Saturday 26 July 2014

Howdon Wetlands

17 Days since my last blog due to work, holidays, visiting relatives and sickness,
fortunately I have been able to play with my new toy, a Moth Trap, which has been
another steep learning curve.  I am keeping it separate from my normal rantings, ravings
and drivel I write and it can be found at http://howdonmoths.blogspot.co.uk/ and as you can
see I have selected yet another magnificent name for it after hours of deliberation.

Anyway Carole is on the mend from her "little" accident and I managed to get
out for a couple of hours this morning and headed off to Howdon Wetlands as
I hadn't been for 2 weeks.  It was very quiet but the weather was gorgeous and
it was just nice to sit and watch the odd bird appearing and the traffic up and down
the Tyne.  As we don't have a book now at the hide I was debating to bring another one
and hope we don't have any more visitations but decided not to as the one good thing
that has occurred is that the people who visit Howdon are now conversing via email.
For all those who want to know what has been seen there I photographed each page at
the end of the month since I put the book in there on 1 Mar 13 up to the end of June
So, if anyone wantsit just drop me a line and I will send them to you.

Anyway the feeders were quite full so obviously someone had been yesterday but I
put half a dozen fatballs in and within a couple of minutes there were 5 Bluetits feeding
away like they hadn't had a meal for day.  There were several Chaffinches, at least
13 Greenfinches, 2 Wrens and a Robin.  From the main hide I saw 14 Lapwings,
12 Grey Herons, 13 Moorhens and at least 3 Juveniles, 2 Coot, 2 Mallard, lots of 
Black Headed Gulls, 1 Kittiwake and a few Jackdaws sunning themselves on the
railings.  The main attraction was the Butterflies, Darters and Damselflies which
were out in abundance.  

Saw at least 6 Common Darters but only managed to get a picture
of the female, or is it a juvenile (where is Mr Warbler when you need him)

Also saw at least 3 different Damselflies including these



Lot of Butterflies including Small Skipper, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell
and quite a few "Whites" but they were always at a distance.  





Quite a nice hour and a half.  Anyone got a Strimmer and licence, a short
back and sides in a couple of places might be of help.

Finally, this little fella was having a snooze on the bench by the window in the hide
Dark Arches

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