Thropton and Caistron
A day off today, so I decided to have a trip up to the Coquet valley in North Northumberland, and see what Caistron Nature Reserve had to offer.
The journey up was very pleasant. The weather was glorious and I had the bus (yep, travelling by bus!) more or less to myself: great views from the upper deck!
Once at Thropton, I wandered along the Coquet hoping to find sawbill ducks, interesting sandpipers, chats, pipits and whatnot. I didn’t.
Never mind. Reaching the nature reserve, I was confronted by huge flocks of Wigeon, Canada and Greylag geese and Mute swans. Interspersed among these were good numbers of Goldeneye.
None of the birds were very co-operative though: even though I had bought a small loaf of bread from the little shop at Thropton, I couldn’t even get the swans or geese to come anywhere near photographing distance, with the exception of this one which I got from one of the hides on the lake.
Canada Goose, Caistron NR
There were however, huge numbers of Common toads!
Toad, Caistron NR
Toads, Caistron NR.
I can only assume that in Toad terms, the one on the bottom is a bit of a looker!
Sadly, although there were plenty of Common buzzards overhead, they were too far off to photograph, and the lack of other birds to photograph started to frustrate, so eventually I started to wander back to Thropton.
On the way back I got the chance to almost satisfy a photographic itch I’ve had for ages.
I’ve always wanted an inland “Redshank calling from a fencepost” image, and nearly got one with this bird: except this one isn’t calling, and it’s a hefty crop too.
Redshank, R. Coquet, Thropton
Still, it’s a nice enough image until something better comes along.
Next time I’m up there, I intend to have a yomp up Simonside to see what I can get from the tops.