More Landmark Sightings

The day after I finished writing the last post, I saw something I'd never seen before - in the dining room.

Apparently this is a moth fly (also known as a drain fly) of the pericomini genus but apparently you'd need to be a serious expert to identify one more closely.  It was tiny and had a wingspan of about 3/8".

Another pleasant surprise occurred on 30th August, when a painted lady was finally spotted in the garden and reappeared several times until the sun clouded over.  With the weather now on the change I doubt if it'll be seen again...

Unlike the bullfinches, which will probably keep turning up while sunflower hearts are available. This time I managed to capture the male.  You can't quite see the sunflower heart in its beak.

Male Bullfinch

Today I took a trip to the Big Waters Reserve, where something interesting has been reported.  I have mainly known it as a fishing and birdwatching venue, but was quite impressed on wandering around that there's quite a fair amount of invertebrate-friendly territory in the form of meadows (now mostly dead) and woodland clearings.

Near the Little Waters area there were a good few speckled wood and a few dragonflies.  I think the ones that actually landed were common darters.

Speckled Wood

Common Darter

There were also some large blue dragonflies - possibly emperor dragonflies.

Moving further around the area, I was pleased to come across some small coppers.

Even more were to turn up when I searched an area by the path near the track to the bird eyes, probably about twenty and also a good number of common blues, both male and female.

Common Blue

Small Copper

I wished I had taken the trouble to get a better photo of the small copper.  There were plenty of opportunities but they didn't land for long.

I was heading back to the car park when I bumped into a chap who said he knew where I could find what I was originally after.  We went back to the same area a bit further along where the farm fields have a good covering of bird's foot trefoil and after a fair bit of messing around (and me starting to head for the car park again) we found it.

Clouded Yellow

I'd never heard of the clouded yellow being observed this far North and had thought it might be rare here.  This isn't so as there have been scattered sightings in the past but it is distinctly scarce locally and I don't think I've seen one elsewhere in the UK.

There was actually a very large amount of farmland with a good covering of bird's foot trefoil, so who knows whether there are more of them at Big Waters?

A Mixed Bag

Keen to take advantage of the supposed heatwave, I set out for Wallington Hall Gardens on Sunday.  In fact the weather was cloudy all day and en route I thought I might do better with bees than butterflies.

On the whole the reverse was the case.  It was certainly warm enough, the winds were low and butterflies were out in abundance.

Particularly pleasurable was to see three painted ladies, to add to the one at Havannah the other week.

Painted Lady with Comma

Apart from commas, there were plenty of red admirals and small tortoiseshells, the former predominant on the several buddleia bushes, the latter more in other areas.  I don't recall having seen a peacock.

Other sightings were speckled wood and wall brown, the latter very briefly before being scared off, partly by a deranged young willow warbler that was going through the vegetation just a of couple yards away from me and appeared at times to be actually chasing the butterflies.

Deranged Willow Warbler

Not a well bird I suspect.

However it was the bees that produced the single business turn-up as I found several specimens of what I'm fairly certain were broken-belted bumblebees.

Broken-belted Bumblebee

Here's a second photo:

As a moorland species of Scotland and the Pennines, you'd have to ask what they were doing in a walled garden.  The yellow facial hair and legs are probably due to pollen.

The only other pollinators I noticed were honey bees, one with an orange tip to its tail and a plain-faced dronefly.

I decided to spend a good part of Bank Holiday Monday in the garden, just really to see if anything interesting would turn up. It was sunnier weather, but with a fair breeze most of the time.

Meanwhile I did a bit of counting of the most frequent butterflies.  Notably several commas turned up in the morning, but I did not see any after about 1.00 pm.  By contrast, small tortoiseshells were much more in evidence after about 3.30 pm.

Large whites, which have been very frequent this year, predominated but all three main variations of white were present.  On a very unscientific count, I reckoned that again the most numerous visitor, red admiral, outnumbered peacocks by a good bit over 10 - 1.  Perhaps it hasn't been a great year for peacocks.  My memory suggests that in past years, there have sometimes been more of them than red admirals.  Still no painted lady however.

As often on these occasions, a couple of things happened within a few minutes of each other.  An unfamiliar moth turned up on the buddleia.  It showed up orange in flight but looked a good deal different when settled.

New Moth

I assumed orange underwing but they don't settle with their wings tightly together.  A helpful suggestion on facebook is broad-bordered yellow underwing as orange underwing is in any case no longer on the wing in August.  Sure enough, internet photos show its colour is more orange than yellow.

Then up in the trees a blueish shape passed by.  It was a slightly less fleeting view than the one at Bradley Hall Gardens.  I'm pretty confident that it was the holly blue.

Meanwhile, the bullfinches kept sneaking up on the birdfeeders three or four yards in front of me.

Female Bullfinch

The male was rather more elusive.

In the evening I spent an hour or so at Marden Quarry hoping the night heron would turn up.  It didn't.  There were however a good number of gadwall to keep the mallards and coots company.

Gadwall

Win some, lose some

A minor furore of activity last Sunday, hoping to beat the declining weather.

I finally got to take a good look around the Cambois area for the grayling - but didn't see one!  The nearest I got was mistaking a meadow brown with a broader than usual white underwing patch as a possible.

Meadow Brown

This was disappointing as my two previous attempts were successful and so I found myself pondering the reasons.

In my head the best time for the grayling at Cambois is mid-July but I held off until August because the Butterfly Conservation website says that is when they are most on the wing.  But I noticed that most of the vegetation was dead and even meadow browns were scarce in comparison to my first visit, and there are news stories about Autumn arriving early because of the dry conditions...

Anyway there were a couple of minor consolations.  I visited a sunny overgrown bridge just past the plant hire company and found the first female common blue I have seen summer - which was also by far the tiniest one I've ever seen - as well as my first wall brown of the year.

Tiny Common Blue

Wall Brown

Afterwards I headed for the hills - the Havannah Three Hills Reserve near Hazlerigg to be precise. I wouldn't have done, having roundly criticised the deterioration of the area when I went last year.  However, there have been reports of a late dingy skipper and a silver-washed fritillary, which is almost non-existent this far North.

I started scouring the supposed butterfly hot spot, which has now been more or less completely overgrown by heather. Apart from a few whites and a red-tailed bumblebee, I did find one butterfly, a small heath.

Small Heath

However a more fortunate encounter was with another naturalist who reported seeing the dingy skipper, being chased around by male common blues in an area the other side of the rough path to the lake.

Obviously I took a look and did indeed come across said common blues (about 6 overall) and eventually the dingy skipper.  Seek and thou shalt find!

Common Blue

Dingy Skipper

The skipper struck me as being slightly small and rather more brown than ones I've seen before. But bearing the repeated trouble I had trying to see one earlier in the summer in mind, I was well satisfied.

Not knowing its exact location, I didn't realistically expect to see the fritillary, which was probably a bit of a one off.  However there was a nice surprise when I foraged around a bit on my way back to the main track:

Painted Lady

While there hasn't been a major irruption, there have been a few painted ladies around this summer and I still have hope that one may climb the 500' up to the buddleia in my garden.

Talking of which, butterfly sightings of previously mentioned species have continued in increased numbers.  Red admiral is still the most frequent and there has been one addition I was half expecting:

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

The tits continue to go nuts for the sunflower hearts I've been putting out and male and female bullfinches and nuthatches regularly visit the feeder as pairs.

Nuthatch

Lastly, I don't know what it is about the tailgate of my new car but pollinators seem to like it.  The latest visitor was a queen...

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

It was obviously struggling, caught out by the disappearance of the sun on a cool day.  So I performed the old trick of bringing it in the house to warm up for forty minutes, after which it happily flew off.

Long Live The Small Tortoiseshell!

My recent sighting of the twenty plumed moth drew a bit of interest on social media, one commentator noting that he's only ever seen one before and not in the North East while another contradicted that there are many records of it in Northumberland.  Well, I'd certainly never seen one before.

During the recent partial heatwave, I've been taking the opportunity to check out some of the local gardens. An interesting find two weeks ago was Birkheads Secret Gardens near Sunniside.

There wasn't much sun on arrival, but I was assured the butterfly garden would have some sightings on offer. I wasn't so sure and thought I'd check out a couple of hoverflies and bees en route.

Common Drone Fly

White-tailed Bumblebee

For the Latin speakers the drone fly is Eristalis tenax according to a local expert.  I'm pretty sure about the white-tailed bumblebee.

For the other hoverfly spotted we're stuck with generalisations.  Apparently it belongs to the Syrphini tribe, otherwise known as common flower flies.

Common Flower Fly

Anyway on reaching the butterfly section, there were indeed a good number to be seen, and I found I was taking the sort of shots I had been hoping to get in my garden:

Red Admiral with Peacocks

Peacocks warming themselves

One noted absentee was small tortoiseshell.  As it hadn't been turning up at home either, I have been reflecting that it used to be far more common and seems to be in decline compared to other members of the Nymphalidae family.  The reasons for its demise are not fully clear but there may be some incidence of parasites and habitat loss.

Of more interest on the day was to learn from the lady in the wee shop that the County Recorder for Durham had spotted a brimstone in the Gardens, considerably further north than its known habitats.  It's not much on the wing just now but another visit later in the year seems obligatory.  

I was also struck by the number of flower meadows on the farm nearby.

Anyway six days later I was at Talkin Tarn for a catch-up with V&A.  We did a little walk but in more sombre weather only two butterflies were spotted, a small white and - you've guessed it - a small tortoiseshell!

Small Tortoiseshell

Another bit of useful learning was to find numerous clumps of devil's bit scabious and we wondered if the marsh fritillaries present elsewhere in Cumbria have discovered its existence.  It's their food plant.

Devil's Bit Scabious

Last Sunday, I was back on the garden trail, initially visiting Whickham Hermitage Garden at Newburn which wasn't too impressive. Flanked by high trees on the South side, it was hard to see that it would get a lot of sunshine.

Although smaller, the Tyne Country Park Sensory Garden at Newburn was more productive, producing all three main whites, the main members of Nymphalidae including comma - and of course a couple of small tortoiseshell.  The only absentee was painted lady.

I again focused briefly on hoverflies and was struck by the pattern on this one:

Drone Fly

This is another drone fly, exact identity uncertain.

My last call was at Bradley Hall Gardens which was the largest and had the biggest variation of flora. 

Butterfly sightings were similar to those at Newburn and with similar numbers, but with four or five small tortoiseshells.

Small Tortoiseshell

... plus I think I may have caught a fleeting view of a holly blue, though I didn't see it long enough to be certain.

Typically of course the small tortoiseshell then started to turn up in my garden after an absence of several weeks during which I had occasionally wondered if the comma had effectively replaced it.

I did a couple of counts for the Big Butterfly Count  Over the two, the highest numbers were for large white and red admiral, followed by comma, peacock, small white and green-veined white - and just one small tortoiseshell.

Nevertheless it is still with us!

In the meanwhile...

Reed Bunting

I haven't done any major butterfly expeditions but I did do a recce of the Cambois area to check out possible sites for the grayling - more hopefully anon.

On the way by bike I noted a bird singing very tunefully from the top of a small tree and wasn't sure what it was.  It turned out to be male reed bunting but I've never heard them sing so beautifully.  Maybe like the dunnock it only happens at key times of the year.

It was just on reviewing the photo I could actually identify it.

The only other trip out was a quick visit to Marden Quarry as I happened to be in the area and had heard there had been some sightings of a night heron there.

Anyway I did a circuit of the lake and didn't see anything of note.  So I sat on a bench near the car park overlooking the lake for a rest.  After a while I looked from my phone to notice... a grey heron squatting behind some flowers on the island opposite.

Grey Heron

At distance I briefly thought I might have hit the jackpot due partly to the untypical hunched-up pose.  My sense is that this is also a young bird with its whitish appearance and streaked breast.

One great advantage of having buddleia rather unnaturally in pots at the front garden is that they regularly attract an early season small tortoiseshell.  It was again the case this year, the second butterfly to be seen on them.

Meanwhile the larger bushes at the back are out and have attracted peacocks and red admirals but not a single small tortoiseshell.  The time was when they would I'm sure have been the most numerous visitor but clearly they are in decline and have been for a long while.

On the other hand commas have often been in evidence as have all three species of white, although the weather has been inconsistent and some times were much more productive than others..  

Comma

But possibly the most interesting sighting was a single meadow brown - obviously a more than common species but not one I've ever seen on buddleia.

The whites have also been showing a great deal of interest in the garlic mustard, fluttering around it and other plants slowly and landing frequently.  I think they may be females attempting to oviposit.  This is an example of the sort of behaviour I mean.

Green-veined White

Lastly a pleasant surprise one morning was to open my garage and find that a tiny moth was completing a sleepover on my rear windscreen.

Plumed Moth

It's the first time I've ever spotted one.

A Good Year For Butterflies...

As far as I'm concerned, it's definitely a good year for butterflies.

I've had my eye on the developing nature reserve at Chopwell East Field.  Over the winter I noticed it was being grazed by highland cattle and wondered what the results would be this summer.  I eventually revisited last Tuesday to find another abundant supply of butterflies.

In the more Southern area the initial accent was actually on moths as around seven five-spot (I think) burnet moths were found nectaring on knapweed, with a similar number of shaded broad bars showing up as well.

Five-spot Burnet

Shaded Broadbar

Again the dominant species in terms of numbers were meadow brown (some already very worn) and small skipper but also seen were large white, green-veined white, comma. small copper, and small tortoiseshell.

Comma	Green-veined White
Meadow Brown (worn)	Small Copper
Small Skipper	Small Tortoiseshell

I took a little detour into a promising field the other path and noted similar activity.  But on the way back I stopped to photo what I suspected to be a white-tailed bumblebee when it was chased off by another small butterfly that turned out to be a white letter hairstreak.

White-tailed Bumblebee

White Letter Hairstreak

This was a considerable surprise as I have never heard of a white letter hairstreak being reported there and I do not believe there are any elm trees.  It is however clear that there have been more of them about this year.

To trump it all  I achieved a longstanding ambition the day after when i managed to get a couple of distant snaps of purple hairstreaks in the oaks by one of the viaducts at Hamsterley Mill.  Unfortunately they weren't in great condition.

Purple Hairstreak

Meanwhile the first butterfly has been sighted on the buddleia in the front garden.  It was a red admiral.

A Good Year For Butterflies?

Last weekend I visited J&J in Drerbyshire and on the Sunday we took a visit to Carsington Water.  I'd been there before but more on the look out for birds.

In spite of a little rain and a few overcast periods, there was little difficulty in finding butterflies, though my first positive sighting apart from hoverflies was actually a common blue damselfly. 

Common Blue Damselfly

Meadow browns were all over the place but it was particularly pleasing to me that there were also a good few gatekeepers - surely the first time I've seen them in the UK since I was a youngster in Nottinghamshire.

Gatekeeper (underwing)

Gatekeeper (upper wing)

Confusion with meadow brown is possible but the gatekeeper has a double 'eye' spot on the underwing and clear orange colouring on the lower upper wing, which the meadow brown does not.

Almost as good was when J pointed out that there were small coppers.  These have already been reported in the North East but especially good to get after a I messed up the first photo opportunity.

Small Copper

Small skippers were again numerous and we also saw two small tortoiseshell and a few commas and ringlets

Comma

Ringlet

The notable absentees today were common blue (again) and small heath.

We had a quick look at the lake but didn't see much of interest.  I thought I spotted a little egret but it seems to be a juvenile.

Egret

After two hours we hadn't got very far and I spent an annoying twenty minutes trying to catch up with a very mobile sedge warbler, J's camera battery having given out.  In the end I got half of it as it played hide 'n' seek in the bushes.

Find the sedge warbler!

Small White and Green-veined White

There were some large whites at times too.

All in all, a very enjoyable visit