LOCAL WALK NEAR ADDERSTONE - HAUXLEY NATURE RESERVE – COQUET ISLAND BOAT TRIP – HAUXLEY NATURE RESERVE
WEATHER: broken sunshine all day, very light winds. Temp 25C
Before breakfast we drove down the road towards Bamburgh and turned onto a single track road after a mile or so. We parked at a small intersection and scanned the surrounding fields, hedges and mature oak trees for anything interesting.
Yellowhammer
We quickly found Yellowhammers, Linnets, Goldfinches and Chaffinches, a Great Spotted Woodpecker decided to leave the oak trees just after we arrived. We found a few Tree Sparrows and two in particular showed very well in a hedgerow, that was until a Sparrowhawk arrived. We were watching them when the hawk snatched one and dropped into the crop field below. It took a few minutes for it to reappear, carrying a plucked Tree Sparrow off to its nest.
A Hare ran along the lane towards us and made an abrupt U-Turn when it saw us, It did this twice! Doh!
After breakfast we set off for Amble where we were to take the boat to Coquet Island, we had to check-in before we sailed at 12noon. We had 3 hours to kill so, as planned, we visited the lovely reserve at Hauxley, I do love this place and not just because they make delicious scones in the café.
We sandwiched our boat trip to Coquet Island in between two visit to Hauxley Nature Reserve and had a great day out. The weather was so much better than yesterday, lots of sunshine and only a light breeze.
lots of Orchids can be found along the tracks, this is a Common Spotted Orchid
As a matter of fact, we did stop in the café before setting off to visit the hides. We found Tree Sparrows around the entrance and from the café windows we saw a multitude of Geese, Canada and Greylag, along with Mallards, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Coots Moorhens, Shelduck, Lapwings, Black-headed Gulls, Mute Swans, Oystercatchers and Redshanks. Nearly all of the above had chicks of various ages and sizes.
Goosander with a Greylag Goose
We walked to view the main lagoon from three different hides, our main target species was Little Gull, we knew that several have been reported nearly everyday this week. From the Top Hide we saw nothing different except for a bunch of Curlews roosting on a bank, the Tern Hide gave us views of terns!! Common and Arctic Terns was present.
two Arctic Terns and a Common Tern, can you seen which is which? (hint - check out the legs!)
Along the track we saw many wildflowers including Common Spotted and Northern Marsh Orchids, also Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Meadow Brown and Ringlet Butterflies.
From the Tern Hide we made our way around to the Willow Hide where we enjoyed sightings of quite a few species: Blue, Great and Coal Tits, Sedge Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Goldfinch, Linnet and Chaffinch. We heard Willow Warbler without seeing one.
Time was pressing, we had no time to walk the extra few hundred meters to the Ponteland Hide, so we vowed to come back after our Boat Trip to complete the circuitous route around this bird-filled reserve.
At 12noon we gathered at the harbour in Amble to board our boat for the ‘Puffin Cruise’ which entails sailing around Coquet Island but not actually landing on it. The weather was great the wind very slack and the light was just dandy.
our Puffin Cruise boat at Amble Harbour
Coquet Island is only a mile offshore
Grey Seals
As we approached the island we could see raft of Puffins on the water with some Guillemots and the odd Razorbill. Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns dashed to and fro whilst Grey Seals popped their heads out of the water to have a look at us.
Puffins
Puffin pictures taken by Brenda
The boat was steered close to the shore where the captain pointed out our most-wanted species, the Roseate Tern. They breed in nest boxes where we saw both adults and chicks, smashing. He said that 104 pairs are now breeding which is a record for the Island, also the Puffin numbers have increased to 18,000 pairs.
Roseate Tern
taken with Brenda's Lumix Camera
After about 15 minutes watching the terns we drifted towards a large number of Grey Seals hauled up onto the rocks, theirs numbers now reach over 1,000. We also saw Kittiwakes, Fulmar, Cormorants, Eider Ducks and Gannets.
Our 1 hour was soon up, we motored back to the harbour, disembarked and jumped back onto the bus. Five minutes later we were back at Hauxley and we went straight into the café for lunch.
Around 2pm we set off for the 1km walk to the Ponteland Hide. From gaps in a hedgerow we had views of the Bondi Pool where we saw five Little Gulls, several Redshanks, a Black-tailed Godwit and four Eurasian Teal. From the hide we had much closer views of all those species. Our most-wanted species was the Little Gull and there were seven of them, all seen from the hide.
two of the seven Little Gulls seen on Bondi Pool
Black-tailed Godwit with a Redshank
Our walk back was also punctuated with stops to watch more species, we added Cetti’s Warbler, another Blackcap, also Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler to the list. Christine and a couple more of the group saw a family party of Stoats as they walked along the main footpath!
At 4:30pm we left the Reserve, well satisfied with our sightings, it took 30 minutes to get back to our hotel. Dinner was served a little late, but it was still delicious.