Thursday 23rd May

Quite a strange experience lately when I got up to see a collar dove squatting in the middle of a clearly wet lawn.  it didn't move except for looking around a bit and, after about ten minutes, I started to wonder if it was injured.  After several more minutes it stood up and wandered around the garden, picking up titbits as if nothing had happened.

In consequence of Durham CCC's appalling performance in a supposed four day game, I decided instead to visit the Spetchells yesterday, cycling there via Wylam.  I knew that one or two grizzled skippers might be showing and supposed that the mining bees would also be active.  Both proved correct but I wished I had done a bit more research on the latter.

As well as the buffish mining bee (below), I think now that the smallish, slender insects I dismissed as 'bloodsuckers' were blood-bees.  Similarly, the wasp like hoverflies I thought I was watching may well have been nomad bees.  These are both parasitic bees that take over the nests of other mining bees.

Buffish Mining Bee searches for mine

On the butterfly front it was fairly quiet as notably the bird's foot trefoil hasn't really progressed much yet. There was a peacock and a speckled wood while cycling and I did manage to catch up with four grizzled skippers, a couple of orange tip (one with a very green underside) and a small number of green-veined white.

Two of the latter were locked together in presumably mating behaviour and were flying around with one clinging motionless to the other, which had to do all the work.  Eventually they settled on a bramble leaf while I continued on my slow walk. When I returned the best part of an hour later, they were still in exactly the same place and flew off only when I came past agian, still locked together.

Green-veined whites

It was almost as if one of the happy couple had died 'in the act'. Another strange one.