Friday 24th August

The last week  has been dominated by social events but what I have seen was interesting.

Last week I ended up cycling back from Gateshead along the Tanfield Railway path and took a rather ill-advised shortcut.  This took me along a rough bridle path through farmers' fields but I did get a quick view of a couple of bright male linnets on the hedgerow.

The same day I followed some recent advice and took a look at the viaducts on the cycle track near Rowlands Gill to check them out as possible places to see purple hairstreaks.  The idea is that the height gives a good view into the crowns of some oak trees and two of the three do indeed have oak trees growing right next to them.

The weather was already rather mixed and I did not see any hairstreaks.  A bit like in May with the green hairstreaks, I got the vital information just a bit too late and will need to store it until next year.  What I did see however, somewhat to my surprise, was the back end of a red deer disappearing into the bushes, no more than a mile or so a way from the town.

There has been a drop in temperature over the last couple of days and it has coincided with the sudden reappearance of long-tailed tits on the garden feeders - as many as four or five at the time.  I hadn't seen them all summer so it was a bit of a surprise.  However it does sort of coincide with my memory that you tend to see them more in colder weather.

Long-tailed tits and blue tits

I think some of them look like young birds.

Tuesday 13th August

Again not too much to report...

I went on a walk near Castle Howard with my daughter and her boyfriend on Sunday but not too much turned up in spite of some nice scenery with some impressive oaks and hornbeams. We did get a good view of some blackcaps in a bush (a lot of blackcaps this year?) plus the customary goldfinches and speckled wood butterflies and a momentary glimpse of a hornet.

Lake near Castle Howard

One thing that did puzzle us was this flower which was growing in large fields and was presumably cultivated as a rotational crop. Anyway we couldn't identify what it was.

Mystery crop

Apart from that and the smallest shetland pony I have ever seen, there was nothing further to note.

Yesterday a rather raggeldy looking red kite flew over the estate.  Nothing new has turned up in the garden.

In the evening I went out with the U3A Naturewatch group to look for nightjars near Slaley.  They have appeared there for the last couple of years but it was a rather wet and dark evening and all I saw was a furtive hare at dusk and a few pigeons.  A while after dusk we did hear some churring but at a such distance it wasn't even worth recording.

At the moment I have the feeling of being in a bit of a nature void. Summer is pretty much over and autumn hasn't started.

Monday 6th August

By contrast this week has been fairly quiet.

Yesterday evening I made a trip out to Waldridge Fell in search of the purple hairstreak, which has been sighted there a few times recently.  I did manage to find a good number of oak trees but did not see the butterfly. I found some consolation in my first sighting of the wall brown butterfly this year, basking on a bit of open grassland - plus a couple of meadow browns and the inevitable whites and speckled woods.

There was however a moment of humour later when I headed down a woodland path and saw what I took to be a small brown dog trotting towards me.  Its ears seemed to be getting larger as it approached when it suddenly stopped still to eye me over, metamorphosed into a hare and trotted off casually in the opposite direction.

Otherwise it has been bits and pieces - a red admiral flying over the tennis court or a hayfield and a peacock on a quick walk along the river at Prudhoe.

Peacock

However the main sense of success of the week also came yesterday.  One sprig of buddleia I brought over from Dumfries unexpectedly survived the harsh Spring weather and has produced a single, long flower.  As I arrived home around lunchtime there was a red admiral on it, which I disturbed in passing.  I went into the house to fetch the camera and there was a peacock hanging on it upside down instead.

A satisfying moment...