Tales from the river bank

A walk along the river Wansbeck at Morpeth this morning provided some good sightings. A Little Grebe was feeding beside the Skinnery bridge and I spotted a shy drake Mandarin duck beside Elliot bridge preferring the overhanging vegetative bank but the female was not so bashful and was on the opposite side. I didn't have my camera so Heather took the pics with her i phone. Note the Black headed Gull behind the female is wearing metal and darvic rings but I didn't notice until we were back home looking through the pics. I will keep an eye out for it on future walks. This evening at about half past six me and Heather were looking to see if we could see the Otter again; we have had no sightings on recent walks. Luckily one was feeding and swimming opposite Oliver's mill. We walked along the road that runs past the mill and we were lucky to watch it again for a few minutes feeding on top of the weir before it plunged into the water again and swam upstream out of sight.
Between this we were doing some gardening and we called in at Plants Plus at Blagdon but when we called at Heighley Gate garden centre a Short eared Owl was quartering a field south of the car park but was being mobbed by Crows and it flew North over the A697

Recent sightings

On Wednesday evening I saw my first Otter on the River Wansbeck at Morpeth. I have seen them in Scotland and Druridge Bay and heard of plenty sightings on the river. The lights from the promenade made it easy to watch as it dived and swam downstream. Recent visits to Stobswood have found very little plants in flower. The Fuchsias are one of a handful of plants in flower now. Other plants are numerous like Blue Fleabane and Weld and there are many Shaggy Inkcaps around. I have noticed small flocks of Crossbills in Pines around the old brickworks and 6 flew West over my garden here in Morpeth. Back at Stobswood hundreds of Pink footed Geese are frequenting the open areas of the former opencast behind East Stobswood. On Thursday evening two Beautiful Plume Moths were on the kitchen window; one inside on the blind and the other on the outside.