an invitation

 last month i was given an invitation to join a walk at cromwell bottom nr to answer questions on my time there in the 80's/90's 

well yesterday the walk was great with allan and stuart, at times i was more intrested in birding watching my first sand martins of the year plus willow warbler the best for me were 3 blackcaps singing stunning birds 

also had a guided tour of north cut which is the old tip and some great work done on the habitat i also enjoyed seeing lots of familys out with kids anything that involves getting people to even just have a walk in nature can only be a good thing 

easter weekend at seahouses

 a bog standard campsite (springhall farm) just 30mins walk from seahouses 

set off friday lunchtime due to the van needing a new back box, awful drive up the A1 taking 5 1/2 hours but worth it just for the views from the site of the farnes and bamburgh castle, evening spent in the awning due to rain but nice and warm 

saturday

lazy morning and then headed to seahouses via shoreston hall onto the beach, this part of the world has the best beaches, vast clean sand its a beautiful coastline 

a couple of stonechats in the dunes, sandwich terns over the sea were my first ever in march, the rocks approaching seahouses had curlew,turnstone,dunlin and redshank.

the usual eiders in the harbour were fun to watch as was the long tailed duck which ive not seen since our trip around scotland 2 years ago. colette found a grey plover on the sand at the outer harbour wall.

look around seahouses we found a place selling scotch pies warm not bad but the puff pastry top was odd 

headed back to the campsite around 1ish via the same route but i wanted to have more of a walk so headed up the road to monks house a place ive read about for years mostly through bill oddies books, monks pond was very active with gulls but also gadwall and tufted duck great little place.headed back via some footpaths and lanes lots of yellowhammers singing and loads of chiffchaffs and chaffinches 

more yellowhammers back at camp and a sparrowhawk over

sunday 

holy isle 

we have been before but chose to explore the village rather than follow the crowds to the castle, sat for a while looking over ST Cuthberts isle

colette found a red throated diver close inshore very nice. visted the lindisfarne mead shop drank mead bought mead its a nice drink! and after a nice few hours we had a brew in the van then headed to berwick. tried and failed to get something to eat, so back to seahouses for fish and chips from neptunes not brilliant but not bad just a normal fish and chips had better.

then we chose to head home due to rain on monday morning which would make putting everything away a nightmare, it was warm in the sun and all the dew had dried off, so on the road for 1730 and back home for 2100 for more mead! 

monks pool 

monks house