Clara Vale & Burdon Moor

 It’s a week since I paid a visit to Clara Vale, the first time this year. No Kingfisher in the four hours I was there but still some canny stuff and it’s always nice to have some good crack in the hide. It was then onto Burdon Moor where I got my first Chiffchaff of the year.

Redwing.

There were plenty of Ivy berries to keep them going.

Female Yellowhammer.

Long-tailed Tit.

This Roe Deer casually walked past the hide.

My first Peacock Butterfly of the year.

And my first Chiffchaff of the year at Burdon Moor.

Song Thrush.

Long-tailed Tit.

Male Stonechat doing what comes naturally.

Female Stonechat.

Hovering Kestrel.

It dived but came up with nothing.

Then landed in this tree.

There were at least four Roe Deer in the field eating the grass in the late afternoon sun.

Burdon Moor

 Another late afternoon at Burdon Moor with at least three Buzzards displaying (although at a distance). A pair of Kestrel were also out hunting, presumably the same pair that I saw the previous afternoon. I was also pleased to see a male Stonechat and a Meadow Pipit.

Displaying Buzzards.

A couple of them eventually came quite close.

Kestrel in the late afternoon sun.

Male Stonechat.

Meadow Pipit.

Lapwings.

The Durham Dales

 More from the Durham Dales last month.

Dipper, one of two that were on the burn.

Call of nature.

Common Sandpiper.

Not the best images of a Cuckoo you will see but the best I could get.

Pied Wagtail catching flies.

Sand Martins trying to do the same.

Stonechat.

Mistle Thrush.