coquet valley/Brinkburn priory

Ewarty Shank
Ewarty - 2 Cuckoos flying around this wood saturday/sunday
Brinkburn priory
Druridge at 06:30am
Cresswell









Sorry havent had time really to do this until today...busy week.
Got up really early saturday and drove up to druridge and hauxley, the sun rising was awesome its my favourite time of the day in the summer, the place is just starting to come alive..lovely.
Had brekky then drove up to Ewart shank but passed Brinkburn priory on the way. Now this place seems to have been closed to the public for a long time now, but its re-opened now so couldnt resisit a quick look around to see how they're getting on with it. Entry is £3 each and you can take dogs but only on a lead if theyre well behaved. Its like all old churches and priories etc they smell damp and foisty, but its a beautiful old building and the grounds are fantastic. You can walk around the old manor house on the ground floor but the first floor etc are in a bad state of
repair so theyre blocked off to the public..worth seeing though.
Then off in the car again up to Ewarty Shank with the dog, its always really peaceful up there apart from the odd hikers you dont see anyone, which is nice after a busy week its nice to get away from people. We sat in the car having sandwiches and thought we were hearing things?...a cuckoo!!...2 cuckoos.
Last time we saw or heard a cuckoo was in druridge country park about 5 years ago so we were really chuffed, but couldnt get a picture of them though as they were fliting about to quickly then dissapeared into the small woods.
Sunday started out nice so we went up to another favourite spot, the coquet valley. Normally we see dippers there but this is the 2nd visit in the last 2 weeks and weve not seen any at all! which is a bit dissapointing, but the amazing number of meadow pipits, pied wagtails, grey wagtails and wheatears made up for it.
On the way home the curiosity got he better of us and we couldnt resist another detour to ewarty shank to see if the cuckoos were still there...yes they were...great!
The weather started to turn late afternoon and it came downin buckets so we headed off home back down the coast calling in at cresswell before we got home where we watched the barn owl for abot 10 minspicking up dinner around the dunes to take back to the barn.
Had a really good weekend which was made special seeing those amazing cuckoos :)

Lovely warm evening

Been popping along to cresswell most of this week after tea as the weathers not too bad at the moment and im determined to get a picture of the sage warlber thats been around there for the last few weeks....but nope it wont stay still long enough!
Someone was camping on the grass beside the first little layby where you can walk onto the beach and theyve left a load of rubbish including loads of broken bottles etc it looks terrible and its unsafe al lthe broken glass!
Weve seen quite a few sparrows there over the last 2 weeks which havent been there beofre which is good to see. Not much on the pond apart from the usual culprits, mallard, mute swans, 2 grey herson, plus 2 sage warlbers, 1 male 1 female stonechat, 2 reed buntings, 20+ linnets and 1 kestrel. Hers hoping the weather is good for the weekend so we can get out and about birding.


some of the rubbish dumped in cresswell
plover which is hanging round...may be breeding

Coquet Valley - Whiskershield

Well hoped to be up for the dawn chorus this morning...but no! ashamed to say we slept in.
So it was a trip to the Coquet valley instead but it was well worth as it was just alive with birds and in particular...Wheatears, Meadow Pipits, Winchats and Pied Wagtails. Its a really good place for breeding up there as theres quite a large number of each specie. We did see one bird in particular which we werent exactly sure of...it had very similar markings to the wheater but it had a white band around the back of the head/neck? any ideas what it could be? I checked the books we have but the only similar bird was the wheatear...but this had the white band around the back of the head?
Suprisingly there werent any dippers about which is unusual as we normally always see them when we go up there.
We made a detour on the way home and drove to whiskershield as weve driven past it so many times and never bothered to stop, but unfortunately we didnt see anything there either apart from sheep, sheep and more sheep, not even a crow!
But it is that time of year though the breeding season so maybe thats why theres not so much to see.
Sorry i cant put my pictures up as i need a new usb lead for my camera, but hopefully next time.

Back again.

Had a nice week in Melkridge up near haltwhistle for my birthday and we just spent the week chilling out as weve had a really hectic 6 months or so with work and family commitments literally taking all of our time up.
But then back to reality and work and diy at home.....still have the kitchen redevamp in progress, but thankfully its more or less finished. We finished the wallpapering and painting today (my fault when we got half way round i changed my mind and had to start again with a different paper....womans perogative :) renewed all of the cupboards/benches/worktops/coving/pelmets/new stone floor etc etc so now all thats left is to put the new suspended ceiling in to finish it off. I can honeslty say its been a nightmare id never ever want to repeat....2 years off and on but at least theres only one job left.
We drove up on to the alnwick moors to do a spot of birding, but unfortunately there wasnt much around today apart from a lovely songthrush on the bushes outside shoredon hall, 15+ chaffinches and 4 goldfinches and we also got the evil eye from one of the groundsmen for sitting in the car opposite the gatehouse :)
On the way back down the coast going through cresswell it was nice to see the barn owl out again hunting on the dunes, weve seen him 4 or 5 times in the last 2 weeks so hopefully theyve got some hungry chicks in there. Plan tomorrow is to get up for the dawn chorus probably in cresswell/druridge...its the best time of the day.

Holy Island

The island safe crossing time was until 22:15 so the idea was that we could have a nice leisurely drive up to holy island and then be able to spend a few hours wandering about, plus it was a nice sunny day too. Suprisingly there wasnt much bird life about that we could see...probably due to the 100s of tourists swamping the island it was really really busy (too busy for us) so we had a late lunch and headed back down the coast to boulmer and parked up on boulmer steel for a few hours, it was so peaceful compared to where we'd just been. Took the dog for a walk along the path up to longhoughton steel but she wasnt too amused by the metal bird sculpture fixed on the wall next to the field gates..she gave it hell. 3 pied wagtails, 1 stonechat, usual culprits on the beach, 12+ eiders, 4 oyster catchers, herring gulls and 1 grey heron. It seemed to be pretty quiet with birds today, or were we just in the wrong places at the wrong times? We go away for a short break next sunday for 5 days (birthday treat) so ive booked us a cottage in melkridge where we've stayed about 2 months ago so it will be a nice break, plus we're off to an engagement party in cottingham, hull the weekend after that, so its a busy 2 weeks.

Where's the sun?

Looked outside this morning expecting to see the sun that was forecast...but no such luck it was overast again, but at least it wasnt raining. Inland seemed the safest bet so we headed for bellingham (not a good idea) there wasnt a parking spot to be had that we could see anyway, so drove straight through and out onto the hexham road. Found a little place called 'stonehaugh' with a really nice picnic area alongside a little stream so we parked up and had lunch. By this time the sun was out to so we sat for a while and watched a few chaffinches, 2 grey wagtails and a pied wagtail flying around the edge of the water. There's some extremely wobbly stepping stones over the stream onto the other side of the grassed area where there are 3 brilliantly carved totem poles...not exactly what you'd expect to see there, but different though.
3 buzzards flying overhead near simonburn. Drove through east woodburn and over the moorland and spotted this deer who didnt seem to be as quick to run off as they normally are. The road came out at monkridge where there were 54 moles hanging out on the fence for everyone to see! I didnt think id ever see anything else that could top the skewered crow from last week...but how wrong can you be!
Next stop was harwood forest where we saw 6 chaffinches, 3 greenfinches, 4 bluetits, 2 great tits, 1 meadow pipit and a willow warbler.
Forecast is sunny again for tomorrow so we might drive up to holy island as its safe to cross all afternoon 12:25 to 22:15

How gross is this....

Had a nice drive up to beaconhill and then to whinneyhill, but this poor dead crow skewered on a branch in the middle of a field sickened us!!
This has to be one of the most awful things ive ever seen.
Is this supposed to be some sort of sick form of scarecrow?....shouldnt be allowed.