Monday 22nd July

I decided to make a definite assault on the purple hairstreak nearer to home, starting off with a wander along The Avenue at Gibside.  There are certainly a prestigious number of oak trees there, but they are so old and large it would be very difficult to make out any butterflies so far overhead. There were about three red admiral flying long distance, a few ringlet and several meadow brown.

On spec I passed through the walled garden where I noticed a strange looking bumble bee I couldn't get a decent photo of, followed by three small skipper and a single small tortoiseshell. The bee just didn't strike me as atypical garden bumblebee but buff-tailed bumblebee doesn't seem quite right either.  I wondered if it had a growth just behind its head.

Pausing for a rest, there was a very dark looking wagtail running around under the chairs outside.

Bumblebee

Wagtail

Then I moved on to the viaducts past Hamsterley and spent all my time observing a good cluster of oak crowns visible from the far end of the second one, observed by a cruising red kite.  The reason for the long stay was that there were clearly small butterflies of greyish appearance darting in and out of the treetops, but it was very hard to get a positive sighting of any of them.  This time I was sure they weren't speckled woods, which would have been more leisurely at times.  There was the occasional flash of violet blue so my belief is that they were purple hairstreaks though they were never still enough to identify the actual wing pattern positively.

I tried making a brief video of them but it didn't produce any conclusive evidence either.  There must have been at least ten of them, even allowing for double sightings.

Purple Hairstreaks