Spring is Sprung

When I experimented by offering a nyger seed feeder to the local birds a couple of years or so ago, I was a bit surprised that it was all gobbled up by jackdaws and none of the fancy species I had hoped for got anywhere near it.  So when I was offered a bag of nyger seed surplus to requirements in Moffat, I had little doubt that it would quickly go the same way.

In fact the heavy sprinklings I put down on the bird table were totally shunned for weeks and interest could only be aroused by adding other titbits amongst the glut of uneaten tiny black seeds.

Eventually a pair of dunnocks and the odd blackbird have latched on to the permanent free lunch and at least some of the pile is getting shifted.  I would have expected the coal tits to love it and at least the odd goldfinch to take a look, but not even the jackdaws have shown much enthusiasm.  Perhaps the birds just have other things to do at this time of year.  The feeders haven't produced much either.

Finally emerging from Covid confinement, I took a trip to Edinburgh last week for cultural purposes.  I did manage to slot in an hour's walk in Princes Street Gardens but there was nothing around apart from a couple of magpies and pigeons in spite of a nice, sunny day.  The only other animals I saw were the stuffed ones in the National Museum.

On returning home, there was a little more on offer.  On Friday, I briefly saw a small tortoiseshell from the summer house as well as a bumblebee and a female woodpecker paid a rare visit to the peanut feeder.

Greater-spotted Woodpecker

On a bike ride yesterday there was another bumblebee and any number of skylarks singing, giving a strong sense of Spring.  Then today, single small tortoiseshell was resting on the laurel in the front garden.

Small Tortoiseshell

There seemed to be some staining on the left lower wing that looked a bit like bird lime.  As the temperature was around 9C I was surprised to see it at all and hope it has managed to take cover.  It's forecast to freeze tonight.

An Exciting Couple of Weeks

The good weather broke through in the middle of July and I have been taking full advantage by getting out as much as possible.  I'll start at the beginning...

On the 15th Malcolm and I did a fishing trip to Milkhope Pond, determined to put some fish on the bank after our previous blank at Brenkley.  The tactic was to scale down the tackle but using baits that would be big enough to put off the tiddlers.  In the end we had four skimmers and two roach, all from the margins on legered sweetcorn and no tiddlers - but no carp either.

The day after we linked up again for a dog walk through the meadows by the River Aln.  Early sightings of a small skipper and a burnet moth promised much but otherwise ringlet and meadow brown predominated.

Small Skipper

On the Saturday I took part in a bee hunt at Watergate Park organised by the Natural History Society's expert thanks to whom we were able to identify amongst others a vestal/gypsy cuckoo bumble bee (which I fortuitously came across), furrow bee (minute) and male buff-tailed bumblebee.

On the side I also noted a marmalade hoverfly and a shaded broad bar moth as well as several more small skippers, which seem to be very common this year and were to appear at further venues.

Marmalade Hoverfly

Shaded Broad Bar

This Monday I was out hunting hairstreaks and for about the fourth time visited Bywell Bridge only to find overcast weather and little sign of activity in the elms.  By contrast an evening visit to the viaducts at Hamsterley Mill provided two or three strong but fleeting purple hairstreak suspects.  Probably too early though for them to be on the wing in large numbers.

After taking part in a walking cricket session (yes it's come to that!) I went to Wingate Quarry around Tuesday lunchtime hoping to see a marbled white at the only site in Northern England where they are present.  I must have seen approaching 100!  Introduced in the hope that they would spread, they seem to be very happy where they are.  

Marbled White

Also sighted in this very scenic setting were good numbers of small heath, small skipper, common blue (though only 2-3 females) and burnet moth as well as the inevitable ringlet and meadow brown, large numbers of red-tailed bumblebee and I think a white-tailed bumblebee.

Female Common Blue

White-tailed Bumblebee

Perhaps more significant was this latticed heath moth, which I believe is somewhat scarce.  However, I see that I also have a less good photo of one at Watergate Park too.

Latticed Heath

The day after I set off late in the evening to go on a nightjar watch near Slaley.  Nightjars are rare in Northumberland but we managed half a dozen fleeting sightings as the darkness encroached and heard a fair bit of churring.  The most impressive bit was watching one hunting and returning to the same dead tree. There were plenty of toads and midges around plus an orange underwing moth but only one bat.

Thursday was nominally a day off but I couldn't resist this heron fishing on the edge of the marina at North Shields.

Grey Heron

On Friday I was back on the hairstreak trail again, this time with almost completely opposite results.  After some delay I arrived at Bywell Bridge going on on 1.00 pm, having spotted my first red admiral for several weeks on the way.

This time the sun was out and after a few minutes I started to notice suspicious activity in the elm tree at the north-eastern corner of the bridge.  It wasn't too long before I got a positive identification of my first ever white-letter hairstreak.  In the course of the next hour I must have seen 20-30 individuals, coming in little flurries and briefly settling on the tree leaves.  Rather contradicting the advice I had read on the West Sussex Butterfly Conservation site, they were mainly on the sunny side of the tree and not totally out of the wind, which I have however noticed is pretty variable in this location.

White Letter Hairstreak

By contrast my evening visit to Hamsterley came to an abrupt end after sighting just one suspected purple hairstreak when the cloud moved in and obscured the setting sun.

The weather is closing in again so I may not have so much to report over the next few days!

Monday 22nd July

I decided to make a definite assault on the purple hairstreak nearer to home, starting off with a wander along The Avenue at Gibside.  There are certainly a prestigious number of oak trees there, but they are so old and large it would be very difficult to make out any butterflies so far overhead. There were about three red admiral flying long distance, a few ringlet and several meadow brown.

On spec I passed through the walled garden where I noticed a strange looking bumble bee I couldn't get a decent photo of, followed by three small skipper and a single small tortoiseshell. The bee just didn't strike me as atypical garden bumblebee but buff-tailed bumblebee doesn't seem quite right either.  I wondered if it had a growth just behind its head.

Pausing for a rest, there was a very dark looking wagtail running around under the chairs outside.

Bumblebee

Wagtail

Then I moved on to the viaducts past Hamsterley and spent all my time observing a good cluster of oak crowns visible from the far end of the second one, observed by a cruising red kite.  The reason for the long stay was that there were clearly small butterflies of greyish appearance darting in and out of the treetops, but it was very hard to get a positive sighting of any of them.  This time I was sure they weren't speckled woods, which would have been more leisurely at times.  There was the occasional flash of violet blue so my belief is that they were purple hairstreaks though they were never still enough to identify the actual wing pattern positively.

I tried making a brief video of them but it didn't produce any conclusive evidence either.  There must have been at least ten of them, even allowing for double sightings.

Purple Hairstreaks

Tuesday 12th March

Hooded Crow

In the last few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from my fitness and nature-related activities for various reasons, notably to have a long weekend in the art galleries in Vienna.  On the last day there I was however pleased to spot a couple of hooded crows grazing in the Volksgarten and one got near enough for a snap on the mobile phone.

Here the odd red kite is still hovering around at low altitude and a grey squirrel hopped along the length of my garden fence one day.  I was in the garden myself during the unseasonably warm weather at the end of February but, unlike others did not see an early butterfly.

There was a slightly strange sight yesterday when I came through Medomsley in the car.  Two roe deer stood out on the horizon of a large field of cabbages, immediately causing me to wonder if deer eat cabbages. I suppose they probably do.

Yesterday it was back to normal with a trip to Shibdon Pond with the U3A group.  I got there early to find a large number of gulls and only a few other common species showing, but it just goes to show how useful it can be to be in a group.  Someone pointed out a couple of gadwall that were briefly visible and one hawk-eyed member spotted a group of snipe on an island near to the hide.

Snipe

 They were so well camouflaged, it took a few of us some while to spot them and it was hard work getting a view in the camera. A pair of shovelers and one of shelduck also showed up in due course to add to the mallards, coots and moorhens.

A walk to the Nature Reserve on the far side of the lake proved a little disappointing as we only saw a few teal, some tits and a bullfinch.  This was similar when I visited last autumn, so perhaps summer will be a better time to visit.

I did however see a very large bumblebee in flight (garden or white-tailed) and suspected it might be a queen. It's certainly the right time of year. Flowering early was this blackthorn although those in the know said that the unusually large flowers show that it is an introduced version that could interbreed with the native variety. Very sinister!

Non-native Blackthorn