18th may

First of was a hobby showing off its red vent and white cheeks as it graced the sky over winlaton mill yesterday afternoon, it drifted off north. Back to today and first stop was winnow hills where i had 3 cuckoo and 8 tree pipits and a dark bird with a white rump being mobbed by gulls, i couldn't get a id on the bird as it vanished over the brow of the hill and didn't reappear, my thoughts were hen harrier or montagu's harrier, lets hope it's still in the area? There was a male black grouse at blanchland moor, i also bumped into mike, keith and rob on the moor (gatesheadbirders) who seem to have relocated to the reservoir aswell ;) lol. we all went back to winnows hill for a walk and had cuckoo and tree pipits, next we went to the reservoir in search for the osprey which didn't put a show on today :( but we did have great crested grebe, buzzard and a few more common birds. The green hairstreaks at muggleswick was our next port of call where 5+ butterflies were showing, we also had a odd looking common buzzard here and a red kite. The lads moved on to slatley only to dip there target birds of spotted flycatcher and turtle dove :( i went to coalgate gorge for a walk and had spotted flycatcher ;) pied flycatcher, redstart, wood warbler, garden warbler, blackcap, willow warbler, chiffchaff and cuckoo. I then had a drive around the other reservoirs but there wasn't a lot about apart from a few golden plover with chicks and red grouse with chicks. Enjoy the photos and short film.