Thursday 23rd April

 A fellow member from the Prudhoe U3A Naturewatch group thinks that the speckled wood I saw last week (see previous post) may have been variant specimen.  I did consider this possibility on writing the entry but dismissed it as far-fetched.

As it happens I saw my second speckled wood of the year on a bike/hike trip to the Spetchells two days ago.

Somewhat More Speckled Wood

Here we can see that, while the speckles are pretty much 'out', some are still not as clear as the others.  Assuming this one has been on the wing slightly longer than last week's, I'm still inclined to think that it's a case of more colour showing up with wear as happens with some bird species. It would be nice to see what an expert says though.

The main reason I went to the Spetchells was in the hope of seeing an ashy mining bee as I've started doing a bit of bee recording for the North East Bee Hunt  There weren't any but there were rather lot of buffish mining bees...

It was like that pretty much everywhere, including the odd one that landed on my scruffy trainers.  They weren't aggressive except towards the odd buff-tailed bumblebee that occasionally turned up. I'm glad I didn't have to count them as my nearest estimate would have been in the range 10,000 - 1,000,000!

On the way back I also finally managed to get a snap of one of this year's chiffchaffs in full song. 

Chiffchaff singing chiff-chaff

The same thing happened last year. I heard loads before I actually saw one to photograph.

There were also a few butterflies by the Tyne, including one small tortoiseshell where I saw several last August.

In the garden, there have been one or two tree sparrow appearances plus also a lot of orange tips and the odd peacock and a few other whites that tantalisingly won't settle.  It's also clear that the dunnocks have mated successfully and I suspect a pair of blackbirds have too, having several times seen the male entering a gap in the conifer hedge looking somewhat furtive.

Thursday 16th April

I was pleased to see that three tree sparrows spent some time feeding off the bird table yesterday, so it looks like they may become regular customers.  The bird food has been getting low during the virus crisis and I've reduced the amount I'm putting out .  I've also levened it with some leftover cumin seed but it doesn't seem to have proved popular.  Having sampled a few myself, I'm not surprised.  The taste is pretty pungent.

The garlic mustard has been shooting up and the first orange tips have been visiting, five sighted on one particularly sunny day.  It struck me that they are actually quite well camouflaged on this plant with their wings closed.

Orange Tip (wings closed)

Orange Tip (wings open)

There was also a green-veined white on one occasion.

The Garlic Mustard has also been attracting quite a few bees, including the tree bumblebee that is now one of the commonest visitors. There have also been some ressembling carder bees that have struck me as being particularly large, so I doublechecked but I think they are just common carders.

Common Carder

Tree Bumblebee

Yesterday I took my coronavirus exercise in the form of a cycle ride along the Tyne towards Newcastle. The idea was to check out how the flower meadows were developing but it was no surprise to see nothing was flowering as yet.

Around Leamington there were a few butterflies about.  At first it was annoying as none would settle so it wasn't possible to identify any, even though a couple nearly flew in my face.  Gradually it was possible to pick out the recent usual suspects - peacock and orange tip - as well as possibly a couple of other whites.

I continued on to just past Scotswood Bridge and stopped for another disappearing butterfly, when two or three sand martins started looping around in front of me.  Then, just before the stretch where the track runs down next to the main road, there was the first speckled wood of the year in the hedgerow. On the way back a couple of skylarks parachuting down to some waste land just by Scotswood. 

If I'd been looking to see any of these three things, this certainly wouldn't have been where I would have gone to do it.

Speckled Wood

On looking at it more closely, it's noticeable that the speckled wood seems darker than other examples.  I assume this is partly because it is a fresh specimen and that some of the speckles are not yet or only faintly visible.

Friday 10th April

Like everyone else I'm maximising my coronavirus exercise sessions.

Last week warmer weather finally broke through and further peacocks have turned up in the garden and, on a walk in Chopwell Woods, I saw seven (plus a couple of suspects) and a single small tortoiseshell so it looks like they're doing well this Spring.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

On arriving home I found a tree bumblebee struggling in the sink, a performance that was repeated recently when there was one just behind the taps, so heaven knows how they are getting there. On the subject of bees, I spotted this item a few days back in the garden.  I suspect it is a queen buff-tailed bumblebee (the buff tail doesn't really show) looking around for somewhere to nest.

Buff-tailed Bumblequeen

Birdlife in the garden has been reasonably consistent. The weather closed in a bit yesterday, which seemed to have the effect of attracting bigger numbers to the feeders. A couple of 'long time no see' appearances were a female woodpecker and a tree sparrow.

Woodpecker

Tree Sparrow

Then this morning there were two tree sparrows feeding on the bird table. Unlike other species, it looks as though they actually like the finch bird food that has recently been offered.

Bike rides lately have been producing more to hear than to see, including lapwing and curlew.  It was very pleasant near Hedley on the Hill today, an area which I suspect might have more to offer in future.  There was another small tortoiseshell on the road leading to the village. On the way down to Prudhoe, I caught up with a nice yellowhammer.

Yellowhammer