After Madeira, there has been a burst of insect sightings in the garden in a number of short, mainly lunchtime sessions. In fact so many that I can't exactly remember the sequence of what was seen when.
I do know the first thing I noted - and this is now almost three weeks ago - was at least six green lacewings trying to break through the windows of my summer house. This is a good deal more than I have seen in previous years.
Green Lacewing
A pity the window could have done with a clean...
I can also remember that the day after I got back I helped out clearing a butterfly site at Greenleighton Moss of sitka spruce saplings. An uneven bog isn't ideal for carting a camera around as well as cutting equipment but we the day was fine and we encountered lots of six spot ladybirds, several lizards, bog rosemary, wild cranberries and right at the end a single adder sunning itself on the trail.
The ladybird theme has continued in the garden and there are couple working on the garlic mustard, often in the company of a green shield bug.
Green Shield Bug
It was at last possible to get a shot of one of the buff-tailed bumblebee queens that have been around since mid-March and these I have now been joined by occasional tree bumblebees which I think are also queens as well as by a couple of queen wasps
Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen
Tree Bumblebee Queen
Queen Wasp
I was wondering which would be the first non bumblebee to turn up and it was not totally unexpectedly a red mason bee, which have since made their presence felt in increasing numbers, although so far showing no interest in the bug hotel on the summer house wall, preferring the summer house itself.
Red Mason Bee
Meanwhile butterflies also eventually appeared, though it was on a brief ride past Swalwell Cricket Club that I saw my first orange tip. Eventually a couple more males have turned up in the garden too, plus the first green-veined white.
Orange Tip
Green-veined White
I was for a while a bit surprised that there were no mining bees around especially as I did get a couple of visits from a dark-edged beefly which is one of the key predators. But after a while I found a chocolate mining bee by accident and not long after a tiny nomad bee, also a predator.
Dark-edged Beefly
Chocolate Mining Bee
Nomad Bee
What kind of nomad bee it was is very hard to assess. What I can say is I've never seen one so small. I actually mistook it for a wee chafer of some sort.
Also appearing recently was the first bee imitator, the well known common drone fly.
Common Drone Fly
I shouldn't also forget the birds. Here are a couple of less regular visitors:
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
The chaffinch has now become more regular since the introduction of sunflower hearts into one feeder. here is is clearing up after the greedy siskins who are messy eaters and keep dropping bits of seed onto the lawn.
The goldfinch is considerably less frequent and I'm not sure I've caught one here on camera before.
In a period of unsettled weather, yesterday looked to be the best opportunity to look for some invertebrates, so I set out for a slow ride to take in Path Head Nature Reserve, Ryton Meadows and the Spetchells. Unfortunately some photography issues limited the possibility of confirming some sightings.
Path Head is a reclaimed recycling site and looks promising for future months and years. During a brief outburst of sunshine, I quickly spotted a peacock, a red-tailed bumblebee queen and a carder bee. Quite a few dandelions were out and I was looking out for mining bees but the result was a number of mini miners, as usual hard and somewhat controversial to identify. However I captured one in my bug box and am fairly confident it was a common mini-mining bee.
Another capture I made later showed a very small bee with a lot of red on the thorax and reddish legs. The photo however was unhelpful. Following a tip that it might be a small nomad bee, I reckon a long shot might be little nomad bee, which preys on the common mini-miner though more prevalent in the South.
Little Nomad Bee?
Later there was an opportunity to see a heron admiring the flora.
Heron
In fairness there was a drainage trench nearby.
I then headed to Ryton Meadows, in the hope of perhaps seeing an early small copper. It wasn't entirely unexpected when that hope proved forlorn (a bit early yet) but I did find another interesting bee on another dandelion. It looked like a small nomad bee but notably had a yellow face. I can't see any potential matches. Maybe it was a wasp.
It was at this point that the technical problems really began to take over as a series of images I'm certain I took between arriving at Ryton and climbing up the Spetchells have simply disappeared from my little travelling camera. As I actually had it round my neck while riding I can only assume that the delete button got pressed a few times accidentally, which seems most unlikely..
So as well as unable to get any further with the possible nomad I lost photos of a peacock and several of orange tips including females and some of suspected chocolate mining bees that I wanted to double check.
Approaching the Spetchells with the camera now back in my rucksack, I noticed a number of small nomad bees patrolling a wee area of grassland next the cycle track. They looked rather like Gooden's Mining Bee but a good deal smaller than the ones up on the chalk. Again having referred to experts for an identification, the suggestion is that it might be a male Gooden's though I must admit I'm surprised it was that much smaller. This time I got a reasonable pic.
Gooden's Nomad Bee (m)
There was about 10-20 of them flying around low and seldom settling for more than a few sedonds.
Before going up to the Spetchells I noticed another bee on a dandelion right next to where I parked my bike. I was fairly confident it was an orange-tailed mining bee but in this case the photo was too poor to say.
The reason for heading to the Spetchells was to see if the buffish mining bees are in action yet. Indeed they are - in their many thousands. It looked to me that they were all males but activity was particularly intense in one small area, I suspect because of the presence of an early female (at the top of the frame in the video):
One Buffish Mining Bee
Many Buffish Mining Bees
As a bonus, I also managed to find the first - excepting my trip to Spain - small tortoiseshell and the first speckled wood (what on earth's happening with them?) I've seen this year, as well as a not so great photo of the last female orange tip of the day.
Eventually the weather had to perk up, resulting in an increase in activity both in the garden and elsewhere.
One of the first signs of this about ten days ago was finding a large number of nomad bees swarming around my forget-me-nots. I've never seen so many together and hardly any were actually settling, so a bit of a scunner.
I was fairly comfortable identifying Gooden's nomad bee and in subsequent days reckoned I'd identified male and female Panzer's nomad bees, one of which also turned up (I think) at Bolam Lake on Friday.
Gooden's Nomad Bee
Panzer's Nomad bee
The presumed female I caught in a bug box at home had entirely red and black bands on the underside, which tallied with a photo on the internet.
Then much more recently, this item turned up and also fell victim to brief imprisonment the bug box.
Nomad Bee
For reasons that are hard to define too closely, I'm not convinced that this is a panzer's. Perhaps it's a bit too large, particularly in the thorax area. So I started to wonder about flavous nomad as the nearest alternative but a bit of research show's that Marsham's and Kirkby's nomad bees are possible locally. So I'm now unsure about nomad bees with any red markings...
Also, as there are so many nomad bees, where are the mining bees they predate?
Also confusing has been the continuing lack of butterflies settling in the garden. The couple that have were both green-veined whites but I had to take a bike trip along the Tyne before I could get a snap of an orange tip - a rather bedraggled female.
Green-veined White
Orange Tip
Now orange tips are everywhere including five in the garden yesterday, but still not settling or only briefly.
One clear certainty is that the red mason bee is back in big numbers and the wee bug hotel (more like a bug B&B really) is doing a roaring trade.
Red Mason Bees
I was also fairly confident of identifying a Hawthorn Mining |Bee at Bolam Lake...
Hawthorn Mining Bee
... unless it's Gwynne's Mining Bee, or something completely different?
For a few days now, I've puzzled over this small bee that landed on a californian poppy:
Chocolate Mining Bee
After careful consideration, I think chocolate mining bee. I saw one last year I believe.
And again on bees, I definitely saw a garden bumblebee the other day.
Garden Bumblebee
Okay the tail looks a bit weird but I got a really good look at the double stripe around the waist. You can just about make it out.
Lastly on a quick tour of a few lakes in Northumberland, it really looked like our small group was not going to see anything beyond standards like tufted duck, canada goose, common tern and great crested grebe.
Great Crested Grebe
Common Tern
Then, just as I was turning to go back to the car, someone someone spotted on osprey flying close overhead with a large fish between its claws.
It seems amazing that we are well into May and I haven't seen a single butterfly in the garden or managed to photograph one, which normally would have happened weeks ago.
Bees have been a little more obliging and one or two mining bees have started to appear on forget-me-nots. Tree bumblebees have put in a few appearances and also seem to like the pink campions that have appeared from somewhere.
Buffish Mining Bee
Tree Bumblebee
On the last day of April I went to the Bakethin Reserve at the northern end of Kielder Water in search of mandarin ducks but didn't manage to see any. In fact there wasn't much to see at all apart from some fairly standard issue ducks and a couple of shovelers fighting over a female. Even the osprey landing area was deserted apart from a crow and clearly hadn't been built on.
Crow not osprey
I had a look at the South end of the reservoir and at various points on the River North Tyne, also without success. Maybe the North Tyne at the northern end would have been a better bet.
On a bike trip a week ago, I came across quite a few chocolate mining bees on dandelions. A more recent ride on Sunday in reasonably warm weather yielded a good few orange tips, a peacock and a red admiral, all in flight.
Chocolate Mining Bee
Back in the garden it was pleasing to see a woodpecker on the one peanut feeder I now have out - the first for many a long month.
Woodpecker
Also putting in an appearance has been a small number of nomad bees, as last year. However, I'm not confident on precise identification from the photo and have sought further advice.
Nomad Bee
Laughably, just as I write this an unidentified white butterfly has just flown past...
A couple of bike rides have paid off unexpected dividends since I got back from Scotland.
Riding back from Newcastle a week ago on Saturday, I paused briefly at a small meadow near the the Derwenthaugh Industrial Estate and managed to see a couple of small skippers nectaring on tiny mauve flowers. This was a nice surprise since - as expected - the bird's foot trefoil was only just starting to show.
Small Skipper
On Wednesday, Kate and I did a run up the coastal track, mainly for the pleasant scenery and a visit to the ice-cream parlour at Amble.
As usual there were a few stonechats and goldfinch around but I was a bit surprised to see a linnet singing right next to the path.
While we were scoffing the ice creams outside, we noticed that there was a plant growing from between the stones in the yard. It reminded me of the scarlet pimpernel I used to see in my grandmother's garden in Hampshire - and so it proved.
Scarlet Pimpernel
Its appearance in the North East is classed as unlikely though I guess the limestone tracts in Co. Durham might be a favoured habitat.
On the way back, we found a birdwatcher, who it turned out was observing a whitethroat that was gaily singing from the surrounding trees.
Somewhat surprisingly, the linnet was still in the same area on the way back, just after we had observed some Highland and Galloway cattle, and gamely hung around while I fumbled for the camera.
Linnet
Back in the garden I have finished clearing away the garlic mustard with the expected decline in butterfly sightings. I've also stopped feeding peanuts for the birds as I got fed up with constant flow of jackdaws snaffling all the food.
However the bees have continued to enjoy the various flowers that are still out. For a while I was mainly seeing garden bumblebees but now the buff-tailed bumblebee appears to predominate. Occasionally I have suspected white-tailed bumblebee but have yet to provide the proof.
One bumblebee that I hadn't seen in the garden before was an early bumblebee that turned up on the chive flowers. And one non-bumblebee that wasn't the expected mason bee was in fact a chocolate mining bee - a species I did once encounter here a few weeks ago.
Because of the uncertainty about the nomad bee (see last post) I decided to capture another the day after to study it more closely. Typically it became evident that I had trapped a different species of nomad altogether, so I had the job of making a separate identification. I think this one might be Marsham's Nomad Bee though it was smaller than I expected and so I wasn't altogether certain.
Marsham's Nomad Bee?
The main event of this week was an outing to Dipton Woods on the e-bike to check for green hairstreaks on the first available day that promised consistent sunshine. For a while I thought I'd misjudged badly as there was little sun to speak of when I finally got to the area around 11.30. I was also considerably hampered by the fact that the rough and wet track I was trying to cycle up was blocked by a couple of fallen tree trunks.
Discouraged, I considered giving the whole thing up but checked a few bilberry bushes for remaining flowers and quite by chance came across a single green hairstreak on one of them in spite of the murky light.
Morale suitably bolstered, I evaded the fallen trees by walking the bike through some rough stuff and headed for the known 'hot spot' at the other end of the track, a south-facing slope that is sheltered from the wind by a wall. I quickly spotted a couple more hairstreaks, then the sun finally did emerge for around 40 minutes stimulating a good deal more activity. In the end I counted a total of 25 sightings, narrowly beating the 24 I saw on my first visit three three years ago.
Green Hairstreak
In the same area a large butterfly that looked unfamiliar flew straight past me without landing, a large flying bug landed in my hair and there was a small moth I couldn't identify.
Moth
On the way to Dipton Woods I saw my first swallows of the summer near Hedley and on the way back a red kite being pursued by crows between Bywell and Wylam, the furthest West I've seen one so far.
I'm getting a bit fed up with feeding the birds at the moment as all I seem to be achieving is enabling the jackdaws and magpies to have a blowout. So it was good to have a couple of visits in between times from this lady woodpecker.
Woodpecker
Yesterday one particular bee spent a lot of time flying low over the lawn, as if looking for something. I suspected a chocolate mining bee but narrowly failed to trap it in the bug box. There have been one or two honey bees too, but not as many as last year.
Things have really taken off on the nature front in the last few days, in particular the insect world.
Bee flies started to appear on the newly flowering plants and an increasing number of bumblebee queens passed through the garden without stopping. Then a few days ago bees started to turn up and linger. I got a brief sighting of what looked very much like a tawny mining bee while hunting for weeds around the laurel hedge. It didn't hang around for more than a couple of seconds but the bright orange coat was pretty much a giveaway.
Yesterday I went down Blaydon Burn to a meeting in town and caught a glimpse of a male orange tip and another small orange butterfly out of my eye. I wondered about a very early small copper but dismissed it as unlikely. Anyway I vowed to take a much more careful look on my way back.
As soon as I reached the Burn there was another male orange tip and about sixty yards up the track a struggling queen bee that puzzled me considerably as I couldn't match it at first to any known UK species. It was only when I looked at the photos I gradually spotted it was a buff-tailed bumblebee with an almost non-existent thorax band. You can barely see the band at all.
Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen
As I moved up the burn the number of male orange tip sightings reached five, none of them showing any sign of settling. My guess is that they were on the lookout for females and this was partially confirmed when a couple of them made overtures to other whites, who quickly saw them off. I suppose that if you are a male orange tip, it makes sense to get on the wing a bit before the females hatch so you can catch them early.
There were also a couple of peacocks and I got the typical early season shot of a nice new specimen sunning itself on the track.
Peacock
I think that most of the whites I have seen flying past to date have been large whites and this was partially confirmed when I found one trapped in my summerhouse this morning. It happily sat on my finger for thirty seconds while I escorted it from the premises. It was clearly a female.
Large White
They don't usually have such a creamy body colour, perhaps the result of struggling on the window pane.
A healthy number of bees and some imitators are now visiting the forget-me-nots and garlic mustard at the bottom of the garden. There have been tree bumblebees, carder bees, buff-tailed bumblebees and one garden bumblebee, most but not all of them queens. Possibly the most numerous of the rest have been male red mason bees. One was even sighted crawling out of a hole in the summer house planks.
Red Mason Bee
But there have also been a couple of bees that I have struggled to identify for certain. The trouble with insects is their seasonality so that you have a large part of the year to forget all you've learned about them.
A nomad bee has been turning up over the past few days and it looked smaller than the Gooden's Nomad Bees I have seen before. The plot thickened when I saw what I first thought was a fly but on inspection may well be a chocolate mining bee, which would suggest the nomad was in fact a Marsham's.
Using my latest field guide however, I think the answer is that the nomad was a male Gooden's (hence the smaller size) but that chocolate mining bee may well be a correct identification.
Gooden's Nomad Bee
Chocolate Mining Bee?
A couple of further yellow invaders have also occurred. One is clearly a queen wasp but the stray yellow plant unaccountably growing in one of my plant pots had me wondering a bit. On phoning a friend, we think it must be oil-seed rape!
Queen Wasp
Oil-seed Rape
Incidentally I also have a sweet pea in the front garden that has survived the winter and started flowering again about a fortnight ago.
Last of all I wondered into the kitchen to see a spherical object lying on the bird table that was promptly removed by a jackdaw, leaving me to wonder whether it was the jackdaw or another bird that left the egg there in the first place.
