Post by stevef on Sept 4, 2007 9:03:58 GMT
Hi,
Having recently moved from Suffolk to Kielder in Northumberland we have gone through a major change in our birdlife.
We put feeders up in the garden and within the hour there were birds all over them. Mainly chaffinches (or chuffies as they call them here), house sparrows, great tit and blue tit. We have also had a few coal tit, long tailed tit, siskin and a first garden tick for us, nuthatch. We hope to get bullfinch and red squirrel are not unknown in the gardens. With a bit of good luck red squirrels are sometimes seen by our guests around the village.
We have a bird hide on Bakethin reservoir just 15 minutes walk away, where goosander are regular visitors (they breed on the local streams) as well as little and great crested grebe, tufted duck, cormorant and heron.
During the Winter there is a good gull roost and birds such as long tailed duck and goldeneye can be expected.
We have seen goshawk flying around from time to time and golden eagle are around but not yet seen by me. Barn owl and tawny owl are also around and my receptionist who lives on a local farm has both of them breeding on site. She did have a good bird feeder in her garden but it was struck by lightening recently and is now just a blackened stump !
We have house martins and swallows nesting on the hostel and they are now congregating on the telephone wires along with some sand martins, so I guess they will all be leaving before too long.
Waders are something I miss but on my first day here I was walking to work and there were a pair of oystercatchers on the grass outside the hostel. There are common sandpipers on the streams a few miles north and some snipe and curlew up on the hills.
sadly I have not managed to get out as much as I would have liked as I pulled my hamstring shortly after I arrived and the midges are at their worse early and late, which coincides with the best birdwatching times.
With Winter approaching we hope to get more time off and explore further afield where we are spoilt for choice. So far a trip to the Farne Islands has been all we have managed.
Steve
Having recently moved from Suffolk to Kielder in Northumberland we have gone through a major change in our birdlife.
We put feeders up in the garden and within the hour there were birds all over them. Mainly chaffinches (or chuffies as they call them here), house sparrows, great tit and blue tit. We have also had a few coal tit, long tailed tit, siskin and a first garden tick for us, nuthatch. We hope to get bullfinch and red squirrel are not unknown in the gardens. With a bit of good luck red squirrels are sometimes seen by our guests around the village.
We have a bird hide on Bakethin reservoir just 15 minutes walk away, where goosander are regular visitors (they breed on the local streams) as well as little and great crested grebe, tufted duck, cormorant and heron.
During the Winter there is a good gull roost and birds such as long tailed duck and goldeneye can be expected.
We have seen goshawk flying around from time to time and golden eagle are around but not yet seen by me. Barn owl and tawny owl are also around and my receptionist who lives on a local farm has both of them breeding on site. She did have a good bird feeder in her garden but it was struck by lightening recently and is now just a blackened stump !
We have house martins and swallows nesting on the hostel and they are now congregating on the telephone wires along with some sand martins, so I guess they will all be leaving before too long.
Waders are something I miss but on my first day here I was walking to work and there were a pair of oystercatchers on the grass outside the hostel. There are common sandpipers on the streams a few miles north and some snipe and curlew up on the hills.
sadly I have not managed to get out as much as I would have liked as I pulled my hamstring shortly after I arrived and the midges are at their worse early and late, which coincides with the best birdwatching times.
With Winter approaching we hope to get more time off and explore further afield where we are spoilt for choice. So far a trip to the Farne Islands has been all we have managed.
Steve
