Cone in the Hole

A short visit in passing to listen out for LSW

No such luck, but did manage an interesting woodpecker observation.

A female Great Spotted, one of a pair in loose association with a mixed tit flock.

On landing on a semi-mature Sycamore at around 30', it immediately began knocking away at a small pocket of decay ( rotting cavity where tree has lost a small branch ) on the shaded north east side of the stem.

I managed a few photographs and the bird seemed quite content at this position so i filmed a short video clip.

During the process Tony & i could see the object of its attention - which at several points came loose from its cavity - not some insect nor mammal, but a Larch cone.

On at least 3 occassions the cone came free from the hole in which it was entirely concealed, and each time the bird replaced it in the cavity, securing it before hammering away at it again.

We concluded the only way the cone could have found its way into the cavity was by having being placed their by the woodpecker ( or a squirrel ? ) -

But i did wonder whether this was a ingenious insect trap, rather than a means of simply securing the cone...

Others seen included an inexperienced Dipper pair building well below the flood mark, Kingfisher pair starting to excavate and a Chiffchaff watched contact calling - a couple more degrees before it starts to sing no doubt. Others in the valley included a dozen Heron and 3pair of Goosander, one of the drakes being realy aggressive to the ducks.

Also discovered what would appear to be a superb new Gilleard Bros owl-watching hide !
Cant see what else it could be for, other than a gloryfied rain-shelter !
But only time will tell
 heres the view :-

Jack Snipe et al - a beauty Spring day

Way, way behind.....
theres been some superb birding locally - its looking like a record year already !
guess i'll have to go back & fill in the gaps retrospectively.....

So heres the highlights from last Monday - a sunny, calm, warm Spring day...

hadnt been in the RMs hide 5 mins when this flew in:-

duck Red Breasted Merganser

 A site first (there has been one on Joes Pond next door), & presumably the same individual that i saw fly in at dusk at Brasside the previous week (4th record in last 20 yr there), GaryC quickly arrived as did JimmyW before the bird made a sharp exit, so that was a good start.

Took a stroll round with Jim, he hadnt seen a Jack Snipe on the ground, so we set off to try to pin one down...

digi-binned shot of the JS....

Can you see him ?


This was our initial head on view when we first found him (Nikon scope x 30)

zoomed in on the iPhone touch screen:-

moved position to get this side view:-

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/M_Bc0QGBbII" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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So that was a good result
The rest of the morning was equally pleasant,
Amphibians were much in evidence, a couple of large clumps of frogspawn & dozens of Toads around the place, a small pool held 4 Palmate newts
An unusual one was a Water Boatman i spotted flailing about on the path :-

Water Boatman in my hand

After releasing him into the water, another one flew in to land close by - fortunately this one didnt crash land on the ground...

A couple of Chiffchaffs were already in place & 3 Sand Martin went through
We watched several pairs of Long tailed Tits busy building - fascinating structures :-

further birds included Goldcrest & Treecreeper both singing

Several day flying moths, Small Tort & Peacocks on the wing & a Hare.

Jim clocked a Little Owl

& I managed a Long-eared

in a very open location - perhaps ousted by a noisy gaggle of school kids, although they weren't noisy enough to drown out a sharming Water Rail.

 My first full day birding for some time, a pleasant & productive visit.

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New species for the Sunderland area coming in almost daily at present.....