The return of my bike after a wheel replacement has led to an increase in cycling activity.

On the 12th June, I took a brief trip up the Waskerley Way, hoping to see some butterfly species that haven't been showing up so far.  The only result in that direction was a couple of passing red admirals and a speckled wood.  Once up on the moorland, I did find a bank of bilberry not in flower, a good bit of uncut fern and some advanced bird's foot trefoil but no resulting pollinators. Lapwing, curlew and skylark were around but otherwise the most noticeable feature was the impressive view.

Waskerley Way

The most exciting thing was a momentary sighting of a redstart on the path on the way back down, just after I'd had a close up rear view of a red kite.

On Wednesday I set out from Newbiggin to head for East Chevington Pond, where one or two rarities have been spotted.

Going slowly, I again kept a careful eye on the bird's foot trefoil between Lynemouth and Cresswell but again no common blue were seen.  What I did see was a collection of what I was fairly confident were linnets around a house just South of the first caravan site.  A few turned up later coming back along the dunes but in both cases they didn't hang around.  Linnets are nervous birds.

Stopping at the north end of Cresswell Pond, I didn't really expect to see the spoonbill that had been reported a few days earlier. After returning from inspecting the undergrowth and stumbling upon a red admiral, I spoke to a chap who thought he had seen a little egret.  However another chap with a telescope confirmed it was indeed the spoonbill and I could pick it out in a field on the other side, snoozing with its beak tucked in.  There were some avocets around but I didn't spot them, just a lot of gulls including a little gull.

It was only on the way back in the afternoon that the spoonbill was active and I got a good view of it.  Apart from my visit to Minsmere several years ago I hadn't seen them in this country before.

Spoonbill

Little Gull

Compared to that East Chevington pond was a bit of an anticlimax as all I saw beside more gulls was several cormorants.  At least I got the chance to check out where the hides and approaches to them are.

On the way back more individual red admirals were around, none of them settling.  I counted five by the end of the day.  Again there were a lot of skylarks and several meadow pipits around, on a couple of occasions perching quite close.

Unusually I only saw one stonechat but a nice surprise was a whitethroat on a lone bush in the dunes.

Whitethroat

... Or at least I think it's a whitethroat as I'm still not sure when a whitethroat is a lesser whitethroat.  

On a fitness ride on Friday, I think I may have seen a meadow brown or two, but very much in the passing.

Friday 11th June

The morning I left Dumfries, I took a walk along the Nith from Nunholm to see if I could spot any kingfishers.  There weren't any but there were good views of sand martins swooping over the river south of the caul.

At home there were a few sporadic visits by woodpeckers (both genders), more invisible greenfinches and equally invisible willow warblers.

One day I spotted was a carpet moth sunning itself upside-down on one of my favourite pots.  To be more precise it was a garden carpet.  I don't usually have carpets in my garden.

Garden Carpet

We went fishing at Brenkley again the Wednesday after but it was astoundingly quiet on two leger rods and one pole line, until a switch to worm on the pole produced a small perch.  Then around 6.00 p.m. there was a strong run on one of the leger rods while I was on my own and I brought in a nice common carp in spite of getting in a tangle with the other rod.  It was taken on glugged sweetcorn.

Common Carp

We were fishing off the peninsular and wondered if it was a good swim.  There appeared to be a bank of weed about half way across.  On the other hand there was no sign of any other carp being taken near us.

We are now debating whether fishing with two rods is a good idea.  I think maybe start with one and put up another if no bites result... or maybe start with two and take one in if bites are frequent...

On the Thursday there was another interesting looking bee on the forget-me-nots.  On trying to identify it though, I wasn't so sure it's a bee at all.  Once again I emailed a friend at the Natural History Society of Northumberland who confirms that it is in fact a Narcissus Bulb Fly.

It's not a bee...

It's a Narcissus Bulb Fly

The forget-me-nots are now past their best and I am starting to see some large carder bees on other flowers around the decking,

This Monday I was out for a short walk along the Tyne from Wylam with my cousin and his wife.  We hadn't got very far when we noticed frenetic activity in the trees by a number of blue and great tits.  We soon saw they were trying to chase off a young-looking jay that had presumably discovered a nest it was trying to rob.

When we got to Hagg Bank Bridge, I noticed what I thought was a pied wagtail on a rock far beneath us.  For some reason I decided to take a photo and it proved in fact to be a common sandpiper. 

There weren't many butterflies to be seen fairly early in the day but while looking for them I rather liked the look of some white flowers amongst the campions.

Common Sandpiper

Maid's Violet

We came back over the Spetchells where a few buffish mining bees were still active and one or two orchids are starting to show.  The bird's foot trefoil is also coming through but not profuse enough yet to attract the common blue or dingy skipper.  Also strangely absent here were the sand martins, apart from a possible couple over the river.

Sunday 2nd August

I got out fishing on Killingworth Lake on Wednesday.  I enjoyed the experience of fishing a waggler for the first time in many years, though incompetence through lack of practice meant success was limited.  I managed to land three roach in the course of the afternoon when I should probably have had at least double that.  Several fish were missed or lost on the way to the net.  Barbless hooks seem to make it easy for smaller fish and the size I started with was probably also too small.

Unfortunately the lake is shallow where fishing is allowed and after teatime the swim was heavily invaded by swans happily eating up all the bait and I gave up earlier than planned.

The Catch

I got talking to a lad who was there for the night carp fishing and told me he had once caught a terrapin there.  There is photographic evidence to prove his claim is believable.

Terrapin

The weather forecast was that summer was due to take place on Friday so after slogging around the tennis court in 28 degree heat, I decided to have another run to Hamsterley Mill to see if I could get a better view of the purple hairstreaks.

Typically the weather had turned back to murk by the evening but the warmth was still there and there was a good deal of activity in the 'hotspot' at the second bridge.  This time there were about twenty sightings as they whirled around like mad things.  One settled momentarily on an ash right next to the bridge but did not open its wings and moved on pronto.

I don't think I used it at the time but this video I took last year shows what it's like trying to spot them in flight:

i checked out another spot and saw one more, by which time it started to rain. Once again I came ohome early.

There was a bit of rain again and precious little sun yesterday when I rode to check the meadows at Elswick and Derwenthaugh for commom blues and burnet moths.  No success, but equally interesting to note that bird's foot trefoil has disappeared at Elswick when there was plenty of it last year.  At Derwenthaugh there was none where it was last year but plenty of it further up the field.  I'm a bit puzzled as to why that should be.

It's still slim pickings on the garden buddleia.  A couple of small tortoiseshells have shown up, as did a rather ragged little comma.

Comma

As well as an increasingly bold grey squirrel, the woodpeckers continue to feast on the peanut feeder, in the most recent case a juvenile, judging by its extensive red pate.

Woodpecker

Saturday 26th May

There has been an outbreak of gang warfare in the garden between the jackdaws and the pigeons.  I was surprised to see that it was the pigeons who seemd the more aggressive.  Maybe it was a case of size matters.

Wednesday was forecast to be sunny so I rode up the Tyne valley some way past Bywell in the hope of spotting some butterflies.  But it was one of those days when the forecast couldn't have been more wrong.  It was overcast the whole time and not a single butterfly to be seen.  In fact the most interesting thing I did see was possibly this farmer's field full of blue flowers.  I'm not sure what they were or what they were grown for but it did strike me as kind of odd.

There were quite a few skylarks singing high up in the gloom and it took me most of the day before I saw one.  On the way back along the Tyne, there was an area on the edge of the Spetchells near Prudhoe where trees have been cleared to allow sand martins to nest and there were a few flying about.

By coincidence, the next U3A Naturewatch walk on Friday was to the Spetchells, and this time the forecast was spot on - very gloomy and so I gave up hopes again of any butterfly spotting.  One orange tip did turn up just as we set off, but that was it.

Apart from sighting a kestrel above the river, we were soon into flower-spotting. Once again I was straight out of my depth but I did manage to identify a few items as below:

Germander Speedwell

Orchid

Bird's foot Trefoil

There was a bit of argument about the orchid as it might have been an early purple or a marsh orchid. Obviously I couldn't possibly comment. It does seem that there is some hybridisation anyway.

What interested me more was the amount of mining bees that were around in spite of cooling temperatures and a shower.  There were holes all over the place in some parts. All of a sudden a moth turned up and landed on the chalk.  At first I thought it was a common carpet, but further research proved it was a treble-bar. Quite pleased to have worked this out as I don't normally do moths.

Buffish Mining Bee

Treble-bar