Over the border…

 …into Northumberland at the start of (I can’t believe it) last month. I haven’t been up to Northumberland in ages so to put that right my wife and I had a drive up to see what we could see. Some birds were very distant (so big crop) some were quite close but it was just nice to be out and about watching them. Oh, and we had a very nice lunch up there in the Widdrington Inn.

A very light Snipe in among the hundred or so that were there. I have never seen so many together.

One having a stretch of the wings.

Little Grebe coming in to land. Once again, I have never seen so many in one place.

It then stretched its wings.

Fly away Teal.

Curlew.

Something spooked these Pochard

However, they soon came back and settled down.

A distant Little Egret.

An even more distant male Hen Harrier (honestly there is one there) with a Crow.

The male was hunting over the fields.

As was this distant Ringtail.

An equally very distant Marsh Harrier was also hunting over the same fields.

A couple of Buzzards were a little closer.

Hen Harrier

 This male Hen Harrier was always distant on the moors yesterday but it was a privilege to watch it hunt with effortless easy across those moors. The hunt proved successful on at least a couple of occasions when it caught what look like Voles.

It must have been a good year for Kestrels because I have never seen as many in one day as I saw yesterday. There was also a good number of Buzzard there to however, for some reason I didn’t take pictures of those birds.

Ringtail Harrier

 Some rubbish images (I’m just pleased I got something) of a distant Hen Harrier from this afternoon in the rain up on the Teesdale Moors.  I have been looking in the wrong place for them but now that I know where they are I will go back and try for better ones.

Isle of Mull part seven

 Some of the larger birds from our time on Mull.

Female Hen Harrier seen while we were on our way to Iona.

A different female seen while we were coming back from Iona.

This male Hen Harrier was hunting in the field opposite the cottage. He put in an appearance two or three times while we were there.

A “Tourist Eagle” (Buzzard) doing what they normally do, fly off from a telegraph pole when you stop the car to take a picture.

This Buzzard was hunting the fields not far from Lochdon and at first I was convinced it was a Hen Harrier because it was so light in colour.

This one was our local Buzzard which I saw every day outside the cottage.

Short-eared Owl. These are the best shots I could manage. It was the only one we saw and it was around a quarter of a mile away and unfortunately the heat haze has just about ruined the shots. We went back on another couple of occasions but the Owl didn’t show up.

We saw Hooded Crow everywhere we went on Mull.

This dot in the sky is the only Golden Eagle we saw while we were on Mull.