I stumbled on a post I wrote while still in Dumfries, celebrating the fact that I saw butterflies on the buddleia as late as 22nd September. At the time I scoffed inwardly, reckoning I'd easily beat that date as my goal each year now (have I ever achieved this??) was to see a butterfly on buddleia after the beginning of October.
In fact there was hardly any buddleia flowering in the garden by 22nd September this year and the last buddleia butterfly sighting must have been three or four days earlier. This came as a minor shock and I speculated that the long dry spell may have been responsible for all three bushes at the back deciding to shut up shop early.
Around the 22nd there were one or two painted ladies around but they passed on without stopping. The only thing that did call in while I enjoyed the last of the sunshine was this common darter.
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| Common Darter on decking |
Of course there are still a few butterflies around and, whilst checking a few possible ivy bee sites, I found a couple of red admiral guzzling ivy nectar on the Tyne between Bywell and Ovingham.
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| Red Admiral on Ivy |
Turning my attention to garden birds a bit earlier in the year than usual I put out some extra feed. This drew an instant response from two male nuthatches until one of them fought the other off. No sign though of the willow warbler, which has presumably headed off to Africa.
In the meanwhile I have been on a cultural visit to Berlin and as a change from cycling and targeted nature watching. Inevitably there were plenty of hooded crows. It always amazes me how common they are in big cities in Europe and how seldom anywhere here.
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