Last Wednesday I took a slow ride along the Derwent and the Tyne, particularly looking out for any sites that might produce a common blue.
Again the horse meadow at Derwenthaugh produced a small skipper, which continually sat with wings closed but just open enough to allow identification. Although there is now plenty of bird's foot trefoil in the field, there were no common blues but the first ringlet I have seen this season landed nearby and a meadow brown flew past.
Not much turned up along the Tyne apart from a couple more ringlets until I parked the bike and headed up the western Spetchells as the sun started to come out. Here the mining bees were no longer active but there were still plenty of Gooden's Nomad bees around the nest holes, which I suppose makes perfect sense. A good number of red-tailed bumblebees were also to be seen.
Here there was less bird's foot trefoil than I suspected so it was a pleasant surprise when a male common blue (first of the year) flew straight past me shortly after I had disturbed a basking red admiral. As I made my way back along the track more appeared and I saw five in total - all males.
Common Blue
Not seen however were dingy skipper or any Burnett moths.
At home I've been wondering if any of the bumblebees I've seen were were white-tailed bumblebees but mostly concluding they weren't. This one might be so I've submitted it to i-record to see if they confirm it.
White-tailed Bumblebee?
It looks from the hairy legs that it is a male, which apparently makes identification more difficult. Garden bumblebees are still turning up occasionally too.
At the weekend I travelled South to visit Rutland Water with Jen and Joe on the Sunday.
The weather was disappointingly dull and only a small number of ringlets and meadow browns ventured from the extensive flower meadow as we wondered along to the osprey viewpoints on the South shore, plus the odd skipper and chimney sweeper moth.
Here we had good success however as a couple of ospreys showed well during the hour we were there, and a chick can be made out in some of the photos taken.
Osprey
There were a fair few reed buntings about as well as sedge warblers, which however I only managed to hear.
Reed Bunting
Moving between hides it warmed up a bit and butterflies gradually became more active. Mostly these were ringlets and meadow browns but there were about half a dozen skippers. Interestingly, they were mainly large skippers, which I'm not actually sure that I've seen nearer to home though records suggest they are common.
Ringlet
Large Skipper
It happened that the meadow brown I snapped was an already rather worn male. Or I assume that the white patches were signs of wear.
Meadow Brown
One or two more chimney sweeper moths appeared as well as a blue bug I couldn't hazard a guess at. Returning to the visitor centre I also discovered this silver ground carpet moth lurking in the undergrowth.
Silver Ground Carpet
After a pause for refreshments, we decided to check some of the lagoon areas on the Western shore and pretty much hit the jackpot at the Harrier Hide, where it was for some while possible to see little egret, great white egret and grey heron all fishing in the same area.
A particular bonus was the sighting of an Egyptian Goose, a first ever for me as it isn't present further North.
Great White Egret
Egyptian Goose
Next a marsh harrier duly jetted in and passed around either side of the hide before moving away behind the trees. Perhaps just as exciting was the foraging of an early-rising barn owl that was clearly hungry or had young and hunted extensively over the marshland, at one point carrying some prey in its talons.
Barn Owl hunting
At one point it flew in front of the hide so close you could see it giving us the eye.
Afterwards we briefly visited the 'photographic' hide where a goldfinch obligingly sat for well over five minutes.
Goldfinch
Not the most spectacular sighting of the day but an attractive bird that isn't always so easy to take pictures of.
All the time we were in the Harrier Hide, we could clearly hear a cuckoo calling in the distance, which interested me a good deal as I reckoned I'd heard one at home earlier in the week, but discounted it as being too late for a cuckoo. It was calling again today.
Last Sunday, I went on a late trip up the Cairn Valley to the area I have indentified as being likely for redstarts. It was a very dark evening, very little about - plus the path to Netheryett lead me through some lush meadow, which quickly brought on a hay fever attack.
I did manage to identify a couple of chimney sweeper moths in the aforementioned meadow. There were some samll white ones drifting around as well but I'm not good enough on moths to know which of many species they could have been. Otherwise a heron and a couple of wagtails were about all I saw. I spent some time wondering about the difference between white wagtail and pied wagtail. I really think I'd need to be with an expert to be sure of it.
This week's bike ride was a bit more interesting. For the first time, there was a really large number of sand martins on the River Nith and they made a fine spectacle swooping around (unfortunately no picture as was still awaiting new camera). Then I stopped at Lochrutton to see if there were any birds moving in the reeds. There were - sparrows and a couple of blackbirds. But heading along the military road on a fast downhill section, a bird momentarily settled in the hedgerow and, from its profile showing a dark tail with white edging and a mottled breast, I was able to identify it as a female linnet. Not bad for a two second sighting at 20 m.p.h!
Approaching Kirkgunzeon, I heard - not for the first time here - some birdsong I could not recognise and, eyes streaming with hay fever again, the only indistinct sighting I got looked like a chaffinch with wing bar but chaffinches don't sing like that. Stopping at the stream there, oddly known as Kirkgunzeon Lane, I did momentarily think I'd seen a female redstart among the sparrows drinking at the water's edge. It wasn't.
