EARLY MORNING VISIT TO ADDERTON HOUSE AND SURROUNDS - MORNING TRIP TO HARTHORPE VALLEY - TRANSFER TO NEWCASTLE CENTRAL FOR GROUP CHANGEOVER. GROUP 2 - BIG WATERS COUNTRY PARK - TRANSFER TO BELFORD HOTEL.
WEATHER; wet and windy for most of the morning, dry, sunny spells later with strong winds.
It was changeover day today, I took Group 1 back to Newcastle Central Station for their journey home, whilst Group 2 arrived 15 minutes later.
The end of the first tour began at 6am when we went our for a pre-breakfast birding session, it was raining when we met but it soon drifted away and stopped. We went to Adderton Hall but didn't get much joy there, Fances had been out earlier and found our first Great Spotted Woodpecker. We drove further along the road turned onto a country lane where we saw a lot more species. Yellowhammer, Song Thrush, Wren, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Common Whitethroat all went onto the day list.
Chiffchaff, record shot in poor light
For our last birding outing of the trip we drove to the Harthorpe Valley, a picturesque site with steep sided hills, topped with moorland. The river valley had open scrub areas, woodland and some grassy banks. Despite the freuent rain showers we had a great time there and from various locations in the valley we added a few birds to the list. Grey Wagtail, Siskin, Mistle Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Garden Warbler (heard), Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush and the star bird was Red Grouse! A party of four of these highland species were seen at the highest point we could scan and very distant.
in the Harthorpe Valley this morning
We had to leave the valley around 11am in order to get lunch and to drive to central Newcastle for the to catch a lunchtime time train. All went well, we evn added two species to the trip list along the way, both Common Buzzard and Common Kestrel were seen for the first! We arrived in good time for the train, I said farewell to my group and before I had time for a coffee the second group arrived!! Here we go again!
The second tour began with a visit to Big Waters Country Park just north of Newcastle. We had Neil Anderson with us, he has so much knowledge on all things natural that we were assured of seeing a lot more butterflies, dragonflies, birds and mammals.
at Big Waters Country Park in the wind
We started this second tour really well despite the annoying strong winds, it felt like deja vu because most of the species on the lake at Big Waters were the same as those seen with the first group. The Whooper Swan was still present as was Tufted Duck, Teal, Great Crested Grebe, Sand Martins all the geese and mallards. The difference was that we added Avocet to the list, along with Common Buzzard and quite a few Gadwall.
the Whooper Swan was still present
In the wooded area we saw three species of damselflies and half a dozen butterflies which included Comma, Red admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Small Skipper and Green Viened White. Marie found us a beautiful male Bullfinch, we also saw or heard Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Red Kite (also found by Marie), Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch and the usual corvids.
Comma Butterfly
Speckled Wood
A second Common BUzzard was seen along the A1 as we made our way to Belford to our hotel. At the hotel, during dinner we added Pied Wagtail, House Sparrow and Common Whitethroat. Our delicous dinner went down well and we all retired early in preparation for our first full day in Northumberland tomorrow.