HARTHOPE VALLEY – WOOLER COMMON
WEATHER: the hottest day of the tour so far, sunshine all day, some cloud later. 28C
Whilst the south of the country are roasting in very high temperatures we have escaped the brunt of the heatwave except for today when the temperature rose to 28C. That slowed us down a lot and whilst we had a very good day birding we also suffered a little in the heat.
At the start of the tour I was complaining about the cold wind coming in off the sea, today that would have felt nice, but a dry, sunny day, is always preferable.
We skipped the early morning walk because nearly all of the group stayed up late last night watching England’s World Cup Football match, so we met at breakfast at 7am.
We were on the road at 8am heading inland towards Wooler, we stopped next to a stone bridge where we scanned the river below and found nothing much. Wren, Robin, Willow Warbler, Pied Wagtail, a couple of Hares and some Rabbits in the fields.
Willow Warbler
At Wooler we stopped to buy lunch supplies at a supermarket. It was 9:30am by the time we were driving in the Harthope Valley in the Cheviot Hills. What a beautiful place, stunning scenery and a tranquil setting.
We stopped several times along the valley to view the fast-flowing river looking for Grey Wagtail, Dipper and Common Sandpiper. We saw two out of three, dipping on the Dipper. It was Mike who found us the Common Sandpiper, it showed extremely well for a while.
Common Sandpiper found by Mike Taylor
the track thropugh the valley
We found a beautiful Whinchat on the hillside, but it disappeared after only a short while. Debbie then found Nuthatch and a Marsh Tit, whilst Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff also went onto the list.
At the head of the valley we parked the bus and got ready to take a short walk, not before Peter called out a Redpoll! This stunning little creature was feeding in the bracken not 5 meters away from us, how extraordinary and what a great sighting.
Mistle Thrush
We had good close views of a Mistle Thrush which was making its staccato trilling noise, it eventually flew out of a tree and landed on a fence post, posing for our cameras. We ‘scoped the hillsides looking for Wheatear and Red Grouse, the latter was seen several times, but they were very distant.
a walk up the hillside, Pauline shown with Debbie further down the hill
A good amount of time was spent looking for a Dipper from a wooden bridge, we saw Grey Wagtails again, with more Redpolls and Goldfinches appearing in the bushes and long grass. A walk up the steep hillside trying to get better views of the grouse reduced my group from seven to just two. Debbie and Pauline came with me, and it was Debbie that found our only Spotted Flycatcher of the trip, she also found some more Redpolls and a few Siskins which were new for our list.
a very distant Spotted Flycatcher in the shadows of the trees
The hillside walk produced nothing more, we didn’t see Red Grouse, only Meadow Pipits. Back at the bus it was lunchtime, so we all sat down to eat our picnic supplies.
Around 1:30pm in the heat of the day we set off on another walk, this one didn’t last long and the only new species seen was a couple of Stonechats, we did find Redpolls again and plenty of Goldfinches.
We drove out of the valley around 2pm and headed to Wooler Common along the way we made a comfort stop in town. Once again the walk was cut short because of the heat and very few birds were on show. It was a wonderful spot, mature woodlands, a lovely man-made pool and lots of wildflowers. The area is known to support a good population of Red Squirrels, we saw the feeders but not the animals.
male Grey Wagtail
In and around the pond we saw Moorhens with chicks, quite a few Broad-bodied Chasers dashed about and several butterflies were seen: Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell and Green-veined White.
We left the Common and before we drove back to the hotel we stopped in Wooler for a nice cuppa and a piece of cake. We called it day, a little earlier than usual because everyone had heat-fatigue including me.