Red Squirrels

 I went up to a well-known beauty spot yesterday to see if I could find any Red Squirrels. Two were running around looking for food but more worryingly, there was also a Grey there. This is the first time I have seen a Grey in what is a stronghold for Reds. I have reported it (by e-mail) to the council so who knows it may still be a stronghold for Reds in the future.

Autumn is here the Squirrel has its tufts

First time I have seen a Squirrel eating Fungus. It started with the cap

Then went onto the stem

Then found something it had buried

It sniffed the air at one point

Then carried on eating

This one does not have tufts yet

The first Grey Squirrel I have seen up there

Another Lifer

 Yesterday I had a trip to Trow Quarry in South Shields for a lifer a Taiga Flycatcher a great little bird that showed very well. The supporting cast wasn’t bad either a Pallas’s Warbler was flighty but great to see. Most of the birders and photographers, while I was there, were socially distancing which was great.  

Taiga Flycatcher

Why someone would want to bait the Taiga with mealworms when it was showing so well is beyond me.

Pallas’s Warbler

Female Stonechat

My first Redwing of the autumn

More Dragons

 For those of you who are not sick of Dragonflies, here are a few more for you to look at. I have just finished going through all of the images some of which were taken at the end of September (I cannot believe that where has the time gone) and some at the beginning of this moth at Twizell Woods. Unless we get any more warmish days these are probably the last Dragonflies I will see this year. 

Migrant Hawker

Southern Hawker

Female in flight

Southern Hawker posing for me

Southern Hawkers trying to get into a mating ring

This is how it worked out

I was lucky enough to track them in flight right until he took her into the trees

Female laying eggs