Activity has understandably perked up as the night frosts gradually disappear.
I celebrated the opening of non-essential retail on the (glorious?) 12th by cycling to the Metrocentre and saw two goosander on the Derwent and a clear view of a chiffchaff near the Tyne but was too cold to linger. On the same chilly day it was quite a surprise to see a green-veined white settle briefly in the garden as well as a single peacock. Subsequent days lead to a couple of flypasts from orange tips.
On the Wednesday a walk to Chopwell Woods at least produced a good deal more birdsong and we returned to increased bee activity in the garden, which I investigated further. Apart from the expected tree bumble bee queen, there were what I thought were honeybees and something a good deal smaller that proved to be a female buffish mining bee. Fortuitously I had recently learned about beeflies and there have been a few visit from the dark-edged beefly. More recently, a buff-tailed bumblebee queens have turned up too. There's been a couple of ladybirds too but nothing spectacular.
 | | Honey Bee (worker) |
|  | | Female Buffish Mining Bee |
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 | | Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen |
|  | | Dark-edged Beefly |
|  | | Tree Bumblebee Queen |
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On Thursday three of us did a bike ride from Weetslade to Matfen and back and there was a good number of small tortoiseshells on the wing, notably on the rough track just West of Darras Hall.
Up to this point I hadn't managed to snap any of the butterflies and it was a bit of a surprise when a speckled wood in the garden was my first subject of the year on Friday. I'd have thought it was a bit early. None of the other butterflies observed settled for any length of time.
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| Speckled Wood |
Following a resolution to head South more often, I took a walk in Edmondsley Wood on Monday. It was a very pleasant stroll long an enlarged burn that you repeatedly had to cross by stepping on rocks. I disturbed the same heron repeatedly as I moved along but couldn't see any sign of fish in the very clear water.
More buff-tailed bumblebee queens were looking for places to nest, and the odd white butterfly began to appear. When I settled to have something to eat, they also started to settle and I could see that they were green-veined whites. I would estimate well over a dozen overall, plus a single peacock.
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| Green-veined White |
There was a bit of birdlife high up in the trees and I thought I might have heard willow warblers calling. On the way back a couple of courting goldfinches largely ignored me.
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