Twilight At Thrunton Woods

Thrunton Woods at twilight.
Is there any better place to be than up in the dark heart of Northumberland, as the sun sets and the veil of darkness closes in.

David
Nature North East

Waders On Top

One of my favourite sights when up in a moorland habitat is that of wading birds perched proud atop a fence post or stood boldly on a dry stone wall. These are usually located by the side of a quiet winding road or gravel ridden lane.

The likes of Oystercatcher (as pictured), Common Snipe, Redshank & Curlew can usually be spotted taking advantage of a high point on the moors.
Providing us snap happy folk a chance to grab the cam and click away!

David
Nature North East

In The Company Of Brer Rabbit

Recently I've had the opportunity to photograph Brown Hare on rough grassland in an area of very quiet farmland.
They're fascinating mammals with a somewhat majestic and mystical quality. Its no wonder they hold such a prominent place in folklore across the world, from the american tales of the trickster Brer Rabbit to appearing in one of Aesop's Fables. Brown Hare make for very compelling viewing, unfortunately I left it to late in the game this year to get any photographs of them boxing during the spring months.
The photographs on this blog are a small selection of my favourites taken out in the field.

I wonder if many wildlife photographers ever stop to think about where the subject of their capture is at present.
A living wildlife subject that has been immortalised and preserved forever within the confines of a digital photograph may have been predated moments after that final shutter click or may very well still be thriving out there in the wild and perhaps in somebody else's viewfinder right now.

David
Nature North East

C.S.I: Cramlington & The Brutality Of Nature

Victim: Carrion Crow / Corvus Corone

Scene Of Crime: Arcot Golf Course

Crime: Murder

Personal Account:

...Sometime in late February I stumbled upon something straight out of a horror movie, there were scattered body parts all over the place, piles of feathers strewn across the mossy woodland carpet and an uneasy silence resounding through the wood.

I had walked right upon a murder scene, a crime of nature if you will and at my feet lay the recently devoured corpse of a Carrion Crow / Corvus Corone. This was a fresh kill, the red meat still looking juicy and red raw. 

The Crow had been picked clean, all that remained were its legs and a fully feathered head, eyes n'all. Obviously these were the less tasty parts shall I say. Next to the bird lay two piles of feathers, one containing larger feathers such as the primaries and the other seemed to mostly consist of shorter downy feathers.

On a large branch to the left a pair of wings hung in the breeze. Did these belong to the same bird? Possibly.

Around the area were a scattering of Jay feathers, but no sign of a carcass were present and a large mossy branch had remnants of what appeared to be rodent fur, of which species I couldn't possibly say.

But who commited this crime?

Female Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Fox.....Something else entirely? Man?.....Perhaps shot and scavenged?

I am fully aware of the activity of all suspects on this patch and the woodland area that held the corpse seemed to be this offenders favoured area.

Photo Evidence: See below (Not for the squeamish) 

In all seriousness finding this Carrion Crow was a pretty amazing and eye opening experience, yes it's just a dead Crow but it's the whole thought process behind the act that intrigues me.
Nature can be brutal, actually no lets be honest, nature is very brutal but I suppose it has to be. It is after all survival of the fittest on this ruthless earth and this Crow just happened to play a part in the success of a predators survival in this ecosystem and its that concept that astounds me.
Whether its Nile Crocodiles predating Wildebeest or Lady birds devouring Aphids, the food chain is pretty darn incredible!

David
Nature North East / The Northern Owl Project

Hide & Seek

Its been a few weeks since my last blog, it does however seem an appropriate time to return to action and blog yet again!

...So Friday 5^th arrived and after only about 5 hours sleep I was up and ready to go because this morning I was after Owls! I had been told of a North East hot spot and after reports of decent numbers earlier in the week I thought I would give it a go.

**I will not be naming the site unfortunately, this is due to the actions of some photographers who have been flushing Owls purposely to take photographs and get 'The Shot'. This was done in a co-ordinated fashion and is plain wrong. Luckily a local birder caught them in the act.

My aim is to photograph wildlife in its habitat with as little disturbance as possible. If that means I don't get 'The Shot', then fair enough that's the chance you take.

Previously Owls have been disturbed to point of not coming back on this site which is a shame and with numbers building back up again, I don't want to be possibly responsible for history repeating. So I'll keep my silence **

So after what felt like a lifetime in the car I arrived, and just as I did so I heard the sound of rain on the windscreen! Nightmare! Owls DO NOT like rain, along with high winds its a weather condition they really can not tolerate. Luckily this was a very brief shower.

After walking about the site for a couple hours with no result besides a few flighty Fieldfare and Redwing, you've gotta love the winter Thrushes, I had seen nothing. I managed to catch up with a local birder and Twitter friend who was on site at the same time, and we set off looking together.

We found a few possible roost sites, all empty but clearly used recently due to droppings and pellets. We literally scoured every Hawthorn bush, hedge line, tree and bushy scrub as we went. Nothing......hmmm, I was nearly 3 hours into searching and still nothing but droppings to go off.

Long Eared Owl Pellet

Then as we scoured along near an old marsh, a Short Eared Owl burst up and out from some gorse scrub. Brilliant!! What a feeling. After hours of searching it's so rewarding to find the quarry you were hunting. 5 Minutes later another lifted and then a third individual just observed us from within the scrub. The Shortie with its big yellow eyes just scowled at us.

We moved on not wanting to stress the Owl out any further. We moved into a nearby plantation said to have good roosting numbers of Long Eared Owl, 6 to be precise. The number often changes though with Owls using a few nearby locales. Unfortunately nothing showed. On our way back a dog walker and his children flushed 2 of the Shorties, including the one which remained perched.

We later caught up with all 3 and had some more great views.

On the way back to the car we had a mooch around another Long Eared Owl roost site again and found only droppings and pellets. Its surprising how well Owls can fly through a dense patch of Hawthorn. The last port of call was a Little Owl hotspot, there is a regular couple of birds seen this area and today we managed to see one of the pair! I was loving this! Little Owl are my favourite birds, they're fantastically entertaining and although they're technically an invasive species brought over as a novelty in the 19^th century and later released, they're fantastic!

With cracking views of 2 british owls(1 Little and 2 Short Eared) as well as Willow Tit, Kestrel, Redwing, Fieldfare and a female Sparrowhawk! Friday morning was very well spent!  

Sun, Sea & Suspicious Holiday Makers

Suspicious being the perfect word because when your chilling out poolside with a pair of binocs it  doesn't look good no matter how you try and dress it up.

"Erm I'm a bird watcher...."(whack!) 

You always get the feeling that fellow sun seekers think your quite simply perving on the nearest Czech or Cypriot hotty, and for the majority of the time that was not the case...

....What? Don't judge me, you can't tell me you've never took a cheeky glance whilst hiding behind those shady sunglasses. How dare you....

Ermm where were we ....oh yeah Cyprus, that little island in the Med, well it was home to myself and the boss(the other half) for the past two weeks.

We were in Cyprus because one of my best mates was getting married over there, and we doubled this up as as both a chance to celebrate the wedding with friends and as a holiday as a couple. This in turn resulted in a holiday which was not birding focused, I digress much drinking and sunbathing ensued. I did however, indulge when I could. Taking myself off on little walks around the local area or just keeping a watchful eye around the pool and beach, Binocs at the ready should I need to take visual aim. 

Home for the 2 weeks was the Cyprotel Maris near Paphos 

The poolside and around the hotel complex was home to handful of regular species of bird. A handful of Collared Dove zipped backwards and forwards, stopping now and again to drink the pool water. Multiple small flocks of House Sparrow were an ever present sight, due to the major decline of these in England, there cheeps and chirps were a joy to hear. Long gone are the days I hear them on mass in local hedgerows. A real shame.  Feral Pigeon adorned the rooftops of the hotel and a lone Kestrel would do the rounds and zip through daily, generally at the same time. The hotel and Cyprus in general was abundant with many a murder of Hooded Crow, a lifer bird for me, believe it or not.

Now despite them being pretty much a Carrion Crow with a grey feathered Gilet on, I was rather excited at their presence.

Hooded Crow

We did have a couple species of reptilian keeping us company, the Sling Tailed Agama being the more predominant. Though it goes by several names including; Slagama, Star Lizard, Hardim, Stellion & Painted Dragon.

I prefer Sling Tailed Agama, makes it sound more prehistoric.

Sling Tailed Agama

Keeping a watchful eye

After a few days we transitioned from lounging around the pool to lounging around the beach and sea, a stones throw from the pool.....equally as lazy really, blast my fit and active intentions! I will defend myself however, I did hit the hotel gym on numerous occasions.

So we spent time relaxing under the burning sun on the beach and it was at this moment the game changed For it was in a small man made bay by the beach that the kingfisher was king. Day in day out he spent hours in this small bay fishing, surrounded by holiday makers. A brilliant view, at one point I took a swim into the water of the bay and got with 6 feet of him. He just stared back, not phased at all. Amazing!

'Kingy Bay'

A five minute walk South West took you to a small headland of rock, scrub and rocky shore. There were 4 Crested Lark feeding and singing here, as well as a lone Wheatear.  I stumbled upon an Ocellated Skink whilst lifting a piece of tattered carpet, a near threatened species.

Crested Lark

Northern Wheatear

This pretty much sums up the extent of my wildlife and bird watching in Cyprus, lets not forget I was on holiday after all. ;)
Keep an eye on the blog, the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page over the coming weeks and months for more regular updates about what I've been up to in the North East......