All Quiet

It's noticeable that I haven't posted much recently, for the very good reason that not much has been happening.  Continuing wet weather spells have made going out looking for birds on spec unattractive. Usually there are one or two winter rarities turning up in the North East and staying around, but this year not very much at all is getting reported - a couple of fleeting appearances of little auk flocks at least capturing my interest briefly.

I had hoped to see a few waxwings sometime but it's clear there hasn't been a major irruption this year and for the most only single birds have been reported.  Apparently there haven't been any hawfinches either, except a good deal further South.

Anyway I participated in the Big Garden Birdwatch again this year. The scores were:  Blue tit 5, long-tailed tit 5, 3 each for jackdaw, wood pigeon and collar dove, 2 for coal tit, great tit, nuthatch and bullfinch and just 1 for robin, blackbird and dunnock.  There were no sparrows or starlings, which is mostly the case.

I was pleased with the five long-tailed tits, as they've only appeared sporadically this year and a bit surprised that coal tit didn't outnumber great tit, which it might have done on any other day.  An odd number of collar doves was interesting, since I invariably see them in pairs. 

This was probably the most successful Big Garden Birdwatch I've had here, as in the past they've produced few simultaneous sightings.

Today I got out for only the second lengthy bike ride this year, as the rainy day forecast did not materialise.  As a first sign of better times, I saw my first few clumps of snowdrops this year and later a whole bank of them - as well catching a rare hour of sunshine.

Snowdrops

A Slow Spring

We are already experiencing summery days but I have so far seen little of much interest.

About a week ago people started reporting occasional buff-tailed bumblebees and the odd butterfly.  I noticed three of the buff-tailed bumblebee queens in the garden on Monday and a couple more since but no sign yet of the red mason bees that live in the bug hotel and so far no butterflies at all.  Interestingly several records of the brimstone have been registered in the Darlington area and one as far North as Sunniside.  It would be great if one of those turned up on my travels

Again I'm regretting the lack of garlic mustard in the garden, once prolific and a food plant for the orange tip and green-veined white until I decided it was getting out of hand and uprooted virtually the whole lot.

Apart from an increase in blackbirds and robins, collar doves have been fairly frequent visitors, fleeing into the trees at the back if they caught my attention.

Collar Dove

I remember being excited when they first turned up as a mystery in our garden in Blyth in the early eighties, having only recently established a presence in the area.

A bike ride to Matfen a fortnight ago produced a sighting of a yellowhammer and hearing my first chiffchaff, which are now singing out all over the place as they do.  On several occasions I have also heard greenfinches in the tree tops but so far haven't seen one.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I did see was crawling around in the summer house rather than in the garden itself.

Green Lacewing

Nothing special and I have had lacewings before in the Spring, but I rather like them and daresay the trout in the Derwent like them too.

Thursday 23rd May

Quite a strange experience lately when I got up to see a collar dove squatting in the middle of a clearly wet lawn.  it didn't move except for looking around a bit and, after about ten minutes, I started to wonder if it was injured.  After several more minutes it stood up and wandered around the garden, picking up titbits as if nothing had happened.

In consequence of Durham CCC's appalling performance in a supposed four day game, I decided instead to visit the Spetchells yesterday, cycling there via Wylam.  I knew that one or two grizzled skippers might be showing and supposed that the mining bees would also be active.  Both proved correct but I wished I had done a bit more research on the latter.

As well as the buffish mining bee (below), I think now that the smallish, slender insects I dismissed as 'bloodsuckers' were blood-bees.  Similarly, the wasp like hoverflies I thought I was watching may well have been nomad bees.  These are both parasitic bees that take over the nests of other mining bees.

Buffish Mining Bee searches for mine

On the butterfly front it was fairly quiet as notably the bird's foot trefoil hasn't really progressed much yet. There was a peacock and a speckled wood while cycling and I did manage to catch up with four grizzled skippers, a couple of orange tip (one with a very green underside) and a small number of green-veined white.

Two of the latter were locked together in presumably mating behaviour and were flying around with one clinging motionless to the other, which had to do all the work.  Eventually they settled on a bramble leaf while I continued on my slow walk. When I returned the best part of an hour later, they were still in exactly the same place and flew off only when I came past agian, still locked together.

Green-veined whites

It was almost as if one of the happy couple had died 'in the act'. Another strange one.

Thursday 23rd October

A fairly quiet week on the nature front as the autumn thermocline sets it and makes everything seem less attractive.

Wednesday's bike ride revealed nothing new but what was interesting was the number of magpies seen quite far west while heading towards Dalbeattie from Crocketford.  There was a legend thathooded crows replace magpies in Dumfries and Galloway, which was always nonesense as you would need to visit Wigtownshire to have much chance of seeing them.  But the magpies do seem to be gaining a foothold in areas where they were previously scarce.

Several wrens flew in front of the bike, one for several seconds providing a good close-up view. Otherwise geese and buzzards were heard but not seen, the usual array of goldfinches and chaffinches and a couple of cormorants.

Collar doves have reappeared on the garden bird table, two of them as ever, and so did a particularly foolhardy kitten from next door but one, which clambered up to find the table was bare.