A Mixed Bag

Keen to take advantage of the supposed heatwave, I set out for Wallington Hall Gardens on Sunday.  In fact the weather was cloudy all day and en route I thought I might do better with bees than butterflies.

On the whole the reverse was the case.  It was certainly warm enough, the winds were low and butterflies were out in abundance.

Particularly pleasurable was to see three painted ladies, to add to the one at Havannah the other week.

Painted Lady with Comma

Apart from commas, there were plenty of red admirals and small tortoiseshells, the former predominant on the several buddleia bushes, the latter more in other areas.  I don't recall having seen a peacock.

Other sightings were speckled wood and wall brown, the latter very briefly before being scared off, partly by a deranged young willow warbler that was going through the vegetation just a of couple yards away from me and appeared at times to be actually chasing the butterflies.

Deranged Willow Warbler

Not a well bird I suspect.

However it was the bees that produced the single business turn-up as I found several specimens of what I'm fairly certain were broken-belted bumblebees.

Broken-belted Bumblebee

Here's a second photo:

As a moorland species of Scotland and the Pennines, you'd have to ask what they were doing in a walled garden.  The yellow facial hair and legs are probably due to pollen.

The only other pollinators I noticed were honey bees, one with an orange tip to its tail and a plain-faced dronefly.

I decided to spend a good part of Bank Holiday Monday in the garden, just really to see if anything interesting would turn up. It was sunnier weather, but with a fair breeze most of the time.

Meanwhile I did a bit of counting of the most frequent butterflies.  Notably several commas turned up in the morning, but I did not see any after about 1.00 pm.  By contrast, small tortoiseshells were much more in evidence after about 3.30 pm.

Large whites, which have been very frequent this year, predominated but all three main variations of white were present.  On a very unscientific count, I reckoned that again the most numerous visitor, red admiral, outnumbered peacocks by a good bit over 10 - 1.  Perhaps it hasn't been a great year for peacocks.  My memory suggests that in past years, there have sometimes been more of them than red admirals.  Still no painted lady however.

As often on these occasions, a couple of things happened within a few minutes of each other.  An unfamiliar moth turned up on the buddleia.  It showed up orange in flight but looked a good deal different when settled.

New Moth

I assumed orange underwing but they don't settle with their wings tightly together.  A helpful suggestion on facebook is broad-bordered yellow underwing as orange underwing is in any case no longer on the wing in August.  Sure enough, internet photos show its colour is more orange than yellow.

Then up in the trees a blueish shape passed by.  It was a slightly less fleeting view than the one at Bradley Hall Gardens.  I'm pretty confident that it was the holly blue.

Meanwhile, the bullfinches kept sneaking up on the birdfeeders three or four yards in front of me.

Female Bullfinch

The male was rather more elusive.

In the evening I spent an hour or so at Marden Quarry hoping the night heron would turn up.  It didn't.  There were however a good number of gadwall to keep the mallards and coots company.

Gadwall

Isn't it good when things just work?

A little bit of movement in the garden after April Fool's Day was the result of rising temperatures as a dry spell went into its second week.  It was a nice contrast to the wet and cool Spring last year, which affected many pollinators adversely.

On the 1st itself a peacock butterfly turned up and settled on the wooden 'path' near the decking but was easily disturbed.  The following day I spotted a bumblebee queen I assumed would be of the buff-tailed variety but turned out to be a tree bumblebee queen, the other sort turning up very shortly afterwards,  Then a beefly turned up and obligingly settled on a leaf.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Dark-edged Beefly

Tree Bumblebee Queen

Interesting to note is that tree queens and a worker have showed up on two further occasions, suggesting they may be making a garden comeback after I stopped them nesting in the wall of the downstairs bedroom a good few years back.. 

Also the beefly has been seen every time I've been in the garden, but there have been no sign of any mining bees which they predate on.

But the most successful session occurred on Sunday...

My son and I have often spoken about the need to see mandarin ducks.  As they have been showing up in the Gateshead area we decided to have a go here.

The plan was to start at the hide near Thornley Woodlands Centre, where there were recent repeated sightings, so V&A drove over and we arrived just in time to see a family and several dogs being loaded into a car and were able to claim one of the limited parking spaces when they finally pulled out.

The hide didn't prove to be the answer but we did see a few other birds, and satisfyingly, the first orange tips I've seen this year.

Nuthatch

Chaffinch

Okay, a chaffinch doesn't seem like a big deal but the fact is I very rarely see them in my garden.

After an hour or so we had a debate whether to head for Saltwell Park, where there had been one sighting or chance our arm a bit by taking a wander along the Derwent.  We decided on the latter.

I had forgotten how long and steep the Riverside Trail down from Thornley Woods actually is, but eventually we made it down to Nine Arches Bridge, and started heading West.

But we had hardly gone two hundred yards when a couple of ducks were sighted scooting away from us and a couple of rowdy dogs.  And sure enough my son, who is eagle-eyed when it comes to bird spotting, confirmed that we had achieved our objective - a male and a female mandarin duck.

However the ducks, having been spooked, decided to hide away in the bushes on the far bank before we could get any more than distant shots of them. It was then a case of stick or twist - whether to sit it out and wait for them to come out again or head further up river after a third duck we had noticed.

We sat it out and eventually the couple ventured back into the water, allowing us to get the photos we were after as they paddled up and down.

Mandarin Ducks

The couple kept returning to an area just downstream where some driftwood and rubbish had accumulated on tree branches and the third bird, another male, turned up again leading to some confrontations as he tried to move in on the first male's territory.

Even better more orange tips and peacocks turned up while we ere waiting for action, for me the first photo opportunities this year..

Orange Tip

Peacock

There was also a comma and I thought I saw a small tortoiseshell - an experience that was confirmed when we made a last stop at Far Pasture on the way back. I was interested to see the peacocks in particular settling on the ears of the reeds and we wondered why they did so.  Probably they were just warming themselves.

I also got shots of some of the typical long-term residents at this location - gadwall and teal.

Gadwall

Teal

All in all, a very satisfying expedition!

Staying Close to Home

Finally following a resolution made some time ago, I got out to a couple of locations nearby recently.

Last Wednesday I did a double trip to Thornley Woods and the Far Pastures Reserve.

After wandering around a bit in search of some reported redwing, the hide at Thornley Woods was fairly quiet.

A few tits visited the feeders and I caught sight of a nuthatch and a treecreeper as well as this woodpecker, which was deemed worth a photograph since they don't come to the caged feeders I now use.

Female Woodpecker

At Far Pastures there was a bit more action and I was quite pleased to see a few teal and a family of gadwall, though I think teal is pretty much resident here.

Teal

Gadwall

The first bird I saw puzzled me a little as I took it to be a juvenile little grebe but could not see any parent birds. However it seems to be an adult in winter plumage.

Little Grebe

There was also a good deal of activity around the feeders at the car park.  I hung on for a while in fading light. just in case something memorable turned up.

Today I took a look at Stargate Pond and Beweshill Reserve which was pretty much a total failure as a bird watching trip but interesting in other ways.

I knew that Ryton Angling Club had a location in this area and sure enough there were four or five anglers trying their luck and with some success with the roach, quite impressive in temperatures of only 5C.

On talking to one of them it seems there is a good range of species present including tench and carp. If and when I start fishing again, this may well be where I go. 

It's also not a bad size and, as a former quarry, quite deep.

The positive view was endorsed by this cormorant, the only bird I saw apart from swans and a magpie. 

Cormorant

Sure enough a roach was being landed as I moved away.

My verdict on the venue was that it might be one for the summer.  

In particular the notice boards suggest that a good range of butterflies can be found there including dingy skipper.  Small copper would not surprise me either as they are certainly present at Ryton Meadows a mile or so away.  However I've never seen Stargate Pond mentioned in local reports on butterfly sightings.

I also spent some time on the other side of the main road trying in vain to find further ponds but did spot another marked wildlife area, which may well also be worth investigating.

Confusion and Consultation

On 11th November I was on the way to the tennis club and paused briefly to check out an expanse of ivy near the Derwent for ivy bees.  What in fact appeared to my surprise was a single red admiral.  I've made a mental note of this as the latest date I can remember seeing an active butterfly, discounting the one I found in my garden in Dumfries one midwinter. 

That one had clearly erred from its hibernation spot in sunny weather but was unable to fly in the near freezing temperature.  Having done a bit of research, I captured it and allowed it to warm up in the house for forty minutes, after which time it hopefully flew back to its chosen place of slumber on release.

On SundayI took my new camera out looking for a couple of bird novelties.

The first target was Northumberlandia, where bramblings had been reported.  A lady said a birdwatcher had seen 24 in a woodland area but I couldn't find them, the only suspect turning out to be a stonechat.

Stonechat

However I did manage to get a nice shots of some tree sparrows on the feeders.

Tree Sparrows

Someone had reckoned they had seen a black-throated diver at the QE2 lake, so that was my next destination.

The trouble was I was baffled by a series of distant sightings of large diving ducks.  In the end I sought advice from those more expert than myself on facebook as to what I'd actually captured on film.  Fortunately it was duly forthcoming.

The first suspects I had lined up turned out to be great crested grebe and goosander in winter uniform.

Great Crested Grebe

Goosander

A third suspect came a bit nearer the shore.  It isn't a black-throated diver but a juvenile red-throated diver according to trusted advice on facebook - a nevertheless excellent first sighting.

Red-throated Diver

It's not actually easy to identify these ducks in winter plumage and the discussion of black-throated v red-throated diver is a particular issue. One respondent suggested this guide on the subject.

Quite amusing at the same location was to suddenly spot a whooper swan by the bank.  According to a local couple it is the ONLY whooper swan on the lake amid hundred or so mute swans!  At the top end there were also considerable numbers of gadwall.

Whooper Swan

Gadwall (male and female)

However my confusions were not at an end as I put in a brief visit to Killingworth Lake on the way home.

Here there was nothing special to mention but another duck that defied identification.

Mystery Duck

It was poorish light and the water looks brighter than the bird!  Anyway, I half suspected a hybrid and this was duly confirmed on referral - probably mallard and domestic duck hybrid.  Apparently it has been there for years and I think I may have photographed it while looking for a scaup a couple of winters ago.

Exciting Springtime Sightings

 Starting with a bit of bad news, I found this dead great tit in the garden last week.  

Great Tit

I sort of assumed that it had crashed into the summerhouse, but on inspection it seemed to have a wound on its upper breast so maybe got nobbled by something.

Yesterday, I went on the first big trip of the year with son and fiancee to Leighton Moss, which provided a sufficient parade of sightings to justify even the £9 entry fee for non-RSPB members.

We saw a good number of marsh harriers flying at considerable height, which surprised me a bit.  On previous occasions in the Netherlands and at Leighton Moss before, I'd been used to seeing them flying low looking for prey.  Often they were in groups of two or more so I supposed that it was some sort of pre-mating routine, disturbed by occasional buzzards.  Anyway, I was delighted to get a photo of one in flight with my pocket camera, even though it wasn't brilliant.

Although we didn't manage to see one, we did hear numerous bitterns booming, which was a first time for me.  I must say 'booming' is a bit of a misnomer.  As one of the signs pointed out, it sounds much more like someone blowing over the top of an old-fashioned glass milk bottle.

Also not seen was the bearded tit.  We hadn't really expected them to show at this time of year although apparently they are still around.

One bird that is present is the ring-necked duck and I thought I might have seen one at distance from the tower.  In fact it proved to be just another tufted duck.

Shortly afterwards, heading for lunch I spotted some small red fungi next to the path.  I think they are called scarlet elf cups.

At the last hide we visited there was a view over several bits of land sticking out into the water, surrounded by various ducks.  A group of twitchers reckoned there was a water pipit working its way along one of them.  Unfortunately, try as we might, we couldn't confirm or deny it as a sighting as the photos we took of the wee bird were all too blurry.  Apparently it had been identified earlier by someone using a powerful telescope, so presumably correctly.

Overall, there were just too many photos to post individually, so I've amalgamated them together in  brief video.  Unfortunately there is no background music as that now costs extra from Microsoft!

Saturday 10th April

 I noted some while back that spottings in my garden are a bit upside down in that birds that are normally common appear seldom - and vice versa.  A recent surprise was to spot two 'rarities' at the same time last week, a male garden sparrow and a siskin.  A female sparrow also turned up a couple of days later, as did briefly a goldfinch.  Both birds can be seen close at hand but don't usually visit the garden.  You'd really expect more siskins, given the amount of nearby woodland.

Siskin

To cap that I also got the best view I have ever had of a jay, which hung around for a couple of minutes just behind the bottom fence.  This happened while I was getting dressed upstairs, hence alas no photo.

The weather has done a major u-turn putting an end to butterfly sightings but Spring has now sprung and other species are abundant.  

A week ago on Friday Frances and I did a very scenic walk along the Blyth at Humford Mill near Bedlington.  There was wild garlic and other woodland flowers starting to come out all over the place, plus one plant I knew I recognised but needed to check - alternate leaf golden saxifrage.  There was less in the way of birdlife apart from a grey wagtail and a quick flash of a dipper flying downstream.

Grey Wagtail

Alternate Leaf Golden Saxifrage

Although the weather was already starting to cool there were a good few bumblebee queens on the move, one of which seemed to me on the basis of video evidence seemed to be a buff-tailed bumblebee.

One week later it was quite chilly when Malcolm and I set out from Low Newton to the outskirts of Beadnell against a northerly wind.

There were skylarks all over the place with a good number of meadow pipits, one of which posed nicely on a stretch of cut grass near a holiday park.

Meadow Pipit

It was one of those days when the further we walked, the more we saw.  By the time we got back we had also seen kestrels, stonechats, a flock of geese in flight that eventually landed at distance and looked to contain a mixture of greylag and pink-footed geese. there were a good few shelduck around, a couple of which were just about near enough to catch in the camera, though I never even spotted the curlew that was next to them.  A shallow pond produced a couple of gadwall and lapwing as well. however I was most pleased with a quick but unmistakeable view of a golden plover through the binoculars.

Shelduck - and curlew

Afterwards we stopped for a coffee back at Low Newton.  The tide was in and there was a proliferation of sanderling, redshank and oystercatchers on the crowded shoreline and a fleet of eider duck further out.

I reckoned there were some other small birds running around with the sanderling and took a few casual shots thinking to identify them later.  In fact I totally missed the foreshore and got instead a couple of blurred shots of birds in flight above the waves.  One had an upwardly curved beak but wasn't an avocet so I suppose possibly a godwit.  The other was a small wader but from what little I had looked more like illustrations of Temminck's Stint than the dunlin or knot I anticipated.  That however seems rather more unlikely.

If we had visited the foreshore at the beginning rather than the end of the day, I might have paid it more attention.

Thursday 26th November

The coal tits continue to raid the bird table in numbers and the robin tries in vain to chase them off.  They are very agile and quick and flight and have become a bit of a favourite.

On Wednesday I followed the twitchers again to see if I could get a decent view of the crossbills at Rising Sun Country Park  Not knowing where they were, I followed the Brown Trail and looked out for conifers,

A slight diversion to a small pond just South of the car park revealed four or five gadwall at closer range than the ones I saw at Holywell but shortly after I met a couple of birdwatchers who said they had found the twitchers but the crossbills had disappeared.  I thought they meant permanently.

Gadwall

However I continued with Plan A, figuring that there seemed to be a good deal of conifers around so that the crossbills may just have been displaced to a slightly different area of the park.

So I walked on not seeing anything of note apart from a couple of suspected fieldfare/redwing until near the end of the path I encountered the twitchers who told me that the crossbills had been there until about three hours ago when a sparrowhawk flushed them and they hadn't been back since.

I decided to come back another day and was heading dor the car park when I saw a chap with binoculars peering into some deciduous trees at the edge of a farm field.  Sure enough it was the crossbills warily edging along the woodland border.  

Crossbill

It was a typical lucky encounter - the right bird on the wrong kind of tree in the wrong location.  Having a last minute success when I had effectively given up looking is however something that has happened to me quite a number of times now.

Yesterday we did another joint bike ride in the Mitford area.  I was just relating the story of having spotted a heron at the top of a tree and failing to photograph it when we saw a heron at the top of a tree in exactly the same place.  Once again it made off when the camera came out.  

Averaging 10.3 mph we didn't notice much more until a lot of honking near Dinnington revealed the presence of a large number of geese in a field.  I took a couple of photos to check for pink-footed geese but it seems they were all greylags.

Thursday 4th November

 Having heard that there were crossbills and siskins in some numbers at East Cramlington Pond, I set off there a week ago.

The search was somewhat complicated by the fact there seems to be two locations answering to that name.  The one I found first was the Nirthumberland Wildlife Trust Reserve, which was pretty quiet but there were some honey bees around the artificial hives and some redwing in the trees on the western side, which was in sun.

I'd noticed there was an area of conifers to the North and headed towards them, thinking that they were more likely to attract crossbills and siskins.  Here there was another larger and less overgrown pond and a quite extensive area calling itself East Cramlington Nature Reserve.  I scouted around a good deal without seeing or hearing virtually anything but eventually did hear birds moving around the edge of one area.  Most of these proved to be long-tailed and other tits but I did briefly pick out one siskin among them.  No crossbills though.

With some time available, I moved on to Holywell Pond, where a spoonbill was reported about ten days earlier.  I missed the main path down to the pond after trouble parking and ended up approaching from the waggonway.

I found the area I took to be Holywell Pond, a wide area of shallow water set in ploughed farmland.  There were a few ducks at distance, which look to have been gadwall and in retrospect were a pleasing spot.

Gadwall

On setting off again, I could catch sight of another expanse of water which proved to be the real Holywell Pond, though in fact it produced less interesting sightings - just a few swans and gulls and some tufted ducks.

Yesterday, the spectacular sightings of a fortnight ago no longer much in evidence, I decided to take a coastal walk north from Newbiggin, watching out for any twite.

A very white gull with red legs landed briefly in front of me but eluded the camera and I had to puzzle
out what it might be afterwards.  The most likely explanation seems to be black-headed gull - without the black head of course.

Eider Duck

Down on the foreshore I got a good view of a rock pipit but on the whole there wasn't much about in the morning beyond gulls, cormorants and a good head of pied wagtails.

There were some smaller birds about but annoyingly they all seem to fly straight over me and into the sun, carried away quickly by a moderate breeze.  The only ones that landed took fright too quickly to be identified.

Further along I did see an eider duck diving repeatedly.

It was amazing to reflect that a hoopoe briefly turned up in the Lynemouth area, having first made land at Newbiggin.  I had no expectation that it would still be there, especially if it was as unimpressed by the scenery around the old aluminium smelter as I was.  Curiously though, there were a few stonechats in the bushes around th outflow from the mine contamination processing plan, which was about the same colour as them - rust red.

Things were a bit more lively as there were a good number of waders active as the tide moved in.  There were a few redshanks and some turnstone amongst others, and a lot more brown birds which were very quick to take flight when I approached.

On reflection, I suspect though that they were all rock pipits.

Rock Pipit

Monday 11th November

Autumn has moved in with increasing severity.

Merveille du Jour

Towards the end of October I went to the Butterfly Conservation North East AGM.  It started with a moth trap emptying, which had unfortunately been adversely affected by heavy overnight rain but did produce this nice specimen. There was also some useful information, notably about the small blue introduction on Teesside, which sems to be very near the RSPB site, as well as the precise location of the graylings at Cambois. There was also an explanation the variation of size in the speckled wood.  Apparently research has shown that the ones with larger wings migrate further.  It's thought that wing-shape and colouration are altering as a result of the movement north.

A week or so later I went on a bike ride to Ryal, which didn't produce much in the way of nature though I

Clouded Funnel?

rather liked the 'footpath' of toadstools trailing its way out of the woodland near Stamfordham.  And one pleasant surprise was the appearance of a roe deer shambling along the hedgerow between two roads just north of the A695 at Crawcrook.

In the garden long-tailed tits have come onto the feeders in large numbers on a couple of occasions and several grey squirrels have been seen making their way over to the oak tree, which presumably has produced a lot of acorns this year.  A couple have even ventured into the garden itself briefly.

The other day I saw a (presumably second brood?) jackdaw trying to beg food from the others.  One of them took umbrage and attacked it, forcing it onto its back on the lawn - at which point a magpie immediately swept down, presumably anticipating an easy kill.  Anyway, the victim jackdaw was strong enough to escape on the third or fourth attempt.  Quite a spectacle.

Yesterday, Naturewatchers' trip to Big Waters provided some interesting sightings in addition to the normal fare such as wigeon, shoveler, gadwall etc.  Amongst several hundred canada geese, the twitchers had spotted a white-headed canada goose, pictured below next to the real thing.  Apparently it is the result of hybridisation rather than a separate species.

White-headed Canada Goose (r)

The area to the rear of the hide was under water but the feeders were heavily visited, particularly by tits. I spent a lot of time photographing an elusive willow tit so we could confirm it wasn't a marsh tit but the big surprise for us was when a warbler briefly visited the willow trees on either side.  It seems, according to a local expert, that a small number of chiffchaffs are now overwintering at Big Waters.

Sunday 1st September

Long-tailed tits have made a couple of further brief appearances on the feeders.  Disappointingly, the flowering of the buddleia I replanted after it collapsed in the side passage has only attracted a few whites.  The weather has been quite windy, so visits from painted ladies, speckled wood and others have been fly pasts.

Last Friday I did a slow ride along the Derwent to the gym and back.  The idea was to look out for some interesting areas that might provide sightings.  Perhaps it was a little too late in the year, but it produced distinctly limited success. Just after the cycle tracks split there was a good stand of thistle where there were half a dozen painted ladies nectaring. A little further downhill a several oaks have been planted, which might make it a good area for purple hairstreaks once they have grown a bit.

Stopping along the Derwent above the site of the Crowley dam, a kingfisher went by in a flash, notable for the fact I haven't seen one for a long time, probably several years.

This Friday the Naturewatch group went to Cresswell Pond, Druridge Pond and finished briefly at Hauxley Reserve. At Cresswell there were a few ruff though not in summer plumage and, in the distance, a number of scaup. Most birds were far away sheltering from the wind but some nearby lapwing occasionally demonstrated their flying skills. There was a suggestion of a lesser yellowlegs, but I doubt if this will be confirmed.  To me it looked like a sandpiper.

Tree sparrows - and company

We didn't stay long at Druridge where it was very exposed - but not before seeing some black-tailed godwit and a couple of massive red admirals sheltering in the nettles. At Hauxley there was a good number of tree sparrows visiting of feeders and a few gadwall visible from the cafe, at first confusing us by their dark appearance in the mixed light. I was pleased to be the first to spot a deceased yellow underwing moth, a little egret and a single meadow brown on tree foliage, the few other butterflies being speckled woods. From the west hide we could also see more gadwall, some shovelers nad some brightly coloured little grebe.

These were just the sighting that caught my attention.  There were several others.

Little Grebe

Large red admiral

Tuesday 12th March

Hooded Crow

In the last few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from my fitness and nature-related activities for various reasons, notably to have a long weekend in the art galleries in Vienna.  On the last day there I was however pleased to spot a couple of hooded crows grazing in the Volksgarten and one got near enough for a snap on the mobile phone.

Here the odd red kite is still hovering around at low altitude and a grey squirrel hopped along the length of my garden fence one day.  I was in the garden myself during the unseasonably warm weather at the end of February but, unlike others did not see an early butterfly.

There was a slightly strange sight yesterday when I came through Medomsley in the car.  Two roe deer stood out on the horizon of a large field of cabbages, immediately causing me to wonder if deer eat cabbages. I suppose they probably do.

Yesterday it was back to normal with a trip to Shibdon Pond with the U3A group.  I got there early to find a large number of gulls and only a few other common species showing, but it just goes to show how useful it can be to be in a group.  Someone pointed out a couple of gadwall that were briefly visible and one hawk-eyed member spotted a group of snipe on an island near to the hide.

Snipe

 They were so well camouflaged, it took a few of us some while to spot them and it was hard work getting a view in the camera. A pair of shovelers and one of shelduck also showed up in due course to add to the mallards, coots and moorhens.

A walk to the Nature Reserve on the far side of the lake proved a little disappointing as we only saw a few teal, some tits and a bullfinch.  This was similar when I visited last autumn, so perhaps summer will be a better time to visit.

I did however see a very large bumblebee in flight (garden or white-tailed) and suspected it might be a queen. It's certainly the right time of year. Flowering early was this blackthorn although those in the know said that the unusually large flowers show that it is an introduced version that could interbreed with the native variety. Very sinister!

Non-native Blackthorn