Saturday 29th June ff
Tale of the Frog and the King
Saturday 29th June 2013
An afternoon visiting 2 YWT sites I had never been to before. Firstly I found my way down the narrow lane to Burton Leonard lime quarries in search of orchids but not expecting any real rarities. The display of common spotted orchids was impressive. But the most impressive sight was a group of bracket fungi on a fallen tree as I descended into the quarry bottom. The individual fungi were the size of car tyres.
I found this spike not yet fully opened and wondered what it was.
I realised this was pyramidal orchid not yet fully open. Also in shot is some quaking grass. I began to spot more pyramidals.
The displays of common spotted at Burton Leonard.
Like the above, some forms were quite short and dainty...
...others strong and lush.
The preserved entrance to one of the old kilns.
Next I drove to Bishop Monkton railway cutting YWT. Strangely, having found the cutting I couldn't find the way in!! There was little evidence that it is often visited as the entrance is down an overgrown path...
The old LNER bridge looking north beyond the reserve.
Here there were also orchids to be found, and not only common spotted. I bent down to look at a very small common spotted plant and saw...
...common twayblade next to it!
A feature of many of the common spotteds was a very dark, almost black, flower stem.
Other plants were in flower too. The tufted vetch vicia cracca grew well but it isn't easy to portray how well it looks en masse.
I believe this is hedge woundwort stachys sylvatica.
A speckled wood butterfly rested by the path.
Sunday 30th June 2013
At home in the garden I climbed a ladder to photograph our eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophila or snow gum which was in full flower.
As were our cultivated dactylorhiza.
This group of common spotted orchids also flowers well in the woodland area.
Much more of a horticultural 'man-made' plant is this splendid iris flower.
In the afternoon we went to Tophill Low again in search of the elusive purple heron. The reserve was busy and we never saw the bird. However, there were other things of interest. Firstly we watched marsh frogs - it's amazing the noise they can make! I'd never seen or heard them before.
A four spot chaser dragonfly perched close by the hide at North Marsh.
Reed warblers chased round the reedbed.
The biggest thrill came when this male kingfisher came and perched outside the hide.
Railway orchids
Tuesday July 2nd 2013
Since my wife is beginning to think I am 'losing it' mentally, then what happened when I went to Colton to photograph some orchids Barry had found only goes to prove she is right. I went. I took plenty of photos and went home, all done in under an hour. Problem: no card in the camera!!
I went back 2 days later. Between the two railway lines, on a north facing bank between the two bridges at SE 541432 are a wealth of orchids. I couldn't find any on the other banks either to the side of the main bank or across the road on the south facing side. Just this field of treasures...
Common spotted orchid
Lollipops! - pyramidal orchid
Something really special: Bee orchid
...and you can watch the trains go by too!
Inner turmoil
Thursday 4th July 2013
I drove north having booked an 8 o'clock sail to Inner Farne in the hope of seeing the bridled tern.
A great black-backed stretches before flying off from Seahouses harbour.
An eagle owl patrols a hotel to deter the gulls. His deterrent factor has a hollow ring!!!
Birders queue up hopefully...
It ended up being one of the most disappointing of days, as I shall explain. We were allowed on the jetty at Inner Farne as the island doesn't open to the public until 13.30. We were told that from 12 noon we would have to go back on the boat and stay offshore until 13.30. But that's not what happened. Someone decided to take us back to Seahouses for 'loos and snacks' [real reason: to fill the boat up]. In many ways that was all very well. The cruel irony however was that we didn't see the bridled tern during the morning session or during the afternoon session but it came onto the rocks whilst we were back at Seahouses at lunchtime. And it didn't wait for our return! Outcome: lots of not particularly gruntled birders. Gruntled being the opposite of disgruntled which meant I spent the afternoon wading through a positive tide of disgruntlement!
Still, the birds were wonderful. I thought my photos were a little disappointing too when I first scanned them but, as I worked through all 800 and odd, I found some really nice images. So, forget the bridled tern, here come the other terns, common, arctic and even the odd sandwich if you look carefully...
Whilst flying you sometimes get an irresistible itch...
Fancy a sandwich? [Can you spot him?]
Puffins were numerous.
Cormorant conference in the channel between Inner Farne and West Wideopen.
A seal hauled up onto the beach by the jetty.
This tern kept diving in at the same spot. The photos are in chronological order from different dives - all the same bird.
Sometimes when preening you can't quite reach the spot you want to tidy up...
Let's see if we can catch one of those guillemots that keep hurtling past.
Or a puffin maybe...
This bird caused some confusion and was briefly considered as a roseate tern. Admittedly the plum red is much darker than on the other arctics...
At this juncture we boarded our boat 'Glad Tidings' which turned out to be another cruel barb. We passed the guillemot laden cliffs...
...and rafts of puffins...
...and I snapped Bamburgh Castle in the distance.
Intermission
During this time I got another memory card out of Tiggy, saw the tern come up on the pager and waited for the boat to leave packed with the merry tourist throng.
Back on Inner Farne we scanned for the bridled tern.
No.
No.
No joy anywhere. The bird had flown. I walked up the path a short way and was skull-tapped 3 times by angry arctics. The pain they inflict is much exaggerated!
The birds will rebuke you noisily for coming too near the nests that line the path.
'Bringing home the bacon' - well, you know what I mean!
Something disturbed the kittiwake colony.
A female eider came wandering downhill out of the vegetation above the rocks.
An arctic waited to reclaim the jetty.
It was time to go. A ringed plover flew in as our boat arrived.
Puffins were still busy fishing for sandeels.
We passed guillemots that were sitting on the water.
I only saw this single razorbill all day.
A fulmar flew past us.
Time to say goodbye to the puffins.
The ABC of birding
Sunday 7th July 2013
Barry and I set off at 8am for Alkborough Flats. We met some roe deer on the path to the hide near the old car park.
Eventually they decided to run for it!
We saw a ruddy shelduck and some blackwits. A reed bunting was singing his heart out as we headed back to Tiggy.
Then we headed for Blacktoft - a long drive but only a minute or two for a marsh harrier!
Avocets posed at Marshland.
The young avocets seemed to be doing well. It was a hot day - 26 degrees at least.
Avocets are very quick to attack any possible predator. A great black-backed gull came over; not especially close to the pool.
You wouldn't want that jabbed up your back end, now would you?!
As we walked back a magpie was reading about tree sparrows.
Where next to escape the heat? Cold Hiendley reservoir?