Mag-Lime & Muscovy Ducks at Marden Quarry

My Traineeship with Durham Wildlife Trust is rapidly reaching its climax and my ejection into an unknown realm will soon be upon me. I'm constantly scouring the internet and speaking to local contacts for work.
As you can imagine it fills me with dread not knowing which way my career will go from here, I'm optimistic I will remain in the conservation sector but your guess is as good as mine.
It is a tad exciting though.........the uncertainty, what is actually the next step?

Anyway on with the show, work was entirely classroom based on Friday and I used the opportunity of an early finish to have a look around a local urban green space 5 minutes from my front door, Marden Quarry in Whitley Bay.  The daft thing is I've never actually been before despite its close proximity to my dwelling.

It turned out to be an interesting urban sanctuary to say the least, the quarry is one of the very few areas of exposed Magnesium Limestone North of the Tyne. County Durham is a completely different story, it has an amazing amount of Magnesium Limestone landscapes. The quarry now consists of a large pond with a few wooded islands and a large area of mixed scrub on the western edge, consisting of primarily Elder, old knarly and twisted mature Elder, it looked like a passerine's dream.

The pond itself held a few Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen and multiple types of duck hybrid. There was a young shoveler feedingby a wooded island and a pair of Muscovy kept watch from the side of the pond. Like two old men keeping an eye on the state of things.
I mentioned how old and knarly the Elder were, well I think these Muscovy Duck can take the crown for that. They're about as primitive as a duck can look, disregarding the saw billed ducks of course, they look like the unfortunate result of a ducks drunken one night stand with a Turkey!!
The bare red skin around the face and the thick, stocky body of the bird make it quite an imposing character when compared to the dainty Tufted Ducks.

Amongst the mixed scrub were the usual suspects, Robin, Magpie, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit and Greenfinch were all in attendance.
When I say there was Woodpigeon there, I mean there was a hell of a lot of Woodpigeon! I quite like these birds in all fairness, I'm not anti Woodpigeon by any means, but they have that seriously annoying character trait of making as much noise as possible when they fly off!! Much like Pheasants!
Nothing breaks the still of silence better than a startled Woodpigeon or an overly nervous Pheasant!

I've heard rumour that Marden Quarry has been a good place to spot passing rarities, I think I'll make a point to check the quarry out on regular occasions now and see if anything does turn up.
Afterall, I have no excuse, its only five minutes from home.

David

Fire & Water

The Charcoal Kilns ablaze 

As part of my training on the WildGrounds project with Durham Wildlife Trust we took part in the creation of Charcoal. Beginning to End, on the 5^th, 6^th and the 10^{th November.}. Starting with the filling of the Kilns, the lighting and burning of the wood and the bagging of the charcoal.

We did this at Low Barns Nature Reserve, near Bishop Auckland. My first time on this nature reserve and what a brilliant place it is.

There were birds aplenty in the woodland and wetland habitats, with great views of Passerines, Pheasant and Moorhen around the feeding station. As well as Grey Squirrel, everyone has an opinion of that particular yank species. I managed to get a couple of brief glimpses of Sparrowhawk and on the final day a single Snipe flying overhead.
All in all the three days of charcoal production, from start to the final end product, was a great experience, made even better because of the fantastic setting! If you get a chance I highly recommend you visit Low Barnes Nature Reserve.

The longest day we had was a 13 hour day, which was spent actually letting the wood burn in the kilns to create the charcoal. This day was book ended by the calling of Tawny Owls, both in the morning and on the evening. I love Owls, I think anyone who spends an amount of time in my company will realise I have a healthy obsession with our five British species! They fascinate me.

So if anyone reading this rings Owls or knows of any regular Owl hotspots(In the North East of course) I would love to hear from you. ;)

The feeders at Low Barnes provided the best views of Nuthatch I think I've ever had and although very weary, we were occasionally treated to some great views of Jay.

Jay fascinate me, for a Corvid species they're incredibly shy and amazingly coloured. They do however, make an incredible racket. Some fleeting glimpses of a pair of Kingfisher also added a dash of colour to a grey Autumn day.

Ghost of Cramlington

So after a day primarily spent watching documentaries about space I decided I needed some outdoor time. I contained my outdoor cravings until mid evening, because tonight I was hunting!

Hunting for a bird that comes out pretty darn late in the day. I had heard of a local site getting frequent visits from a Barn Owl. The word Owl alone would have done it for me, but this was a Barnie. The last of the British species I've yet to see in 2014.

I had visited the site earlier in the week but too no avail, tonight I was hopeful......conditions were stunningly perfect.

There were plenty of butterflies and dragonflies about, the usual Kestrel was seen flying and hunting over the fields. The wetland didn't feature anything out of the ordinary, a few of the commoner species of gull and a couple Moorhen feeding on the reeds. They were actually using there feet to climb onto the reeds. Sedge & Grasshopper Warbler were heard calling briefly, Goldfinch flew about and the sky featured House Martins & Swallows feeding before going to roost.

One of the many female Common darters flying about tonight

Then I seen it......a white shape to my left, evidently not a gull! I got my binoculars on it, and behold 'twas a Barn Owl!! I quickly rang 'Liverbirder', who was about 1/4 mile away and informed him of the Owl.

The Barnie put on a brief show for us but soon vanished, and shortly after so did 'Liverbirder'. 

I hung around hoping for another performance, slowly retreating back abit more after each scope scan. 

Then suddenly it was back and this time it flew right past me, giving me a cheeky glimpse when it did so!

It perched on a fence post about 100ft away, I crept about 30ft away and enjoyed this amazing birds company before making a gentle retreat back to the car. I didn't want to push my luck and cause the bird any stress, and as I walked away it just stayed relaxed on the post. To be honest it seemed quite comfortable with my presence.