Better Luck at Cambois

 First of all though I've been forgetting to take photos of what has been a very frequent visitor to the garden - the early bumblebee.  I've always thought I'd do it 'sooner or later' but finally did a week ago. 

Early Bumblebee

Numbers have definitely been up this year.  I'm not sure what plant it's on, possibly marjoram, but it's attracted a few others as well, including honey bee.

Another landmark this year has been the appearance of the first butterfly on the potted buddleia in the front garden - as ever a small tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshell

It nearly didn't happen though as the first flowers were already dying off in the hot, dry conditions by the time it arrived.

Meanwhile my main trip was a revisit to Cambois Beach last Tuesday, hoping to have better luck than a couple of weeks ago.  Conditions were distinctly unpromising though, as there was no sun and temperatures were down to 18C in a Northerly breeze.

Of course there were nevertheless a good number of meadow brown, notably some females settling flirtily on the paths:

Female Meadow Brown

Following the undergrowth close to the railway track, I did get lucky when a grayling flew in and landed directly in front of me.  It was even more lucky that I accidently snapped it with wings open as it flew off.

Grayling

Grayling in flight

One further sighting some moments later may or may not have been the same one.

Otherwise there were repeat sightings of a few small skippers and burnet moths, plus some other moths that my tentative identification skills suggest were common but nevertheless nice to see:

Yellow Shell

Shaded Broad Bar

Silver Y

Yesterday I made a quick visit to Chopwell East Field to see how the nature reserve is progressing.  Frankly it was a bit of a shock to see how little vegetation had survived the conditions, and notably there was very little sign of bird's foot trefoil or field vetch making progress.

So it was a similar pattern of some meadow brown, burnet moths and occasional small skipper.  Several of the bees seen were very faded, in one case unrecognisably so.  However one did catch my eye as I think this may be a white-tailed bumblebee.

White-tailed Bumblebee?

Also in good condition was the red-tailed bumblebee, offering a slightly better view of itself than is sometime the case.

Red-tailed Bumblebee

Some Hits and Some Misses - Part 2

On the Sunday we headed down to Finglandrigg Wood in Cumbria. 

This was the latest in a series of attempts we have made to see the marsh fritillary there and once again we missed out, mainly seeing more of the butterflies from yesterday.

Two of three times we got excited, only to find we had been deceived by other brown species, namely comma and painted lady. Once when I lagged behind the others all that remained at a bushy area was a peacock.

Comma

Peacock

Part of the delay was that I had come across a honey bee and realised with surprise that it was the first one I've seen this summer.  We later had a discussion about the lack of bees observed.

There was also a marshy area where I kept an eye open for the large heath, this time with no success at all.

We moved on to Campfield Marsh where the objectives were slightly different, as marsh harriers and an osprey nest had been reported.  This time we were successful with both as they were visible from the hide. After many attempts, I did eventually get a clear shot of the osprey with the chicks peering from the nest.  With the marsh harrier I was less lucky but managed to observe it through the binoculars several times.

Osprey and chicks

Marsh Harrier

Not much was seen on the nearby pool - some lapwings and a few greylag geese. Later on we observed some young willow warblers moving through the trees with parental supervision.

There were also quite a few dragonflies around but the only one that settled was this common darter:

Common Darter

An added bonus was a pair of roe deer that were feeding on a farmer's field:

Roe Deer

By the time we made our way back to the car it was early evening but it remained warm and the butterflies were coming out in force.  Here there were more meadow brown than ringlet, but also red admiral, small tortoiseshell and painted lady.

Small Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Painted Lady

In fact we must have seen going on for 20 painted ladies, confirming the impression that this may go down as a 'painted lady year.'

Some Hits and Some Misses - Part 1

Not for the first time, I've fallen rather behind with my nature record keeping. It's difficult keeping up with lots happening and the various distractions of the  World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France.

Where to start?

Well I did do a couple of Large Heath surveys at Muckle Moss near Hadrian's Wall but the first on a windy day produced none and the second in slightly better conditions last Thursday only one definite and one suspected sighting. On the first occasion there was at least a possible sighting of the Manchester Treble Bar moth and there was a plump specimen of the oak eggar moth.

Oak Eggar Moth

It seems the season for Large Heath in the Hadrian's Wall area is pretty much over.  On the way back from the second trip, I made a bit of a detour to Bywell to see if I could find the white-letter hairstreak, only to discover that the tree where I saw it before was completely dead - presumably a victim of Dutch Elm Disease.

There was a similar disappointment a couple of days earlier when I took a bike ride to the Big Waters Reserve to see if the farmland nearby where the clouded yellow turned up was still under set-aside. It wasn't. At least on a fairly brief stay I managed to see two small skipper, a few dragonflies, a red admiral and two small tortoiseshell.

At the weekend I travelled West to link up with V&A and baby.  On the Saturday afternoon we went to Broughtonknowe Wood near Biggar, an impressive and large area of grassland.  I was quickly pleased to note a number of ringlet around. In fact there must have been over a hundred of them, considerably outnumbering meadow brown and all others.  The whites all proved to be green-veined white, a change from the mainly large whites I've been seeing at home.

Ringlet

Green-veined White

There were a couple of small skipper and a large number of burnet moths but bees were largely overshadowed by drone flies. Apart from a couple of azure damselflies, dragonflies weren't settling.

Azure Damselfly	Blotch-winged Hoverfly
Eoseristalis	Furry Dronefly

In the evening we took a walk along the old railway line near Leadhills.  The objective here was a pair of hen harriers with chicks that had been observed by V&A as recently as last Thursday.

As it happened they weren't to be seen and we speculated that they may have left the area - perhaps wisely as this is a known shooting area.

So the main birds we saw perched on posts were a very distant buzzard and a juvenile wheatear.

Buzzard

Wheatear

Oh, and I did catch a view of a grey heron enjoying a scratch.

Heron

Missed Targets

I've been dotting about a bit over the past few days, and so have a lot of the butterflies.

One thing I haven't done justice to is the number of times an early bumblebee has turned up in the garden.  They really have been quite frequent but I've tended to see them in the passing while doing other things.

Harebells

After returning from Avignon I took a run to Wylam to check the calaminarian grassland area for harebells as there is apparently a bee that can be seen on them.  Unfortunately there are two bees that are colloquially knows as 'harebell bee' and I couldn't remember which one it was supposed to be!

In any case there weren't too many harebells and they weren't fully out yet, so no bees. 

What there was a lot of was ringlets, the first I have seen this year. But they were absolutely refusing to settle anywhere and so I couldn't get a picture. Doubtless there will be more.  

There wasn't any sign of the blood bees/suspected red-girdled mining bees from the last time I was there, just a few mini miners investigating the remaining holes on one part of the path.

Then there was a trip to Nottingham to see the test match, so not about nature. However as I was getting ready to go there was a lone harlequin ladybird in the house and the place we stayed in offered an orange underwing moth in the kitchen.

Harlequin Ladybird

Orange Underwing

Having noted that grayling butterfly sightings have started on Teesside, I decided to take an early trip to Cambois yesterday, having missed seeing them there last year.

The weather conditions were not at all favourable - a strong wind and cloudy outlook - and there were no initial signs of any butterflies, just a couple of red-tailed bumblebees. What caught my attention more was the array of wild flowers in bloom, really quite a display.  A couple I particularly noted were common restharrow (lots of) and lady's bedstraw.

Common Restharrow

Lady's Bedstraw

The grayling didn't turn up but skirting around perimeter areas I did come across 17 meadow brown, three small skipper (one very challenged by the wind) and across the road near the school, six six-spot burnet moths, one species I certainly was not expecting.

So no great triumphs but a pleasant day out.