It's official. I'm withdrawing the peanut feed from the garden for the time being. Not only is it impossible to locate it anywhere so that the large birds and ubiquitous squirrel don't snaffle the lion's share of the food, I don't want it hanging from the plum tree encouraging the birds to have a go at what looks likely to be a promising harvest this year. Further, it's starting to be suggested that removing them hinders the spread of avian flu, which is already hitting the Northumberland coastline.
I did a quick run up to Alnwick on Thursday and we spent some time again going through the meadow by the River Aln. Red-tailed bumblebees were quickly to be seen as were the expected meadow brown and ringlet butterflies, though this time no skippers and no whites, which have gone a bit scarce generally when I've been out and about.
Instead there were a couple of damselflies, one of which I immediately recognised but couldn't remember the name of - a banded demoiselle. Another damselfly was in the same area displaying a completely different colour scheme and I spent a while trying to identify it. It turns out it was simply a female banded demoiselle - though in this case it's the monsieur not the demoiselle who sports the wing band.
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