Tuesday 28th July

Finally a bit more success in the hairstreak hunt in spite of still indifferent weather.

I managed four brief sightings in different wych elms around Bywell Bridge.  One struck me as being too dark but the other three answered the broad description and probably were white-letter hairstreaks.  The only trouble was I couldn't prove it as none of them settled and so could theoretically have been something else.

It was a similar story later in the week when I took advantage of a couple of partially summer evenings to look for purple hairstreaks in the tops of the oaks from the old railway bridges just past Hamsterley Mill.  Although not around in the same numbers as my first visit last year, I was able to identify around 10 suspects flying around different trees, discounting a couple of others as moths.  The greyish hue in flight makes me fairly certain on identification and in one case there was a momentary flash of light blue that I regard as conclusive but again none settled anywhere visited.

Spotting these species isn't an easy task.  My conclusion based on this year's attempts is that the purple hairstreak is the easier option.  My last visit to Bywell on Sunday produced nothing at all but one compensation was spotting this rather dozy looking young tawny owl on a brief woodland walk.

Tawny Owl

Similarly the trips to Hamsterley revealed a jay and some rising trout viewed from above and, on the windier day, about a dozen red kites cruising around.

A week or so after they first bloomed, the buddlieae attracted their first butterfly, a green-veined white.  Since then three small tortoiseshells have followed suit, but this one needed to warm up on the path first.

Small Tortoiseshell

Woodpeckers have been visiting daily - a female and a juvenile - and a song thrush has been around a couple of times looking for worms.  But by far the commonest small bird is the blue tit, which has clearly had an excellent breeding season.

Tuesday 21st July

The quest for the white letter hairstreak continues to be unsuccessful and considerably hindered by the inconsistent weather.  The last attempt was in the Aln Valley on Friday, originally forecast to be sunny but in fact dreary the whole day. So the only butterflies we saw much of were the continuing ringlets and meadow browns and, apart from a heron devouring an elver and a couple of rising trout, that was about it.

Meadow Brown (male)

It was possible to identify a fair few wych elms but not so many as around Bywell Bridge, which seems the more likely venue.

A lot of the garden buddleia is now out but so far no butterflies have visited, just the odd white on the michaelmas daisies.  There was just one red admiral on the summer house early on Sunday morning.  I attribute the poor results to the mixed and largely dull weather.  At this rate, it will be hard to find a sunny spot for the Big Butterfly Count before 9th August.  Suggestions of a bumper butterfly year from Butterfly Conservation are not likely to be echoed in the North.

Sunday was also the day I met with Jennifer and Joe at Brimham Rocks, a very impressive and extensive formation.  The morning weather was considerably better and we saw ringlets, meadow browns, red admirals, small tortoiseshells as well as a dozen or so small skippers, the first I have spotted this year.  Or were they? Looking at the photo below again, I'm wondering about essex skippers...

Small Skipper?

Brimham is also supposed to be a venue for spotted flycatchers and redstarts but, in view of the large number of visitors, I wasn't surprised not to see any.

Monday 13th July

To be honest this is a bit of a non-report, in that for a change, none of the things I was hoping for came about.

Last Wednesday I tried fishing Dissington Pond, but this time legering sweetcorn and worm feeder in the hope of bream or tench.  Conditions weren't wonderful as temperatures had dropped and the wind was from the East.  So I wasn't surprised not to catch but it did seem strange that I never got the merest touch of a bite, not even a liner.

However not much else was taken and towards the end another guy helpfully commented that the venue is 'hard work' on the feeder.  One factor I did notice was that the water is remearkably clear considering there is a farmer's field next to it. You'd have thought there might be a bit of algae around.

It went little better on Saturday when I again cycled to Stocksfield looking for white letter hairstreaks and the best I saw was another fine red admiral.  Again it really was not warm enough or sunny enough to expect much success.  I did at least take a look round the trees at Stocksfield Hall Enterprise Park and found there were a lot more elms there, some of which weren't to my inexperienced eye wych elms. So at least another area to search.

Yesterday I decided to check out Little Waters and Killingworth Lake as possible fishing venues.  Little Waters has clearly been neglected over the years and only two swims looked vaguely fishable.  The Lake is an obvious venue.  It has the reputation of being hard to fish and the most-used swims are a fair hike from the car park, inspiring me to order a tackle trolley.  I'd be interested to see how hair-rigged prawn would work as a possible novelty item, perhaps while trying for tiddlers on the short pole.

Small Tortoiseshell

No fish were taken while I was there but I did see a nice small tortoiseshell, a species that is clearly back in numbers, and managed a detour to my sister's where she showed me her impressive garden.

In my own garden there has been little new. Red admiral and green-veined white have been sighted.  A couple of visitors have become increasingly bold, namely a woodpecker, which I now think to be a juvenile, and the grey squirrel (pretty sure it's the same one) that shows increasingly little fear when I see him attacking the bird nuts. I managed to capture one such attack on the camera.  What I didn't notice at the time was the unperturbed blue tit feeding off the fatballs right nearby.

Monday 6th July

Well my first fishing trip for three years didn't work out too brilliantly.  I fished swim 9 at Dissington Pond on the short pole, so pretty much what I used to do at Brooms near Annan.  It was a bit weird as I couldn't remember how to handle the tackle and was a bit short of bait, not wanting to make unneccessary shopping trips.

After a some while I caught a small perch on worm and could have had more but decided to stick out for better fish on heavier tackle.  It was probably a mistake as all I got was a few nips and nibbles and swirls from an obviously large carp foraging in the swim after I added some old halibut pellets to the feed.

I think I need to get out of the old methods and try different ideas, ideally with less tackle to cart around.

In spite of some iffy weather I did a nature walk with a friend at Big Waters, where we quickly saw a number of ringlets and a couple of fine looking and large red admirals, as well as meadow brown and speckled wood.

Ringlet

Red Admiral

A pleasant surprise was to see a trio of baby swallows as they waited to be fed by the parent bird.

Baby Swallows

Almost better than that I managed to actually identify a flower - agrimony.

Agrimony

Today I made my first attempt to track down the white-letter hairstreaks at Bywell, spurred on by an optimistic weather forecast.  But when I got to the bridge by bike, it was the usual murk tht we are calling summer this year.  I hung around for a while during a brief bright spell. Then it started to drizzle and I decided to push off, cursing the weather forecast.  When I think of the days this year when I've stayed in because rain was forecast that never arrived...

I did however discover that there are also a few wych elm in the Wylam area, one of which was directly opposite a local hostelry. It was open.