The Birds of 2025 - September

At this stage, is there any point in saying much? It's year 6 of keeping count of all the beautiful birds I'm lucky enough to photograph, and I can't stop now! Last year, I surpassed my goal and photographed 101 species all within the North East of England alone. I'm not sure if I'll beat that impressive number in 2025, but I'm happy to try. Here is what I photographed in September.

Taken 2nd September - At Home
Blue Tit

Taken 9th September - Causey Arch
Kestrel
Buzzard
Robin

Taken 15th September - At Home
Goldfinch

Taken 22nd September - Northumberland Park
Moorhen
Mallard
Wood Pigeon

Taken 29th September - At Home
Rock Dove

Taken 30th September - At Home
Rock Dove

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It's a little bit sad looking back at photos from months where I've not photographed as many birds as usual. With life doing what it has been doing, we've not gotten on many walks, and of course we haven't been to the Wetlands since January, which has evidently had a huge effect on my bird spotting. 

Still, I was lucky to add two species to the annual total, and next month will hopefully be even better as we head back to the Wetlands!

Annual Total - 

Blackbird
Black Headed Gull
Blue Tit
Bullfinch
Buzzard
Canada Goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Coal Tit
Collared Dove

Common Pochard
Common Tern
Coot
Cormorant

Curlew
Dunlin

Dunnock
Eider
Fulmer
Gadwall

Gannet

Goldeneye

Goldfinch

Great Tit
Great Spotted Woodpecker

Greenfinch
Greylag Goose
Grey Heron

Herring Gull
House Martin

House Sparrow
Jackdaw

Kestrel
Kittiewake

Lapwing
Linnet
Little Egret

Long Tailed Tit

Magpie
Mallard

Meadow Pipit
Moorhen

Mute Swan

Nuthatch
Oystercatcher
Pink-footed Goose

Phesant
Pied Wagtail
Razorbill

Reed Bunting

Redshank
Ringed Plover
Ring-Necked Parakeet

Robin

Rock Dove
Rook
Sand Martin
Sandwich Tern

Shelduck

Shoveler

Song Thrush

Sparrowhawk

Starling

Stock Dove

Stonechat
Swallow
Swift

Tufted Duck
Turnstone

Whitethroat

Wigeon
Wood Pigeon

Wren

Total - 73

Monthly (New Spotting) Total
January - 29
February - 11
March - 6
April - 7 
May - 4
June - 12
July - 0 
August - 2
September - 2 

Life Lately - September

 

To start, here are all the blog posts I've published in the past month over my 2 blogs -

Underland to Wonderland - Right here!
Life Lately - August
The Birds of 2025 - August
Late Summer at Whitburn Point
The Day I Was Stung in the Head by a Wasp

Adventures of the Hallows - My Photo Diary Blog!

I have taken daily photos since 2013 (2014 were weekly photos) and I share them each week in blog posts.

 Check out the posts from the past month below!
2025 Project 365 // Week 34
2025 Project 365 // Week 35
2025 Project 365 // Week 36
2025 Project 365 // Week 37
2025 Project 365 // Week 38

And below is this month's daily photo overview in calendar form.

Many days have more than one photo, so make sure to visit the posts above to see all of them!

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Our daily photos usually represent a pretty good portion of our life throughout the month, but for the things they don't show, see below.

Loving
The moments I've spent outside.

Hating
Fireworks season has started.

Thinking
Positively. (Or at least trying.)

Feeling
Tired.

Watching
Boy Meets World S4-7
Catching My Stalker 
The Disappearance of Jay Slater

Reading
Neurodivergent, By Nature: Why Biodiversity Needs Neurodiversity by Joe Harkness
The Rescue of Ravenwood by Natasha Farrant (audio)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alice Tonks by Emily Kenny (audio)
The Children of Castle Rock by Natasha Farrant (audio)

The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson (audio)
The Wood Where Magic Grows by Andy Shepherd
The Green Kingdom by Cornelia Funke
The Book of the Frog by Sally Coulthard

Doing More
(Slightly) more reading.

Doing Less
I'm not sure.

Stand Out Moments
- A flying visit to Durham.
- Feeding the Koi Fish.
- A pair of Buzzards flying overhead.
- Getting stung in the head by a wasp.
- So many Rainbows.
- Our walk at the Pet Cemetery.
- Lego and Jigsaws.
- The Autumn Equinox.
- Hugs with Baker, Aurora and Eos.
- Working in the garden.

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Alongside my daily photos, I also take 1 second (usually more, haha) of video each day.

See below for this month's video!

The Day I Was Stung in the Head by a Wasp

 

These photos were taken on September 9th at Causey Arch, Co Durham. It's a place we've walked many times before, and it's actually the place we had our very first walk together. 

Everything started out well, I managed to get photos of some Comma and Red Admiral butterflies for the first time this year and had a good cry at watching a pair of Buzzards overhead. However, the walk was abruptly cut short when I was stung in the head by a wasp. There was a super cool gathering of wasps in a crack in the wall, which I used my long lens to photograph, then as I walked off to catch up with Mr H, I felt a wasp bump into my head. It ended up getting stuck in my hair, and I assume it panicked and stung me. Mr H removed the sting, but as I've never been stung before and my Mam has had bad experiences in the past, we made the decision to head home! I'm absolutely gutted because I love wasps. I've picked them up and helped them to safer places with my bare hands before, and I know that their stinging me was their last resort. I've cried a lot of tears for that poor little soul. 

Anyway, here are the photos I did manage to take on our walk before we had to leave!