Sunday 2nd August

I got out fishing on Killingworth Lake on Wednesday.  I enjoyed the experience of fishing a waggler for the first time in many years, though incompetence through lack of practice meant success was limited.  I managed to land three roach in the course of the afternoon when I should probably have had at least double that.  Several fish were missed or lost on the way to the net.  Barbless hooks seem to make it easy for smaller fish and the size I started with was probably also too small.

Unfortunately the lake is shallow where fishing is allowed and after teatime the swim was heavily invaded by swans happily eating up all the bait and I gave up earlier than planned.

The Catch

I got talking to a lad who was there for the night carp fishing and told me he had once caught a terrapin there.  There is photographic evidence to prove his claim is believable.

Terrapin

The weather forecast was that summer was due to take place on Friday so after slogging around the tennis court in 28 degree heat, I decided to have another run to Hamsterley Mill to see if I could get a better view of the purple hairstreaks.

Typically the weather had turned back to murk by the evening but the warmth was still there and there was a good deal of activity in the 'hotspot' at the second bridge.  This time there were about twenty sightings as they whirled around like mad things.  One settled momentarily on an ash right next to the bridge but did not open its wings and moved on pronto.

I don't think I used it at the time but this video I took last year shows what it's like trying to spot them in flight:

i checked out another spot and saw one more, by which time it started to rain. Once again I came ohome early.

There was a bit of rain again and precious little sun yesterday when I rode to check the meadows at Elswick and Derwenthaugh for commom blues and burnet moths.  No success, but equally interesting to note that bird's foot trefoil has disappeared at Elswick when there was plenty of it last year.  At Derwenthaugh there was none where it was last year but plenty of it further up the field.  I'm a bit puzzled as to why that should be.

It's still slim pickings on the garden buddleia.  A couple of small tortoiseshells have shown up, as did a rather ragged little comma.

Comma

As well as an increasingly bold grey squirrel, the woodpeckers continue to feast on the peanut feeder, in the most recent case a juvenile, judging by its extensive red pate.

Woodpecker