Country Diary: Northumberland
Midwinter is not a time when we can visit the Farne Islands, with high tides and unpredictable rough seas off our north-east coast. This coming spring the Glad Tidings boats will again take the public from Seahouses harbor to cross to the Farnes, and our National Trust wardens will be back for another eight months living there, watching and reporting on nature in the raw.
Last year only the second visit of dolphins to the islands was recorded; these were several adult and one young Risso's dolphin, a seldom seen species identified by its bulging forehead and rounded head. There were over 100,000 pairs of breeding birds here for the second year in succession.
One encouraging surprise last season was the capture, and subsequent release, on Staple Island of a puffin that had been ringed as a chick on the same island in the 1970s; this bird is one of the oldest puffins ever recorded. Nearly 50,000 guillemots were reported, which is an increase of 6,500 of these sea birds during in the last five years. The wardens ring chicks of various avian species and this enables them to record how long some of them live and how far some of them travel. Recently two sandwich terns that were over 20 years old were recorded in Denmark.
Our sandy beach at Druridge Bay, where I often walk with my dog, will have been very cold during these last weeks, and so I went for an invigorating walk in one of the Cheviot valleys. The higher hills have had a covering of snow and ice which has not lifted for several weeks. Even small avalanches are not uncommon - they are usually caused by cornices of deteriorating stability breaking away - so walkers must take care.
Last year only the second visit of dolphins to the islands was recorded; these were several adult and one young Risso's dolphin, a seldom seen species identified by its bulging forehead and rounded head. There were over 100,000 pairs of breeding birds here for the second year in succession.
One encouraging surprise last season was the capture, and subsequent release, on Staple Island of a puffin that had been ringed as a chick on the same island in the 1970s; this bird is one of the oldest puffins ever recorded. Nearly 50,000 guillemots were reported, which is an increase of 6,500 of these sea birds during in the last five years. The wardens ring chicks of various avian species and this enables them to record how long some of them live and how far some of them travel. Recently two sandwich terns that were over 20 years old were recorded in Denmark.
Our sandy beach at Druridge Bay, where I often walk with my dog, will have been very cold during these last weeks, and so I went for an invigorating walk in one of the Cheviot valleys. The higher hills have had a covering of snow and ice which has not lifted for several weeks. Even small avalanches are not uncommon - they are usually caused by cornices of deteriorating stability breaking away - so walkers must take care.
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