Flash Down the Pan

Later this year one of Northumberland's birding sites will disappear from view, Longhirst Flash has fallen foul of Old King Coal and is smack bang centre of a huge opencast development that has planning permission and is known as Potland Burn. The company responsible for the opencast will in time re-landscape the site after they have had the obligatory extension, so perhaps in 20 years or so the land may have returned to its current state. The wetland is excluded from the excavation as is the adjacent woodland but the plans show the boundary running very close.
Views of the flash will be lost during excavation as the company plans to put a 5.5m-6.5m baffle bank between the road and pond
Looking at the picture above anyone not knowing the area might think that it is a fairly plain, small pond but for many local birders it has a good heritage. It is I think a mining subsidence pond, one of many in the area, it has only been in the last 15 years that it has deepened and started attracting a decent selection of birds. It first got attention in the early nineties with wintering Whooper Swan in the surrounding fields. The first decent bird I can find was a Spoonbill in 1996 although it was at least three years earlier it acquired the name 'Longhirst Flash' as one ancient local has a notebook entry for 13th March 1993 of one Tufted Duck and two Mallard. It was attractive to passage waders such as Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Greenshank, it's reedy north end often pulled in Garganey. In 1999 it had the first of a run of three Great White Egret in four years, with others in 2000 and 2003. The 2000 bird being particularly close to my heart as I found it that morning at my then patch of Castle Island before it moved inland to Bothal then Longhirst. Common Crane is another species that have been recorded here at least once with two birds on passage.
Maybe its last hurrah was 26th September last year when the twenty year county blocker Glossy Ibis was first re-found at the Flash and later briefly touched down again as a significant proportion of the county's birders attempted to catch up with it.
The disruption around the area will move out Long-eared Owl, Tawny Owl, Common Buzzard, Jay all breeding birds. We will be the poorer for not having this insignificant little pond.
It irks me that it we seem to be seen as an easy touch for coal, perhaps because of our mining heritage we're thought of as still having coal dust under the fingernails which to some extent is true. It irks me more that a fantastic little site like this is afforded little protection, I can't help thinking somewhere along the way we got our values seriously muddled.

thanks to Andy Mclevy for some of the historical records.

Alien Encounter

Sunday morning was dismal, grey cold and a million miles from Spring. I set out on another Timed Tetrad Visit which was hard going. I finished somewhere up near the site of St George's Hospital which was originally called Northumberland County Lunatic Asylum. All of the old buildings still stand although they are fenced off with cameras everywhere but I did note quite a few access holes that could be used by Little Owl, or Barn Owl for that matter.

Walking back I turned off the beaten track to head through the woods east back to the bottom of Whorral Bank and on home. The woods were a little misty but quiet. It was here that (I didn't think I'd ever write this) I had an alien encounter. I think it saw me first as when I caught sight of the small grey shape it was already moving off through the vegetation. No mistake though, an alien. No warning, not like the TV, no lights shining through trees or strange humming noises, just this small grey figure hurrying away.

I rushed to try and capture an image and in doing so stepped back too far and slipped down the muddy bank behind me, camera, bins and me doing a 'Glastonbury' in the mud. At least I assume I slipped, I suppose it could have been the alien although I felt no force.
I reported it of course to the relevant authorities, they may even have been out trying to catch up with the beast today although I haven't heard anything. Of course if they are behind the security fences at the old hospital there could be lots of them and unless access can be gained, well we won't know until they take over. We have to take action though, protect the natives and all that.

It was a shock, first Grey Squirrel I've had this far north.

Changes

There is the hint of a few changes in the air today, whilst some birds appear to be getting an early urge to move north with a Turtle Dove on Guernsey and a drake Garganey in Lincolnshire we also seem to be getting a few of the Waxwing moving around northeast of us in Scandanavia, with only three reports 1st-6th Feb today highlighted perhaps a few recent arrivals:


20:03 07/02/10 Waxwing Lincs Gibraltar Point NNR EN
three
19:16 07/02/10 Waxwing Lancs Church EN
four
15:57 07/02/10 Waxwing Highland Inverness EN
eight
15:02 07/02/10 Waxwing Clyde Glasgow 11:30 EN
two
14:03 07/02/10 Waxwing Lothian North Berwick 12:30 EN
one
13:06 07/02/10 Waxwing N Yorks Scarborough 06/02/10 EN
one
07/02/10 Waxwing Aberdeenshire New Deer EN
one

More to come?

info courtesy Birdguides.com

Saturday - Longhirst Hall

Knowing I had planned a Timed Tetrad Visit on Saturday morning I was pleased when I woke to sunshine, it always adds to the pleasure of being out and offers the possibility of some images too. It didn't take long though before the winter greyness shrouded out the sun and coldness hung in the air especially in the shadows.
My first late visit turned up no surprises, a decent flock of c600 Woodpigeon in fields and trees northeast of our village were nervous and easily spooked perhaps a consequence of the daily shotgun sounds that have echoed around the farmland every day this week.

Woodpigeon

Heading back through the mature wooded grounds of Longhirst Hall about 1mile north of our house I was pleased to here a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming, drilling through the heavy Winter air, Morse code for Spring. There were few other signs, partially frozen water beads clung to everything creating miniature galaxies of stars along the darkness of Hawthorn hedges and silvery extensions to very stem, branch and blade.

Look hard enough though and the first signs are there, the snow having retreated revealing its namesake amongst the soft rotting leaves. Steve Gale has some interesting background on Snowdrops today

Snowdrops, Longhirst Hall

A single Common Buzzard lifted from a roadside field disturbed by my passing as I strode home.

Larking About

Inspiration in the Internet enabled age is never far away. In common with almost everyone who has a passion for the natural world I prefer to be out in the field but as we all know it is simply impossible to put aside life's other little cares such as family and work entirely.
I was fired up again recently when I stumbled across Mark Fellowes blog and his images using skulls and books which I think deserve a wider audience. As a novice photographer I continue to be in awe of people who can conceive and capture such beautiful images that convey more meaning than I could ever pour into a blog post.
Getting such enjoyment from his images has strengthened my resolve to continue to put effort into improving the images I take and experimenting more this year. I may never produce a set of images that have the depth and imagination of Marks but I can have fun trying.

Skylark

Slow Start

February has started slowly on the birding front the first three days coinciding with my three day long childcare stint. A couple of visits to Woodhorn Flash eventually produced views of the four White-fronted Goose this morning feeding with a dozen or two Greylag in the field east of the south pool. There appeared to be some question over the race earlier in the week but there's no doubt that they are Greenland. Turned into a local bird club (NTBC) trip this morning as first bulletin editor Steve Barratt and member John Littleton turned up closely followed by ex-county recorder Mike Hodgson.

The only other 'newness' this week came in the shape of a Wren this morning, the first in our garden this year, perhaps adding more weight to the damage the cold weather has done to some of our more sedentary species.

I will be doing a number of second or late visits to winter tetrads for the BTO Atlas in coming weeks and it will be interesting to see the results, I'm not expecting to see a great deal.

During today's kiddie siesta I managed to convert three old wooden wineboxes into nestboxes that I retained after selling my retail business last year for just such a purpose. Two in the garden, one in Sycamore and one along the northern boundary beside the house. I was amazed that literally within one minute of coming indoors a pair of Great Tit were shoving their heads inside one to check it out, maybe they could smell the Chateauneuf.

Are the Waxwings Coming?

An interesting report on Birdguides this morning, apparently 'thousands' of Waxwing arrived at Uppsala, sweden overnight. Whilst Uppsala is on the east side of Sweden a little north of Stockholm it could indicate that food supplies further east have run out and there is an irruption happening.