Bean Goose hit, Cherry Plum miss

My first posting for over a month due to, well nothing but idleness to be truthful, and,  seeing very little. It's starting to feel a bit like spring, with things awakening, including myself.

Nipped over and got the 2 Tundra Bean Geese at Houghton Gate this afternoon which were swimming on the pond with about 20 Grey Lag. They waddled off the pond and started feeding in the field to the west amongst Curlew and Lapwing. 7 Shelduck and about 20 Teal  and 45 Wigeon also present . The Geese made it number 87 for my Chester-le-Street year list.

The Tundra Bean Geese at Houghton Gate

The fell is still very quiet and most of the winter thrushes have now gone, being replaced by a few Meadow Pipts and singing Skylark. The garden feeder is probably more busier than it's been all winter, with daily visits by Goldfinch and a few Siskin as well as the resident Blackbirds, Robins etc. A Wood Mouse is also making regular forays underneath and grabbing spilt seed. Last week 3 Song Thrushes were singing within a 75 metre radius of garden in the evening and again the following morning. Some proof they are recovering in numbers I hope.

Siskins on the feeder

Still nothing new in the flora front. I have been looking for a Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) which I found  in the Hermitage woods a number of years back. Closely related to the Blackthorn, it has white flowers in loose spikes, but they appear at the same time as the leaves and the branches are thornless. It looks like it has gone as I have failed to find it though I can't remember exactly where it was. It flowers a couple of weeks earlier than Blackthorn, usually in February and now the Blackthorn is coming out, or is already in full flower in some of the more sheltered spots.

From storming to struggling

After my storming start. I've been struggling to get new birds for my Chester-le-Street year list since. The fell produced a couple of new birds in the way of Skylark and Green Woodpecker but that's all. The latter species has been much scarcer the past few years as I have commented on before. From 7 pair here about 10 years ago, it looks like they are down to 2 pair now. In fact I failed to get them on my 1Km square list last year.

Apart from that it's been a couple of visits to the riverside and Houghton Gate Pond. I've just come back from the latter where there's a stack of birds but nothing new. There were 380 Grey Lag Geese, 400+ Curlew, a Black-tailed Godwit, 60 Lapwing, 100 (counted) Wigeon, a Shelduck, 2 Shoveler, 35 Teal, 55 Wood Pigeon and 7 Tree Sparrow.

So the year list stands at 81.

5 Ducks, a Goose, a Kite and a Godwit.

Yesterday a very quick visit to Lambton Pond to successfully bag 2 Black-tailed Godwit proved very worthwhile as it also produced five new duck species for the year with Shelduck, Gadwall, Teal, a Shoveler and 90+ Wigeon as well as a Red Kite (also new) and a Common Buzzard. Unfortunately I went straight past Houghton Gate without checking it to later discover that the 2 Greenland White-fronted Geese found at Lamesley by Paul Davidson in the morning had relocated here.

For a change,  my luck was in  and the White-fronted Geese were still present this morning in amongst a flock of nearly 200 Grey Lag. This goose flock is the same size as the Lamesley one so it's not difficult to deduce that the geese, and not just the White-fronts, are commuting between these two sites. A rather dodgy and uncountable, in my opinion, Barnacle Goose, again often at Lamesley,  was also present in the flock.

Thats 78 for the year, maybe 130 wasn't too optimistic - there I go again, I'm going to regret saying that.

4 more, 70 birds for the year

4 more species for the year after a bit of the walk over a wet and occasionally blustery fell.

Tawny Owl calling at first light in the Southburn woods and a Woodcock flushed from there as I walked/crashed through them. Then Daisy Hill produced two more with several Common Snipe and two Meadow Pipit (but no hoped for Jack Snipe). Still 70 species on the 2nd here ain't too bad.

2014 - two new challenges

2014 - It's a new year so a new challenge (and list required). After last year's successful 1000for1ksq challenge, followed really by a month of virtually nothing, (and hence the lack of blog entries), I have looked at what I could attempt this year.

I have in fact, decided on two lists / challenges this year.
One will be to see how many species of birds I can see in Chester-le-Street in a year. Rather optimistically I am going to try for 130 species. As for the parameters I am going to use the old district council boundaries as my definition of Chester-le-Street so it will take be out of NZ2549 a bit which is what I needed after last year's challenge.

The other list will be on wild flowers. I have been a member of the Wild flower Society for many years but its a very long time since I sent any list or diary in. Again following my 1ksq challenge last year which gave me well over 300 species I am going to do a 10ksq list for NZ24 which of course includes Waldridge. Some people have been doing this for many, many years and have recorded over 1,000 plants in their square. With last year's effort being year one (which I submitted to the WFS the other day) I am going to start year two quite strongly and will try to get to 600 by the end of the year. Again this will be taking me a bit further afield (but not too far).

I'll still be doing my wanderings around Waldridge however looking at the different aspects of nature as it really is a great place and I want to spend a bit more time looking at Hoverflies and Mosses in particular. And I'll still be running the moth trap too.

So I started my "Chester" bird list doing my usual 1st January walk, down to riverside park, along the river, the A167 to Chester Moor then on to Waldridge fell, village and back home.

Quite a miserable day with light rain showers, grey skies and rather cold but I plodded on and got a decent start to the year with 66 species as listed below. The highlights being a Stonechat and Tree Sparrows,  the latter, not only in their now regular spot along Waldridge Lane but also between the houses and wildlife area at the Riverside Park, the first time I've had them here. Misses, very little,  no Tawny Owl, Skylark or Meadow Pipit but certainly nothing to worry about.

Robin Blackbird Magpie House Sparrow Carrion Crow Blue Tit Mistle Thrush Rook Black-headed Gull Jackdaw Starling Herring Gull Great Tit Feral Pigeon Wood Pigeon Collared Dove Dunnock Common Gull Mallard Mute Swan Goosander Pheasant Pied Wagtail Grey Wagtail Common Coot Tufted Duck Lesser Black-backed Gull Little Grebe Kingfisher Great Spotted Woodpecker Canada Goose Common Buzzard Great Black-backed Gull

Greylag Goose Grey Heron Wren Greenfinch Reed Bunting Bullfinch Chaffinch Jay Dipper Willow Tit Goldfinch Song Thrush Curlew Tree Sparrow Sparrowhawk Goldcrest Redwing Fieldfare Long-tailed Tit Coal Tit Tree-creeper Nuthatch Yellowhammer Lesser Redpoll Linnet Kestrel Cormorant Stonechat Moorhen Lapwing Golden Plover Grey Partridge Stock Dove

1109 and that it.. probably

 My first posting for more than a month, mainly because it's been rather quiet. Once I hit the 1000 species in the 1km square I slowed down and much of my time has been going through the specimens in the fridge using my microscope and reference books. It's been a (very) hard, slow plod but I'm now on 1109 species and I think that's probably it. The moth trap is packed away and I'll probably not have it out any more until February unless we have some mild weather, which according to the forecasts seems very unlikely. There's still a few plants in flower including a nice pink Yarrow this morning, adding a bit of colour to the grey skies

Yarrow

As well as hitting numbers 1103-1109 today with a few more mosses, fungi and a lichen it was nice to just have a slow walk around the square and even venturing  outside it.

Blushing Bracket [Daedaleopsis confragosa]

There's quite a few Redwing around, no big flocks just groups of 1 to 10 in many of the hedgerows and woods, but no Fieldfare. Jays were another species rather conspicuous today with three different individuals seen, all presumably hunting acorns. A covey of Grey Partridge were in one of the arable fields

Grey Partridge

 and about 40 Golden Plover flew over Beany Lane towards the field they are usually in these days on the opposite site of the A167.

Golden Plover flying over

The best thing was probably a late Hedgehog which may have been disturbed from it's chosen hibernation place as it scuttled across the road.I gave it a helping hand.



Previously,  the best species since my last posting, though it's not saying much,  but it was my 84th species of bird this year in the square,  was a Red-legged Partridge. Which I have counted even though it's wild credentials are suspect at the very least.

Red-legged Partridge

It's already nearly dark these days before heading off to work and it is on my return,  so my sightings will probably be only at weekends, at least until the Christmas holidays.

Finally, as I said I did wander out of the square and into the Hermitage Woods at one point. The big viaduct there which takes the main east coast trains was, I guess, built around the same time as the big one in the town centre, which was finished in 1868 apparently. Anyway, though probably only superficial, it's certainly looking it's age with bricks missing and cracks on all the arch supports. Presumably its structurally checked and safe even if it does look decidedly dodgy these days.

Streak and Geese

It's been a wet and windy week and the moth trap has only had two outings. The best of a small selection both species and numbers was one called The Streak, a moth I have not caught for a few years now.

The Streak

Still quite few Carpets still about with Common Marbled, Grey Pine and Spruce Carpets present both times I have trapped.

Grey Pine Carpet

There was an interesting small dark female Ichneumon wasp in the trap too. A tiny thing, black with red legs, the rear being very large compared to the others.  I suspect this is a species called Helconidea ruspator.

Ichneumon wasp [Helconidea ruspator?]

Despite the early Redwings last month and east/north-east winds, there have been very few passing through to date. This seems to be generally true for the north east with the majority of them arriving much further south this year, mainly in Kent and the southern counties. Indeed there have been more Skylarks passing over than thrushes this week, with two small groups again today.

The birds of the week were also today, with a group of 4 Pink-footed Geese in the stubble field at Beany Lane.

Three of the four Pink-footed Geese at Beany Lane

 A flock of 30 Linnet and 40 House Sparrows are also feeding in this field. Also of interest was a covey of 11 Grey Partridge in Smith's Field on Thursday.