An Eventful Weekend!

Last Saturday morning I was on my way to Newcastle in bright weather and decided to to stop off at the place where I saw a good number of small heath butterflies last Spring, a derelict brownfield location abounding in litter that must now be described as 'somewhere between Swalwell and Dunston.'

I started seeing butterflies as soon as I arrived but instead of the expected small heath, they were clearly dingy skipper and in considerable numbers.  There were also very brief sightings of a flying blue shape I thought to be a possible holly blue and a brief stop by a pale looking moth.

Unfortunately all were decidedly skittish and I had big difficulties getting any sort of a photo. So instead of visiting Ryton Meadows after I finished my shopping, I returned again in the afternoon.

By now it was really warm and the skippers were much more placid.  In total I reckoned that I saw about thirty of the supposedly declining dingy skippers in all, some of which were clearly trying to mate.

Dingy Skipper

Dingy Skippers in love

So I reported all this to the North East Butterfly Conservation website only to receive an instant message saying the sighting was noted but would not be displayed to members as it contained 'sensitive information.'  All very John le Carré!

I also solved the mystery of the moth and the blue flying objects, which proved to be one and the same thing - a treble bar or perhaps more likely for a daytime appearance, lesser treble bar moth.

(Lesser) Treble Bar Moth

In sunlit flight they do have a somewhat azure appearance, hence the illusion of holly blue.

What attracted me to the area was the abundance of bird's foot trefoil nearby, which also meant numerous red-tailed bumblebees were about, but interestingly no common blues.

Red-tailed Bumblebee

Earlier on I had found a couple of items in the garden that I was able to tentatively identify as narrow-waisted wasps.  Again these had the experts humming and hawing as to their precise identity in Latin. Though there is a clear difference between the two, in broad terms and plain English they are apparently potter wasps.

Potter Wasp 1

Potter Wasp 2

On the Sunday I decided to check out the Calaminarian Grassland at Wylam to see if I could find the red-girdled mining bee there as suspected, and then proceeding to the Spetchells at Prudhoe in the hope of finally seeing my first ashy mining bee, which I had read is a bit of a rarity also with only about ten sightings a year - mainly by the River Tyne.

On arrival by bike I had no difficulty in finding bees buzzing around that had an amount of red on the abdomen and saw roughly around 20 examples, some larger and some smaller ones.  The trouble was that they were all hyperactive and only landed so briefly a snapshot was near impossible.

The big surprise was that two or three times a very dark bee of near bumblebee proportions turned up behaving in a similar manner before jetting off at speed.  When one did land it was unmistakeably  - an ashy mining bee.  In total I made about ten observations of an ashy bee but suspect at least some were the same individual.

I decided to take videos of both to enable proof of the identity of each.  Unfortunately, feedback on the item with the red abdomen was that it was unidentifiable and more likely to be a member of the Sphecodes species (Latin for blood bee.)

Here are both videos so you can judge for yourself! 

Ashy Mining Bee

Probable Blood Bee

I was well-pleased with my first ashy mining bee and blood bees are a known difficult area. It's also a pity that the second bee managed to spend all its time in the bug box under a slightly blurred area. However you can probably gather that I'm getting a bit fed up with the problems of insect identification. 

Basically I learnt what I know about bees from CR, who was a brilliant populariser and encouraged one's attempts to identify them using everyday English names.  Now I seem to only find amateur experts, clearly more knowledgeable than me, who complain about the quality of photos submitted, spout Latin terms that need to be looked up and frequently claim detailed identification is impossible.

I feel like telling them to tell they should give me their best opinion.  After all my field guide suggests there are predominantly three species of blood bee in North East England - Geoffroy's, box-headed and sandpit so it's a fair bet that it was one of them.  It would be no problem for me to explain that an identification is possible or probable rather than obscuring the issue with broad species types.  It's as if they fear losing their expert status if they actually get an identification wrong once in a while.

Anyway I never bothered with the numerous nomad bees I saw at Wylam, knowing that a clear verdict was unlikely.  I did see a couple of chocolate mining bees (andrena scotica for the Classics scholars) and a single, slightly worn holly blue butterfly.

Holly Blue

It's so much simpler with butterflies - in the North East at least.

More Flies and Other Creatures

A rather cold and intermittently wet spell of weather having reduced the number of appearances in the garden, I went back to a little birdwatching with F on Friday at Shotton Pools.

I wanted to see if the avocets had continued to frequent the shallow ponds and this was indeed the case, although numbers were not large. Also about were plenty of greylag geese, a few lapwing and a lot of heard-but-not-seen skylarks.

Avocet

Lapwing

I didn't notice at the time that the avocet has managed to fish something out of the water.

We were a bit mystified by the set-aside crop in a big farmer's field nearby, which turns out to be something called crimson clover.

Crimson Clover

A day after the latest captive in the summer house was a very small, moth-type item that wasn't keen to stay still.  So it was hard to be sure of identification but I'm pretty sure, having had one before that it is a drain fly.

Drain Fly

I think I may have solved the mystery of the fly I couldn't identify in my last post.  This time I managed to get better photos, enabling a remote suggestion of green longhorn moth.

Green Longhorn Moth

Green Longhorn Moth (wings open)

On close inspection the horns, which are indeed very long, can be seen like a length of fine fishing line.

So the moth I thought I saw was a fly and the fly I thought I saw was a moth...

The next thing was that a single large white butterfly (female) turned up from nowhere.

Large White

It's the first I've seen this year and a little surprising that it made its garden debut before a small white has managed to appear.

To complete the pattern of unpredictability, a large red damselfly passed by and another minute wasp (I think) but, more reliably, there was of course a nomad bee as well as a chocolate mining bee I didn't manage to photograph.

Large Red Damselfly

Nomad

I keep posting the nomads to iNaturalist but no-one wants to risk an identification.

Today in not great conditions, I saw my first common carder bee of the year. They'll be back.

Troubled By Flies...

 In spite of changeable weather, sporadic sightings have still continued.

A week ago on Sunday was the last day clear of rain, when on a bike ride I spotted the first red admiral I have seen since early March plus a few whites, although still to find a small white that will pose for the cameras.

Apart from that I found  my first garden bumblebee of the season - a queen - rooting around the ground last Friday. 

Garden Bumblebee Queen

You can just make out the yellow strip straggling abdomen and thorax though the the tail stripe is almost totally invisible.

Since then it has been very hitty-missy but I did manage a few sightings on Tuesday.

Heading into the summerhouse I discovered a small bumblebee battering itself on the glass. It never settled but was easy enough to capture in a bug box, where it perhaps understandably continued to struggle.  However I saw enough to identify it as a male early bumblebee.  The giveaway was a small orange tip at the tail.

Early Bumblebee

I think this is the first time I've seen a male.

When I left the summerhouse immediately afterwards to check something else I returned to find, comically enough, a buff-tailed bumblebee battering itself against the same pane of glass. This time the bug box served as a rescue mechanism.

Otherwise the supposedly rare red-girdled mining bee put in a lengthy visit (the fourth in total) and a large nomad bee posed perfectly of a leaf of garlic mustard. 

Another Nomad

As ever, it's hard to identify nomad bees precisely though I would say it seemed different to the one I mentioned in my last post.

Before that, I was starting to be pestered by flies.  Not because they were getting intrusive but because I couldn't identify them.  I did get as far as eventually realising the one on the left might not be a common dronefly but the second one had me completely confused.

Tapered Dronefly

member of Platycheirus family

No I'd never heard of the Platycheirus family either. I'm relying on expert testimony here.

Then something strange happened.  What appeared to be two small moths started circling each other aggressively like some butterflies do, except that when one landed it was clearly a fly with broad, darkly-patterned wings.  I got a photo of it but the features didn't show up well.  Also of little help is the brief video I got of one of them flying off:-

Unidentified Flying Objects

I've never seen anything like it before.

Shortly afterwards the skies closed in.  Maybe they'll re-appear one day. 

A Turn up for the Bee Books

Well the mining bees are turning up thick and fast and testing the depths of my rusty knowledge.  Unfortunately a lot of them are coming up as unidentifiable or suggestions from the likes of iNaturalist or Google Lens are inconsistent or contaminated by American sources.

However one particular lead has struck gold as it appears I may have seen a bit of a rarity - the red-girdled mining bee.

Red-girdled Mining Bee

This has been confirmed as feasible by a local expert who now thinks it may have been under reported in the North East as previously thought only to occur on the Spetchells.  But it occurred to me that I had seen something very similar at the Calaminarian Grassland near Wylam three years ago, when I thought it was a blood bee.

Anyway it has been turning up in the garden regularly (sunshine permitting.)  Here's an attempted close-up in the bug box:-

Close-up

This came from a video that I accidentally stopped after four seconds... Doh!

Otherwise a degree of confusion reigns over visiting mining bees in terms of establishing what kind of mining bee is visiting, for example this one:

Mining Bee

Or this one:

Mining Bee

... whereas this one could be the first honey bee of the year or another mining bee.

What seems clear from the number I get plus nomads and beeflies is that there must be a promised land of mining bees nearby.  Old maps of the area where I live are interestingly marked "sewage works."

By contrast the plentiful red mason bees are easy to spot.  They are starting to show some tentative interest in the bug hotel and still great fans of the summer house.

Red Mason Bee

Unfortunately one silly red mason bee managed to fall into a bucket of water, after which I fortunately managed to rescue it and found a sunny spot so it could dry off before flying again.

After bath

Before flying

Nevertheless, I still managed to get confused by one item.

Unidentified

This has the shape of a red mason bee but appears a good deal darker.  I wondered if it was a male but not convinced.

Not a great photo anyway.

A Busy time of Year

Over the past ten days, the number of sightings has really exploded and it's hard to keep tabs on it all.

It started with a ride to Byker and back with sightings of a mistle thrush, cormorant and two pairs of shelduck.  More engaged with the insects, significant for me however was the first sighting I have had this year of a comma butterfly.

Comma

That was on 23rd April.

Over the succeeding days, sightings of bees accelerated still mainly led by red mason bee. I managed to get a video of one of the nomad bees which produced a better than usual image, suggesting it is either a flavous or early nomad bee. 

Flavous or early?

There has also been a couple of smaller bees turning up but proving elusive because of a prevailing wind.  I fancied one might be blue mason bee (which has turned up before) but various photos didn't show good angles and advice suggests that it is Gwynne's mining bee.  The only decent shot of the other one still wasn't great and iNaturalist's lead suggestion of hawthorn mining bee seems unconvincing.

Gwynne's Mining Bee

Unidentified Mining Bee

Around the same time there were no great problems identifying the first female orange tip to visit the garden.

Orange Tip (female)

Confusion however again reigned on a walk at MiltonRigg Wood in Cumbria last Sunday with V&A. It was quite an impressive venue with a good amount of bilberry.

I saw a few bumblebees with a red-tailed stripe and thought I might have found a red-tailed bumblebee queen at one point.  However the one very poor photo I got showed a white stripe on the thorax so I suppose could have been a bilberry bumblebee queen.  Similarly thee were a couple of fleeting visits from carder bees but so brief it was impossible to assess if either were a moss carder bee.

Meanwhile V's merlin app was reporting all sorts of birds, notably including pied flycatcher and redstart (very feasible) as well as ring ouzel (somewhat dubious).  The birds were high up in the well-established trees, and only A managed to see a couple.  All I saw was a pair of mallards on the wetland area...

More successful was double outing with AMG on Thursday.

First target was the green hairstreak at Dipton Woods Corbridge.  Last time I was there the hairstreaks had started to occur in a recently-felled area near the North Eastern end of the path and I had a suspicion things might have developed.

Sure enough, we found them in numbers there, often in groups of two or three.

Green Hairstreak

Overall I counted thirty and that was without re-foraging this new 'hotspot' on the way back to the car. We did also visit the area where they've been seen in previous years but this old 'hotspot' appeared somewhat overgrown and only accounted for two of the sightings. Incidentally someone managed to see as many as 74 somewhere in County Durham.

Other sightings were a peacock, and about six each of speckled wood and small white, in both cases the first definite sightings I have noted this Spring.

The next stop was The Spetchells at Prudhoe, where we fully expected to see vast numbers of buffish mining bees.  But first there was a pleasant surprise when a holly blue turned up next to the path along the Tyne.

Holly Blue

There's been a few sightings of holly blue this Spring (maybe a good year for them?) and one turned up in my garden this morning as I was preparing to write this entry. It flapped around in front of me as I headed for the summer house for about a minute.  Unfortunately, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a plate of biscuits in the other, I was powerless to react.

Anyway, the very dry Eastern end of the Spetchells was virtually devoid of buff-tailed mining bees.  Walking west we did manage to contact them but it was the case of a maybe a hundred rather than the thousands around at the end of last April.  Also in attendance were of course good numbers of Gooden's nomad bee, their main predator.

Buffish Mining Bee

Gooden's Nomad Bee

I must say I haven't been too impressed with my Nikkon camera in recent attempts to capture images of insects. It does fine with birds but is often out-performed by my wee Panasonic for close-ups of smaller items. I think I may need to check the settings to see what can be improved.

Approaching teatime we took a quick look for the sand martins but they haven't appeared yet.  What we did see on the way back was a couple of brown shapes that may have been dingy skippers but we couldn't be anything like certain.

So the next day I took a brief ride to Pathhead Nature Reserve and did find a couple of them messing around on the northern bank of the area.  Even with the Panasonic, it was difficult to keep up with them.  They were very small and active and closed their wings almost immediately on landing so they were heavily camouflaged in the brownfield mini-landscape.

Dingy Skipper

I decided to take a tour round the rest of the site, seeing nothing else but when I returned they were still there as before.

I sat down to eat a couple of snacks thinking that one of them would inevitably offer me a better shot - and never saw them again over the next twenty minutes. Odd!

Insects Are Back

After Madeira, there has been a burst of insect sightings in the garden in a number of short, mainly lunchtime sessions.  In fact so many that I can't exactly remember the sequence of what was seen when.

I do know the first thing I noted - and this is now almost three weeks ago - was at least six green lacewings trying to break through the windows of my summer house.  This is a good deal more than I have seen in previous years.

Green Lacewing

A pity the window could have done with a clean...

I can also remember that the day after I got back I helped out clearing a butterfly site at Greenleighton Moss of sitka spruce saplings.  An uneven bog isn't ideal for carting a camera around as well as cutting equipment but we the day was fine and we encountered lots of six spot ladybirds, several lizards, bog rosemary, wild cranberries and right at the end a single adder sunning itself on the trail.

The ladybird theme has continued in the garden and there are couple working on the garlic mustard, often in the company of a green shield bug.

Green Shield Bug

It was at last possible to get a shot of one of the buff-tailed bumblebee queens that have been around since mid-March and these I have now been joined by occasional tree bumblebees which I think are also queens as well as by a couple of queen wasps

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Tree Bumblebee Queen

Queen Wasp

I was wondering which would be the first non bumblebee to turn up and it was not totally unexpectedly a red mason bee, which have since made their presence felt in increasing numbers, although so far showing no interest in the bug hotel on the summer house wall, preferring the summer house itself.

Red Mason Bee

Meanwhile butterflies also eventually appeared, though it was on a brief ride past Swalwell Cricket Club that I saw my first orange tip.  Eventually a couple more males have turned up in the garden too, plus the first green-veined white.

Orange Tip

Green-veined White

I was for a while a bit surprised that there were no mining bees around especially as I did get a couple of visits from a dark-edged beefly which is one of the key predators.  But after a while I found a chocolate mining bee by accident and not long after a tiny nomad bee, also a predator.

Dark-edged Beefly

Chocolate Mining Bee

Nomad Bee

What kind of nomad bee it was is very hard to assess.  What I can say is I've never seen one so small. I actually mistook it for a wee chafer of some sort.

Also appearing recently was the first bee imitator, the well known common drone fly.

Common Drone Fly

I shouldn't also forget the birds.  Here are a couple of less regular visitors:

Goldfinch

Chaffinch

The chaffinch has now become more regular since the introduction of sunflower hearts into one feeder. here is is clearing up after the greedy siskins who are messy eaters and keep dropping bits of seed onto the lawn.

The goldfinch is considerably less frequent and I'm not sure I've caught one here on camera before.