On the waterfront

Love is in the air...the breeding birds might have buggered off but it asnt offput these lovely Silver Y

So today was my day off and naturally I spent it doing WeBs and generally loafing in, on, and around the Farnes natural stuff.

Clear but mild conditions overnight meant most birds departed but 1 Whinchat, 1  Wheatear, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Willow Warbler remained. The variable westerly did bring down some Swallows which flopped through in a steady trickle all day.

But as the title and first sentence insinuate today was more about those long-legged Macdaddies, the waders. At hide tide we ‘zoded off’ around the Inner Group systemically counting all wetland bird species as we went. Passage here is getting going with nothing hugely amazing however 6 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Whimbrel, 1 Greenshank, 3 Dunlin and 3 Common Sand were more notable while commoner species such as Turnstone, Oyc and Knot numbered hundreds and other like Redshank and ‘Purps’ (Purple Sandpiper) numbered tens.

Common Sandpiper - 100% uncut bob action.

Beside the ornithofest the lepids (‘cool’ term for butterflies) were dominating in the hot, sunny conditions with 60 Red Admiral, 11 Painted Lady, 6 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Peacock, 7 Meadow Brown and 3 White Species made for entertaining strolls in the absence of our recent bird migrants.

On the subject of night time antics I tried some night photography of Bamburgh and seahouses..here’s our view every night…beautiful!