Marsh tit and early autumn round up

Clearly I am not managing to post to this blog very often - which does not mean that my interest in natural history has waned. Rather, it is a reflection of 1) prioritising my welsh blog Ailddysgu and 2) that I do at times do the nature related blogging in Welsh that I would otherwise do in English - and having limited time, as always.

Yesterday Jim and I went on a walk at the Hanson reserve - our local nature reserve - with our county bird recorder, Andy. The weather was kind and we had an ausipcious start, as he told us that the bird flying so quickly past us and the hedge was a sparrowhawk. Although I do see sparrowhawks from time to time around us, I certainly could not identify such a bird flying past very quickly - giving you only a glimpse.

It made me realise that we had not been to the reserve for some time, but apparently there is a short-eared owl there again so I will plan to go a bit more often and see if I can spot it. There is also a great white egret around - and has been for a month so hope to look for that too. It was not apparent yesterday, at any rate.

In addition to the water birds (the usual crew of lapwing, heron, many black headed gulls and one common gull - which I don't think I've seen before, heron, shoveller, teal, coot, gadwall, widgeon, swans, canada geese, cormorants and a very large roost (around 16?) of little white egrets) we saw a beautiful bird at the woodland hide. This was a marsh tit - which I have never seen. Apparently they are quite difficult to separate from willow tits, but Andy was pretty certain that this pair were marsh tits - and pointed us to all the features to support that identification. Not that I would be able to tell the difference if I see another one. It was a striking bird - much prettier than it looks in the field guide with a warm, buffish colour on its breast and a very smart black cap. The photo is my best go on my little camera - but it is not really able to show it very well.

We are having quite a mild autumn so far, having had really hot weather at the beginning of the month. To round up: in the last couple of months, I have seen a kingfisher on the way back from work on the river - I stopped my bike having seen a bird fly past quickly and as it perched on the bank, saw that it was a kingfisher before it flew back again. A few weeks earlier I saw the first weasel I have seen for a long time - running across the road this time. And a couple of weeks later we saw a large fox on our way back from the city centre. Again, I have not seen a fox for quite a while, though the rabbit population is still pretty high with a large number on the verges as we drove back into Newport Pagnell last night.

North York Moors

I went walking just before Easter on the North York Moors: the last part of the Coast to Coast walk that I have been doing with friends over the last few years in chunks. This time we walked from Northallerton to Robin Hood's Bay so much of this weas over heather moorland.

On the first day we were walking mainly in the valley (Vale of Mowbray) and then the walk heads through some woods and up on to the moors, through a forest with wonderful views acroos the valley - and possible to Middlesborough.
It has been good to hear the calls of the lapwings and curlews again - and we've seen or heard a number of meadow pipits and red grouse and I also saw a tree creeper. But the highlight was the roe buck that I saw on the second day, in the wood about two miles from where we had stayed overnight. The buck was lying down in the wood just off the path, and near enough to get a very close view. Using the binoculars I could see the markings on his face and muzzle, the very dark eyes (looked black to me) and black nose; greyish brown face and double grey velverty antlers which were quite upright. He could see Matthew and I but seemed quite unperturbed and stayed lying down at the edge of the wood facing towards us.

Much of the walking after this was on moorlands. We stayed the following night at Beakhills farm, Cringle Moor - just off the path. Although there were not many trees around, we heard tawny owls that night - and Julie cook, who owns the farm and runs the B&B told us that she and her husband noted the date each year when the curlews come back - and it ranges quite a lot. There were certainly plenty of curlews around - and apparently a goshawk that had taken many of the pheasants in the rearing pen. For the first part of the walk as we left we still had views over the Vale of Mowbray - but soon that disappeared as we headed acros the centre of the moor to walk across the heather mainly on the old railway track to reach Blakeley Ridge. There was very little wildlife here - a possible ring ousel (as I was at the back all I saw was a blackbird sized and coloured bird flying off from the back - but it is unlikely it was a blackbird at that height and in that environment). From our B&B at Blakeley Ridge we could see lapwings and partridge in the garden. The next morning was another walk across the moors (very very windy) but with wonderful views later on until we came down into the village of Glaisdale (and an excellent pub - though unfortunately we had needed to eat our lunch up on the moors...) and then on to spend the last night at Grosmont. This is a very pretty valley - our final walking on a pretty estate lane - where we saw black pheasants, a weasel rushing across the road - and my first house martin of the year. Our final day took us once again onto the moors and into worsening weather (though it was never as bad as forecast). This day's walk took us onto the final coastal stretch which was very pretty walking, but not particularly rich in bird or animal life, allthough I saw the first swallow I have seen this year. It was a good walk, but rather longer than comfortable - we needed to get to the end by 4.30 in order to make our train. So that is the end of our 190 walk from the West to the East coast.