WEEKS 2 & 3

 

Week 2 of 2023 began with one of my absolute favourite events of the year, the annual South Tyneside Bird Race. This event has been going on for years, probably just under 30 I think, and I've been taking part for about 15 years. For anyone unfamiliar with the event, it sees teams of upto 4 or 5 people racing around the whole of South Tyneside to try and spot as many different species of birds in an 8 hour period. It starts and ends at the lighthouse, but in between teams are free to go wherever they want as long as they remain within the borders. There are actually two versions of the race, a driving one and a walking one. The obvious advantage of using a vehicle is you can get to more places and travel further than if you are on foot, but there's such a good feeling about doing it the old fashioned way. I've been doing the walking race for the last 5 or 6 years and I absolutely love it. This year my long-time team mate, Dougie, couldn't make it so myself and Neil were joined by Annelise, Chappers and newcomer Daniel. The route we take doesn't deviate too much year on year as we take in places like Cleadon Hills, Boldon Flats, the Academy of Light and of course the Coastal path and we usually cover between 12 and 16 miles depending on the exact route. This year was around 14 miles, and let me tell you, after barely getting over the festive illness it almost destroyed me 😄. By the time I got to the final stretch, from Whitburn Steel back to the lighthouse, my knee was in a mess and I only just about managed to hobble to the finish line. It was clearly a huge shock for my body going from 3 weeks on the couch to immediately hiking 14 miles without easing myself in! But anyway, my team ended up seeing 61 species which is a little bit down on previous years, and the winning driving team saw 83 species. The combined total of species from all the teams that took part was 89, which for a relatively small region is not too bad at all. And more importantly everyone that took part had a cracking day.

There was a nice little write up about the day in the local Gazette (albeit with the usual couple of errors but it's not the end of the world 😁) 

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/environment/budding-bird-watchers-based-at-souter-lighthouse-enjoy-race-to-register-feathered-friends-but-survey-reveals-worrying-trends-397867

At this time of year I try to get round all of my nestbox sites to give all of the boxes a good clean out and make any necessary repairs in preparation for the upcoming breeding season. It's a rubbish job, pun very much intended, and I never look forward to doing it if I'm honest but it's an important part of monitoring the boxes. So in the past fortnight I've managed to get to the Academy of Light, Sharpley Fish Ponds & Golf Course, Down at the Farm, Moorhouse Wood and of course Whitelea Farm & Hawthorn Dene. I've also relocated a number of boxes from a private site to Hawthorn to boost the numbers in there. Thankfully most of the boxes were in very good shape and very little maintenance was needed, just a good old clean out. The only boxes I haven't had a chance to clean out yet are the ones at Souter. Hopefully I'll get to them in the coming weeks.

Speaking of nestboxes, this week saw us make a start on prepping the timber for our annual nestbox making event we have at the lighthouse every February. It's a long and arduous process as we cut all the various pieces and then pre-drill the holes so that all the kids have to do is put them together, but it's by far one of our most popular events so it's all worth it in the end. This year we're actually prepping the most boxes we've ever tried, 300 in total, but there's no problem if they don't all go because if we have any left I've got lots of places I can put them so they absolutely will not go to waste! 

WORKPLACE WILDLIFE CHALLENGE 

Once again its been slow going adding new species to the list since the last update. Since returning to work I've been in lots of various meetings meaning more time indoors than I'd like, but obviously it's an important part of the job so I'm not going to complain. When I have managed to get out its been to do things like Coastal Path surveys at Souter and tree felling in Hawthorn Dene so I've only been picking up the odd species while doing other jobs. As usual they were mostly birds but I managed to record the first spider of the year, a giant House Spider that had taken up residence in one of our nestboxes! The undoubted highlight however was a very unexpected Merlin that swooped along the coast at Whitelea Farm putting all the other birds in a panic. I was expecting it to be a Peregrine but was pleasantly surprised to see the smaller Falcon whizz past. You just never know what you're going to get 😊

SPECIES LIST

056. Curlew - Numenius arquata

057. Merlin - Falco columbarius

058. Collared Dove - Streptopelia decaocto

059. Dunnock - Prunella modularis

060. Golden Plover - Pluvialis apricaria

061. Lapwing - Vanellus vanellus

062. Brown Hare - Lepus europaeus

063. Giant House Spider - Eratigena species