Chance Autumn Encounters

A week ago on Sunday I set off on a bike ride to Corbridge, thinking as much of getting a bit of exercise as targeting any nature sightings.

It was a bit of a surprise then when I was pulled up short at Bradley Pond by the sight of a terrapin warming itself on a log near where people often congregate to feed the ducks.

Terrapin

I don't think this is particularly abnormal.  I remember a couple of years back a young lad at Killingworth Lake told me he had caught one while fishing for carp and I'm sure they have been reported elsewhere.

Last Tuesday I decided to take a trip to the walled garden at nearby Gibside, where again the results weren't quite as expected.  I'd hoped I might see some less common bees and thought there would be some queens around and almost certainly a number of butterflies - especially when I noticed that some of the flower beds were still flourishing well.

In fact what I got was an unexpected one-off painted lady and no other butterflies until three speckled wood turned up when I moved on from the garden.  There were any number of honey bees, a few carder bees but nothing else out of the ordinary and not a single wasp - very strange for September.

Painted Lady

It seemed hard to grasp when, only two miles up the road, I have had a mini explosion of red admirals on the buddleia bushes.  Three days ago there were as many as five and at one moment six in the garden at the same time.  Other butterflies weren't in evidence apart from occasional whites until two peacocks showed up just before the weekend.

By yesterday the daytime temperatures had dropped to 13C maximum.  Setting out for another bike ride I wondered to myself whether it would still be possible to see a swallow or a butterfly.  In fact I saw one of each but couldn't identify the butterfly in flight.  But two red admirals managed to brave the conditions at home again today.

The flowers at Gibside

Before the Rains Came

This week was forecast to bring steady rain.  In fact it only arrived in bucket loads over the past couple of days and in the meanwhile the sun got out often enough for continued appearances by red admiral, peacock, small tortoiseshell, comma, (mainly) large and small whites.  A couple more queen bumblebees turned up, this time buff-tailed, and the pellucid fly made another appearance.

Last Saturday I glimpsed a large moth joining the diners on the buddleia.  It appeared briefly for the next couple of days and looked very much like a humming bird hawk-moth.  When I got the camera out the last day, it was nectaring on the wing and not settling on the flowers, so attempted photos were not much helpful.  However it was possible to be confident of the identification on the basis of the orangey-brown wing colour and body shape alone.

In the end I attempted a video, which also captured one of the whites by chance:

I think I read somewhere that hummingbird hawk-moths have been commoner than usual this year.

It looks like we may have drier weather again soon, so hopefully there will be a few more butterflies and bees to brighten up the day.