Many A Slip...

 In a period of unsettled weather, yesterday looked to be the best opportunity to look for some invertebrates, so I set out for a slow ride to take in Path Head Nature Reserve, Ryton Meadows and the Spetchells.  Unfortunately some photography issues limited the possibility of confirming some sightings.

Path Head is a reclaimed recycling site and looks promising for future months and years.  During a brief outburst of sunshine, I quickly spotted a peacock, a red-tailed bumblebee queen and a carder bee.  Quite a few dandelions were out and I was looking out for mining bees but the result was a number of mini miners, as usual hard and somewhat controversial to identify.  However I captured one in my bug box and am fairly confident it was a common mini-mining bee.

Another capture I made later showed a very small bee with a lot of red on the thorax and reddish legs.  The photo however was unhelpful. Following a tip that it might be a small nomad bee, I reckon a long shot might be little nomad bee, which preys on the common mini-miner though more prevalent in the South.

Little Nomad Bee?

Later there was an opportunity to see a heron admiring the flora.

Heron

In fairness there was a drainage trench nearby.

I then headed to Ryton Meadows, in the hope of perhaps seeing an early small copper.  It wasn't entirely unexpected when that hope proved forlorn (a bit early yet) but I did find another interesting bee on another dandelion.  It looked like a small nomad bee but notably had a yellow face.  I can't see any potential matches.  Maybe it was a wasp.

It was at this point that the technical problems really began to take over as a series of images I'm certain I took between arriving at Ryton and climbing up the Spetchells have simply disappeared from my little travelling camera.  As I actually had it round my neck while riding I can only assume that the delete button got pressed a few times accidentally, which seems most unlikely..

So as well as unable to get any further with the possible nomad I lost photos of a peacock and several of orange tips including females and some of suspected chocolate mining bees that I wanted to double check.

Approaching the Spetchells with the camera now back in my rucksack, I noticed a number of small nomad bees patrolling a wee area of grassland next the cycle track. They looked rather like Gooden's Mining Bee but a good deal smaller than the ones up on the chalk. Again having referred to experts for an identification, the suggestion is that it might be a male Gooden's though I must admit I'm surprised it was that much smaller. This time I got a reasonable pic.

Gooden's Nomad Bee (m)

There was about 10-20 of them flying around low and seldom settling for more than a few sedonds.

Before going up to the Spetchells I noticed another bee on a dandelion right next to where I parked my bike.  I was fairly confident it was an orange-tailed mining bee but in this case the photo was too poor to say.

The reason for heading to the Spetchells was to see if the buffish mining bees are in action yet.  Indeed they are - in their many thousands.  It looked to me that they were all males but activity was particularly intense in one small area, I suspect because of the presence of an early female (at the top of the frame in the video):

One Buffish Mining Bee

Many Buffish Mining Bees

As a bonus, I also managed to find the first  - excepting my trip to Spain - small tortoiseshell and the first speckled wood (what on earth's happening with them?)  I've seen this year, as well as a not so great photo of the last female orange tip of the day.

Small Tortoiseshell

Speckled Wood

Female Orange Tip

Rare birds in my garden?

My activities have been somewhat constrained over the past three weeks for various reasons.  Principally I took a tumble from the bike and jarred my shoulder badly but other matters have intruded - shopping for a new car, sorting a minor emergency with the front door, birthday celebration arrangements and getting more involved with the local Amnesty group. 

As a result any sightings during the fine weather were restricted to the garden.

I don't know if it made the difference but I changed the contents of one of the feeders so it contains a mixture of suet pellets and peanuts, but recently a couple of rare birds have turned up regularly over the past few days.

Here I am referring to the house sparrow and the common starling:

Sparrow

Starling

Now of course you immediately think that these birds are not rare at all but, as I have surely mentioned before, they rarely turn up in my garden, and now visit repeatedly.

One can only speculate why...

The starling looks on inspection to be a young bird and maybe doesn't know any better.  However they frequently appear on the rooftops, including mine, without actually visiting. Sparrows can be seen on a daily basis less than fifty yards from my front door but until now have been totally outnumbered by dunnocks. Perhaps both have been intimidated by the number of jackdaws that turn up and the latter turn up less often as I tend to chase them off.  Both species can appear in twos and threes as well as one-offs.

There were also some sightings of bees and butterflies but still quite restricted. 

One white that actually settled briefly was a petite male large white, which surprised me a bit as i associate them more with the back end of summer. 

The most common visitor continued to be the dark-edged beefly but there were still not so many bees - the odd buff-tailed bumblebee queen or worker and a tree bumblebee. The one new occurrence was a common carder bee.  The hairy legs and long whiskers indicate that it is a male.

Common Carder Bee

Elsewhere locally there have been sightings of mining bees, a red mason bee and one very early green hairstreak.

Now largely recovered, I need to get out more.

Isn't it good when things just work?

A little bit of movement in the garden after April Fool's Day was the result of rising temperatures as a dry spell went into its second week.  It was a nice contrast to the wet and cool Spring last year, which affected many pollinators adversely.

On the 1st itself a peacock butterfly turned up and settled on the wooden 'path' near the decking but was easily disturbed.  The following day I spotted a bumblebee queen I assumed would be of the buff-tailed variety but turned out to be a tree bumblebee queen, the other sort turning up very shortly afterwards,  Then a beefly turned up and obligingly settled on a leaf.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Dark-edged Beefly

Tree Bumblebee Queen

Interesting to note is that tree queens and a worker have showed up on two further occasions, suggesting they may be making a garden comeback after I stopped them nesting in the wall of the downstairs bedroom a good few years back.. 

Also the beefly has been seen every time I've been in the garden, but there have been no sign of any mining bees which they predate on.

But the most successful session occurred on Sunday...

My son and I have often spoken about the need to see mandarin ducks.  As they have been showing up in the Gateshead area we decided to have a go here.

The plan was to start at the hide near Thornley Woodlands Centre, where there were recent repeated sightings, so V&A drove over and we arrived just in time to see a family and several dogs being loaded into a car and were able to claim one of the limited parking spaces when they finally pulled out.

The hide didn't prove to be the answer but we did see a few other birds, and satisfyingly, the first orange tips I've seen this year.

Nuthatch

Chaffinch

Okay, a chaffinch doesn't seem like a big deal but the fact is I very rarely see them in my garden.

After an hour or so we had a debate whether to head for Saltwell Park, where there had been one sighting or chance our arm a bit by taking a wander along the Derwent.  We decided on the latter.

I had forgotten how long and steep the Riverside Trail down from Thornley Woods actually is, but eventually we made it down to Nine Arches Bridge, and started heading West.

But we had hardly gone two hundred yards when a couple of ducks were sighted scooting away from us and a couple of rowdy dogs.  And sure enough my son, who is eagle-eyed when it comes to bird spotting, confirmed that we had achieved our objective - a male and a female mandarin duck.

However the ducks, having been spooked, decided to hide away in the bushes on the far bank before we could get any more than distant shots of them. It was then a case of stick or twist - whether to sit it out and wait for them to come out again or head further up river after a third duck we had noticed.

We sat it out and eventually the couple ventured back into the water, allowing us to get the photos we were after as they paddled up and down.

Mandarin Ducks

The couple kept returning to an area just downstream where some driftwood and rubbish had accumulated on tree branches and the third bird, another male, turned up again leading to some confrontations as he tried to move in on the first male's territory.

Even better more orange tips and peacocks turned up while we ere waiting for action, for me the first photo opportunities this year..

Orange Tip

Peacock

There was also a comma and I thought I saw a small tortoiseshell - an experience that was confirmed when we made a last stop at Far Pasture on the way back. I was interested to see the peacocks in particular settling on the ears of the reeds and we wondered why they did so.  Probably they were just warming themselves.

I also got shots of some of the typical long-term residents at this location - gadwall and teal.

Gadwall

Teal

All in all, a very satisfying expedition!