The good weather broke through in the middle of July and I have been taking full advantage by getting out as much as possible. I'll start at the beginning...
On the 15th Malcolm and I did a fishing trip to Milkhope Pond, determined to put some fish on the bank after our previous blank at Brenkley. The tactic was to scale down the tackle but using baits that would be big enough to put off the tiddlers. In the end we had four skimmers and two roach, all from the margins on legered sweetcorn and no tiddlers - but no carp either.
The day after we linked up again for a dog walk through the meadows by the River Aln. Early sightings of a small skipper and a burnet moth promised much but otherwise ringlet and meadow brown predominated.
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| Small Skipper |
On the Saturday I took part in a bee hunt at Watergate Park organised by the Natural History Society's expert thanks to whom we were able to identify amongst others a vestal/gypsy cuckoo bumble bee (which I fortuitously came across), furrow bee (minute) and male buff-tailed bumblebee.
On the side I also noted a marmalade hoverfly and a shaded broad bar moth as well as several more small skippers, which seem to be very common this year and were to appear at further venues.
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This Monday I was out hunting hairstreaks and for about the fourth time visited Bywell Bridge only to find overcast weather and little sign of activity in the elms. By contrast an evening visit to the viaducts at Hamsterley Mill provided two or three strong but fleeting purple hairstreak suspects. Probably too early though for them to be on the wing in large numbers.
After taking part in a walking cricket session (yes it's come to that!) I went to Wingate Quarry around Tuesday lunchtime hoping to see a marbled white at the only site in Northern England where they are present. I must have seen approaching 100! Introduced in the hope that they would spread, they seem to be very happy where they are.
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| Marbled White |
Also sighted in this very scenic setting were good numbers of small heath, small skipper, common blue (though only 2-3 females) and burnet moth as well as the inevitable ringlet and meadow brown, large numbers of red-tailed bumblebee and I think a white-tailed bumblebee.
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Perhaps more significant was this latticed heath moth, which I believe is somewhat scarce. However, I see that I also have a less good photo of one at Watergate Park too.
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| Latticed Heath |
The day after I set off late in the evening to go on a nightjar watch near Slaley. Nightjars are rare in Northumberland but we managed half a dozen fleeting sightings as the darkness encroached and heard a fair bit of churring. The most impressive bit was watching one hunting and returning to the same dead tree. There were plenty of toads and midges around plus an orange underwing moth but only one bat.
Thursday was nominally a day off but I couldn't resist this heron fishing on the edge of the marina at North Shields.
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| Grey Heron |
On Friday I was back on the hairstreak trail again, this time with almost completely opposite results. After some delay I arrived at Bywell Bridge going on on 1.00 pm, having spotted my first red admiral for several weeks on the way.
This time the sun was out and after a few minutes I started to notice suspicious activity in the elm tree at the north-eastern corner of the bridge. It wasn't too long before I got a positive identification of my first ever white-letter hairstreak. In the course of the next hour I must have seen 20-30 individuals, coming in little flurries and briefly settling on the tree leaves. Rather contradicting the advice I had read on the West Sussex Butterfly Conservation site, they were mainly on the sunny side of the tree and not totally out of the wind, which I have however noticed is pretty variable in this location.
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| White Letter Hairstreak |
By contrast my evening visit to Hamsterley came to an abrupt end after sighting just one suspected purple hairstreak when the cloud moved in and obscured the setting sun.
The weather is closing in again so I may not have so much to report over the next few days!
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