Weardale, 4th April

After a Thursday drive down the road, and a Friday spent enjoying the kittiwake colony (and some of the shops too, I guess, in Newcastle), it was nice to get out into the countryside on the Saturday. Weardale was chosen, as it offers an opportunity to visit the Black Bull in Frosterly - but it also offered an opportunities to catch up with a white-tailed eagle (ringed as a pulli on Mull) that had been wondering around the area, as well as a great grey shrike that had done the decent thing and decided to stay in one place, in Stanhope.

We missed out on the eagle, which was hardly surprising as we gave it very little effort, but enjoyed good views of the great grey shrike, which is great as I see great grey shrikes much less frequently than I see white tailed eagles. What was noteworthy though were the number of birders that were up there looking - easily more on the durham moors than I'd see during a week on Ouessant. It was easter weekend I guess, and I reckon WTE must have been a welcome addition to many a Durham list.

There were other bits and bobs around of course, too. Lots of waders up on their breeding grounds making all of the right noises, and of course plenty of grouse. Red grouse were everywhere, and there were 9 black grouse feeding in fields near the Langdon Beck lek site. A red kite drifted over the moors here too, which was lovely, but as it passed I enjoyed wondering how I might have reacted to such a sighting had it been at a time when I was making more frequent visits to the area, maybe 25 years ago now!

There was also this rather attractive meadow pipit - I see warm 'whistleri' looking meadow pipits frequently in April on the Aberdeenshire coast, but they've never looked as good as this!