Last week I spotted a couple of bumblebees in the garden that I felt I really couldn't identify. I have sent photos to the Natural History Society to see if they can tell me what they are.
Bee 1
Bee 2
What caught my attention with Bee 1 was the lack of a buff or white tail. Instead, as can be seen from a second photo, there is the merest tip of white at the very end of the tail.
Bee 1 - side view
After I took the photos I thought I noticed a slight interruption to the abdominal band and so wondered about broken-belted bumblebee. This seems highly likely however in terms of other factors and it would have to have been far away from its normal local habitat.
Afterwards I did come across some information that Bee 2 might possibly be a late-flying hairy-footed flower bee worker, and not a bumblebee at all. However I haven't seen one before so it would be interesting to know.
Last Thursday I squeezed in a fishing trip to Horton Grange. Looking for bream or tench on the swim feeder, I caught just three small roach on worm near in and nothing on corn further out. The worm bites were fairly consistent if cautious but tackle trouble emerged as the bale arm on the reel started to fly open when striking, thus preventing me catching more.
On Saturday, Alex and I set out to Finglandrigg Wood in Cumbria on a planned mission to track down the marsh fritillary. In spite of two tours through the suspect area, we were unable to manage a single sighting. Apart from various speckled wood, ringlet, small skipper, red admiral and meadow brown, the only out of the ordinary sighting was of a small tortoiseshell in pursuit of its mate (presumably). First seen on a mossy rock in the early afternoon, they were still at it on the nearby boardwalk when we re-visited the area a couple of hours earlier.
Small Tortoiseshells
As when we visited the Campfield Moss a year ago there were some carder bees nectaring on foxgloves. Last year I thought they were moss carder bees. On further research I'm more doubtful but they were certainly of a lighter hue that the ones I see here.
Moving on to Campfield Moss for a late visit we again found that the birds had mostly absented themselves apart from oyster catchers, a buzzard and a kestrel.
However it was quite nice to see woodpeckers, tree sparrows and greenfinch on the feeders, amongst others.
Last Wednesday I took a slow ride along the Derwent and the Tyne, particularly looking out for any sites that might produce a common blue.
Again the horse meadow at Derwenthaugh produced a small skipper, which continually sat with wings closed but just open enough to allow identification. Although there is now plenty of bird's foot trefoil in the field, there were no common blues but the first ringlet I have seen this season landed nearby and a meadow brown flew past.
Not much turned up along the Tyne apart from a couple more ringlets until I parked the bike and headed up the western Spetchells as the sun started to come out. Here the mining bees were no longer active but there were still plenty of Gooden's Nomad bees around the nest holes, which I suppose makes perfect sense. A good number of red-tailed bumblebees were also to be seen.
Here there was less bird's foot trefoil than I suspected so it was a pleasant surprise when a male common blue (first of the year) flew straight past me shortly after I had disturbed a basking red admiral. As I made my way back along the track more appeared and I saw five in total - all males.
Common Blue
Not seen however were dingy skipper or any Burnett moths.
At home I've been wondering if any of the bumblebees I've seen were were white-tailed bumblebees but mostly concluding they weren't. This one might be so I've submitted it to i-record to see if they confirm it.
White-tailed Bumblebee?
It looks from the hairy legs that it is a male, which apparently makes identification more difficult. Garden bumblebees are still turning up occasionally too.
At the weekend I travelled South to visit Rutland Water with Jen and Joe on the Sunday.
The weather was disappointingly dull and only a small number of ringlets and meadow browns ventured from the extensive flower meadow as we wondered along to the osprey viewpoints on the South shore, plus the odd skipper and chimney sweeper moth.
Here we had good success however as a couple of ospreys showed well during the hour we were there, and a chick can be made out in some of the photos taken.
Osprey
There were a fair few reed buntings about as well as sedge warblers, which however I only managed to hear.
Reed Bunting
Moving between hides it warmed up a bit and butterflies gradually became more active. Mostly these were ringlets and meadow browns but there were about half a dozen skippers. Interestingly, they were mainly large skippers, which I'm not actually sure that I've seen nearer to home though records suggest they are common.
Ringlet
Large Skipper
It happened that the meadow brown I snapped was an already rather worn male. Or I assume that the white patches were signs of wear.
Meadow Brown
One or two more chimney sweeper moths appeared as well as a blue bug I couldn't hazard a guess at. Returning to the visitor centre I also discovered this silver ground carpet moth lurking in the undergrowth.
Silver Ground Carpet
After a pause for refreshments, we decided to check some of the lagoon areas on the Western shore and pretty much hit the jackpot at the Harrier Hide, where it was for some while possible to see little egret, great white egret and grey heron all fishing in the same area.
A particular bonus was the sighting of an Egyptian Goose, a first ever for me as it isn't present further North.
Great White Egret
Egyptian Goose
Next a marsh harrier duly jetted in and passed around either side of the hide before moving away behind the trees. Perhaps just as exciting was the foraging of an early-rising barn owl that was clearly hungry or had young and hunted extensively over the marshland, at one point carrying some prey in its talons.
Barn Owl hunting
At one point it flew in front of the hide so close you could see it giving us the eye.
Afterwards we briefly visited the 'photographic' hide where a goldfinch obligingly sat for well over five minutes.
Goldfinch
Not the most spectacular sighting of the day but an attractive bird that isn't always so easy to take pictures of.
All the time we were in the Harrier Hide, we could clearly hear a cuckoo calling in the distance, which interested me a good deal as I reckoned I'd heard one at home earlier in the week, but discounted it as being too late for a cuckoo. It was calling again today.
A couple of bike rides have paid off unexpected dividends since I got back from Scotland.
Riding back from Newcastle a week ago on Saturday, I paused briefly at a small meadow near the the Derwenthaugh Industrial Estate and managed to see a couple of small skippers nectaring on tiny mauve flowers. This was a nice surprise since - as expected - the bird's foot trefoil was only just starting to show.
Small Skipper
On Wednesday, Kate and I did a run up the coastal track, mainly for the pleasant scenery and a visit to the ice-cream parlour at Amble.
As usual there were a few stonechats and goldfinch around but I was a bit surprised to see a linnet singing right next to the path.
While we were scoffing the ice creams outside, we noticed that there was a plant growing from between the stones in the yard. It reminded me of the scarlet pimpernel I used to see in my grandmother's garden in Hampshire - and so it proved.
Scarlet Pimpernel
Its appearance in the North East is classed as unlikely though I guess the limestone tracts in Co. Durham might be a favoured habitat.
On the way back, we found a birdwatcher, who it turned out was observing a whitethroat that was gaily singing from the surrounding trees.
Somewhat surprisingly, the linnet was still in the same area on the way back, just after we had observed some Highland and Galloway cattle, and gamely hung around while I fumbled for the camera.
Linnet
Back in the garden I have finished clearing away the garlic mustard with the expected decline in butterfly sightings. I've also stopped feeding peanuts for the birds as I got fed up with constant flow of jackdaws snaffling all the food.
However the bees have continued to enjoy the various flowers that are still out. For a while I was mainly seeing garden bumblebees but now the buff-tailed bumblebee appears to predominate. Occasionally I have suspected white-tailed bumblebee but have yet to provide the proof.
One bumblebee that I hadn't seen in the garden before was an early bumblebee that turned up on the chive flowers. And one non-bumblebee that wasn't the expected mason bee was in fact a chocolate mining bee - a species I did once encounter here a few weeks ago.
Day four of our stay was spent at Marr Lodge after a lovely, scenic drive through the moors of Aberdeenshire.
We did a longish walk up the valley from there and back and at an early stage encountered some birds at the top of some young conifers. Some were pipits and I thought I saw a couple of linnets but the one decent photo we got might be of a young stonechat. It's a bit hard to be sure from the front on view:
Linnet or stonechat?
On the basis of the above I'd say stonechat but another poorer photo I got of a bird in the same flock looks more like a linnet. After that there was a stretch of path where we had to avoid treading on small millipedes on the path, at least fifteen that I came across and a large moth caterpillar on a rock. Again I'm not sure which kind as fox moth and drinker moth caterpillars look quite similar.
Drinker or Fox Moth Caterpillar?
Millipede
Continuing the insect theme, we came across this moth more than once. After consulting with an expert, I can establish that it was a common heath.
Common Heath
The colouring of this species can vary a bit, it seems.
Further up the path we were noticing more and more pipits. I assumed they were all meadow pipits but was pleased to note that one was clearly a tree pipit as I hadn't seen the one the day before.
Tree Pipit
Meadow Pipit
On the way back we followed the river through the woods where there are some striking rocky waterfalls. As well as more tree pipits, we were saying how surprising it was that we hadn't seen a dipper when suddenly one flew past us upriver.
The journey back the day after was a touch disappointing. We visited a supposed red squirrel feeder station near Boat of Garten but saw no squirrels and one site that was more a tourist walk. It was also advising the presence of red squirrels as did most other places visited but we saw none at all during the whole stay. We drove on to the Lough of The Lowes site only to arrive 15 minutes before it closed, thus unfortunately depriving us of apparently the best view of an osprey nest in the UK.
The was a slight consolation at The Hermitage nearby where we saw the tallest pine trees in the country, numerous wagtails and more impressive waterfalls. And on the way up we did catch up with a dipper, sitting completely still on a stone. It was still there in exactly the same position when we passed by again an hour later.
On day three we returned for some more eagle spotting. By now the weather, which had gradually become cooler was distinctly chilly and we spent an hour snoozing in the car when it got heavy.
The cool turn had a decided effect on the chances of seeing butterflies and during the whole trip all we saw was half a dozen ambient whites and a single orange tip.
From the point of view of eagles, it was pretty much business as day one i.e. occasional distant and often uncertain sightings. Overall we managed around half a dozen firm sightings over the two days and did not manage to convince ourselves that any of them were white-tailed rather than golden eagles.
However there was good compensation in the form of a variety of other species. There was already some action on the way along the valley when I spotted a chaffinch-coloured bird flying over the road. Rather baffled by its definite white rump, I eventually worked out it was probably a juvenile bullfinch. More puzzling was what appeared to be a blackbird with pronounced white flashes on both upper wings and I haven't worked that one out at all. Another flypast was a female redstart - a pleasant surprise as their distribution in the area is somewhat sparse.
On arrival at the parking area, Vicki spotted a golden plover with chicks by the nearby woods, so I took a wander back to see if I could find them. I spotted a swallow on the telegraph wires, at which point a female mallard emerged from the roadside undergrowth and scuttled off at pace through the woods towards a nearby stream.
I noticed some movement by the water and decided to investigate. As I approached two ducks fled downstream, each followed by a number of chicks. I assumed they were mallards but having seen the photograph I managed to get, I'm not so sure about the second group. In fact I wouldn't like to say what they are. Possible candidates might be gadwall (not common in Highlands) or female and young goldeneye.
Duck with chicks
As you can just see, they were also accompanied by a sand martin, one of a large number of hirondelles flying over the water at speed.
Back on the eagle spot, there was what looked like a merlin perched on the craggy rocks high behind us. Photos taken weren't entirely convincing but the fast, direct flight when it moved off persuaded me it wasn't a kestrel.
The presence of swallows was confirmed when a couple perched on a nearby bridge for several minutes. It's not often they are near enough long enough to see the red face and neck.
Swallow
Less conspicuously, a grey wagtail turned up several times during the day.
Grey Wagtail
Vicki took a little walk upstream towards an area of trees where ring ouzels are said to appear. I had tried the same area on day one without success but, staying nearer the river, she managed to snap a tree pipit right on the edge of the riverbank.
We also saw red deer on several occasions and I got a glimpse of a mountain hare, but no mountain goats.
In spite of a late change of location to an area where white eagles can occur, we did not manage anything as spectacular as this photo Vicki took she and Alex visited in April:
After several attempts, I managed to catch up with a male orange tip visiting the garden - actually a notably small specimen, suggesting it hasn't been feeding well.
Orange Tip
This may however be one of the last orange tips to visit as I have started clearing out the garlic mustard, which had become far too dominant and was starting to die off anyway.
Last weekend I was on a nature break in the Highlands with Alex and Vicki. We started with a full day at a location known for eagles and managed a few sightings, though all were at considerable distance. Not long after entering the valley I could see an obviously large bird from the car window and did get one good sighting through the binoculars, when I managed to track a bird across the heather and could make out its tail feathers.
The rest of the day we spent trying to work out whether distant flyers were eagles or buzzards, mostly the latter, some of which may also have been kestrels but mainly to my eye buzzards that managed to hover against the breeze. I was a bit surprised to find that the commonest bird otherwise was house martin, swooping around in large numbers in the afternoon. Oystercatchers and gulls were also present in good numbers, as well as occasional lapwing and curlew.
It was a reasonably summer day so I undertook a couple of forages in the gorse next to the river and was pleased to find a first sighting - the bilberry bumblebee. There was also what I think to be a moss carder bee, rather than a common carder bee. I reckoned I saw one in Cumbria last June, but didn't get close enough to confirm.
Bilberry Bumblebee
Moss Carder Bee?
A slight doubt on the latter is that gorse isn't listed as a favoured flower.
On the second day, we took advantage of the time of year to visit Loch Ruthven during the mating season of the slavonian grebe. This is one of the few locations for slavonian grebe and we had instant success as it was the first bird we saw. Several pairs were clearly visible from the hide, passing through the weed. Again there were a lot of house martins swooping over the water and I think some sand martins too.
Slavonian Grebe
Our afternoon walk around the area of Loch Garten was however a disappointment. Hoping perhaps for crested tit or crossbill variations, all we saw was a couple of siskins and chaffinches, a couple more bilberry bumblebees and lots of pine trees as well as bilberry bushes that had barely started to flower.
Here the seasons probably played to our disadvantage as we learned later that crested tits and crossbills are a good deal harder to find in the nesting season. Loch Garten itself is known for hosting birds of prey including osprey and goshawk but it seems you're better off viewing the webcam images rather than trying to see them live.
