Between Summer and Autumn

I did a couple of trips this week as meteorological summer came to an end.

On Bank Holiday Monday I revisited Wallington Hall Walled Garden and made an early common sighting - a common darter.  More interesting however was one of those bumblebees that just doesn't look right and was eventually confirmed as a field cuckoo bee.  It was also nice to catch up with a red-tailed bumblebee worker as one hasn't appeared for a while when I've been out.

Field Cuckoo Bee

Common Darter

Red-tailed Bumblebee

There wasn't quite as much around as last year, when the weather was noticeably better.

However, I did take the opportunity to check for ivy bees at Wylam Bridge on the way home.  At first sight it seemed quiet but on checking it became clear that they were there in force, probably over 100.

Ivy Bees

They were all males apparently so probably hadn't been out long.

On Friday, I was on a bee walk at Allenheads where heavy winds emphasised the change in the seasons though it at least remained reasonably warm. Here we saw over ten broken-belted bumblebees but my understanding of the species was rather shattered by the information that they don't always have an interruption to the upper yellow band on the abdomen.  Otherwise bee sightings were restricted to white-tailed bumblebees plus one buff-tailed bumblebee and several common carder bees (rather than the moss carder bee we'd hoped for).

There were also a coupe of sightings of the fox moth caterpillar and isolated butterflies including a single, very small common blue.

Broken-belted Bumblebee

Fox Moth caterpillar

Perhaps more exciting was that we (rather than I) discovered a couple of flowers that are known to be rare.  These were the autumn gentian and the grass of parnassus.

Autumn Gentian

Grass of Parnassus

It seems the latter is a Cumbrian emblem.

Meanwhile it has been business as usual in the garden but still with one or two surprises.

I found an interesting fly I am provisionally guessing to be tetanocera ferruginae (common buff snailkiller) and the hornet mimic hoverfly has turned up again on two successive days.

Tetanocera Ferruginae

Hornet Mimic Hoverfly

Then frustratingly yesterday I encountered a large, dark bumblebee but just could not get a decent shot of it.  From observation I think it might be a tree bumblebee queen.

Tree Bumblebee Queen?

Maybe another day...

The Dry Season

After my brief outing to Chopwell East Field, I decided to see if things were any better at the brownfield site I visited early in the year and saw dingy skipper.  If anything they were worse and all I could muster in 45 minutes was a single green-veined white, one shaded broad bar moth and a tatty looking female common blue:

Common Blue

Otherwise the bird's foot trefoil had all but vanished and grasshoppers and mini moths patrolled the large expanses of sunburnt vegetation.

I don't know why I have been catching up with so many amorous butterflies lately but a quick exploration of the surrounds at a nearby car park revealed a couple of large whites getting in the mood.

Large Whites

Taking a policy decision it might be better to visit formal gardens (which get watered by human-beings) I set off yesterday to Seaton Delaval Hall gardens.

Conditions weren't great with a strong wind and very brief glimpses of sunshine.  The main formal garden seemed to have more emphasis on symmetry and exotic appearance than on encouraging nature and bees were the main visitors.

I was however quite pleased to find another white-tailed bumblebee on the lavender and also turned up what may be a member of the globetail hoverfly group. 

White-tailed Bumblebee

Globetail Hoverfly?

I haven't yet seen a specific suggestion for the hoverfly that accounts for the yellow face.

When the sun flourished briefly, the few whites were joined by the occasional red admiral and one peacock appeared.

Red Admiral

Peacock

The buddleia is now out in the back garden and has today been visited by large and small white as well as peacock. red admiral and some fresh-looking commas, flying strongly.

Comma

Today a couple of holly blues flew over and one caused a slight surprise when it landed briefly on the buddleia.  Not knowing they did that, I momentarily mistook it for an undersized small white!

I've been bemoaning the lack of bees, partly the result of a clearout of dying and over-invasive plants.  However a new pink plant has appeared without my intervention and has proved popular with honey bees and early bumblebees.

Honey Bee

I checked the plant out and it appeared to be marjoram, which was duly confirmed by sampling one of the leaves.

On the Bike in Avignon - Day by Day (Part 1)

Day 1

Not far East of the Avignon suburb Les Angles, there was a nice South facing bank where I spent a bit of time.  It was quickly possible to see marbled white and a number of suspected fritillaries and brown butterflies, which turned out to be meadow browns. (I had hoped for gatekeeper!)  Very conspicuous also was the violet carpenter bee, as was the case throughout the whole trip.  I hadn't realised how big their wingspan is in flight. Nearby I noticed a parked lorry whose driver seemed to give me an ironic glance as I cycled past..

Not far down the road the first white admiral appeared, as did a single, slightly dilapidated holly blue, the only time I saw one on the whole trip. 

Violet Carpenter Bee

Holly Blue

In roughly the same area the first painted lady occurred as did the almost inevitable speckled wood, the South European version obviously.

Painted Lady

Speckled Wood

More excitingly the first for me new insect was this scarce chaser, a fine looking thing:

Scarce Chaser

It does occur in the UK but rarely according to AI:- "Threatened, it primarily inhabits slow-flowing river flood plains and marshes in southern and eastern England."  However the cycle track to Aramon was as dry as a bone.

After a break in Aramon I investigated a hilly area near Théziers where there a lot of white admirals and my fist sighting of a male cleopatra while I sat eating cherries bought in Aramon market.  Here, remembering my one off experience near Bordeaux last year, I started to wonder if some the really large butterflies I could see down the hillside were in fact hungarian gliders.  In retrospect however the flight

Spotted Fritillary

pattern and wing shape were wrong, though the upper wing position could easily lead to mistaking the vertical wing stripe of the admiral for the horizontal stripe of the glider. I hope that makes sense?

On the way hope I took a rest on a lone bench near Avignon and was eventually able to identify a spotted fritillary, which was particularly interested in the orange reflectors on my bike.  It must have been feeling amorous.

I was keeping an eye open for the South facing bank near Les Angles again but all of the vegetation had been cut back and I remembered the lorry driver from earlier.

Day 2

This was the day that I planned to tour all the gardens I could find in  Avignon, partly because this proved a successful approach when I visited Bordeaux last year and partly because I was looking to find at least some shelter from very strong winds gusting up to 40 mph.

Unfortunately none of the Avignon parks I visited had much to offer the naturalist although the Jardin des Doms is a big project with potential (and was the most windswept) and I elected not to join the hordes of tourists visiting the Palais des Papes.

What I did find however was a very nice piece of flower meadow sitting for no apparent reason next to a car park near the Chemin des Canaux cycle track.  Here there were a lot of small coppers for whom the mating season had clearly begun, making it easy to spot the difference between the males and females.

Male Small Copper

Female Small Copper

I don't think I've ever noticed this gender difference before.  The male is well darker.

Common blues were also mating and less easy to catch up with as constantly on the move and a few large skipper were also sighted.

However, the one that got me really going was a scarce swallowtail, drifting repeatedly around the sight.  I have seen them before but seldom and did not know that they were to turn up again over the coming days.

Scarce Swallowtail (underwing)

A couple of interesting bees turned up too, and I think the one on the right might just be a white-tailed bumblebee

Furrow Bee

White-tailed Bumblebee?

I can't identify the furrow bee more closely.

Out and About

Last Wednesday I took a trip to the Tees Estuary hoping I might be in with a chance of catching up with a couple of rarities - the glossy ibis and the small blue butterfly. In the event I was successful with neither but still found a few things to catch my interest.

Starting at Saltholme RSPB I headed initially to Paddy's Pond, having found the pollinator garden virtually free of pollinators.  Here the view was largely dominated by a huge number of black-headed gulls with just a few pochard and shovelers for a little variety.  Turning back afterwards however, I did start to see some butterflies and was pleasantly surprised to find, on a path interestingly marked "Wrong Way", my first wall brown of this year.

Not sure how I missed it earlier, but I then immediately happened upon a nice area of banked flower meadow where there was another first of season sighting - at least 15 common blues, all but one of them male.

Wall Brown

Common Blue

A couple of orange-brown butterflies passing over the same area couldn't be identified.

The common blue turned up at several points as I wandered around the site but only one other female appeared.

Adjourning for lunch in the café, I was able to observe some common (I think) terns hovering to hunt insects from the surface of the water, the view occasionally interrupted by hunting sand martins from a man-made nesting wall. 

Tern hovering...then diving

Unfortunately I didn't manage to film one of the terns actually splashing into the water.

Here again there were a few pochards and shovelers.

Pochard

Next destination was the Fire Station Pond, which was where the glossy ibis had been reported. However I knew the chances of seeing were slim as the last sighting noted on the whiteboards was a few days earlier on 21st May, after having appeared fairly consistently for some while beforehand.

What I did see was two juvenile and one mature avocet and still more shovelers. Simply because it was so big and placid, I finally persuaded myself to photograph the single black-headed gull.

Young Avocets

Female Shoveler

Black-headed Gull

It seems I forgot to get one of the male shoveler.  A bigger miss however was a flyover by a marsh harrier which was too brief to do much about.

Next I drove to nearby Dorman's Pool, the possible site for the small blue.  Being unfamiliar with the site though, I made the error of following the signs to the hide, which turned out not to be the right place at all and only resulted in me seeing a damselfly.

Azure Damselfy?

A more promising area proved to be the walk along the private road and North towards the viewpoint.  here there was some kidney vetch, the larval food plant for the small blue, though much more bird's foot trefoil and hence several more common blue, this time including several females.

Female Common Blue

There was another wall brown and, noticeably scarcer this year, a speckled wood as well as - so hard to find last year but hard to avoid this - a single dingy skipper.

Speckled Wood

Dingy Skipper

It was more than a little frustrating that, with other things to do, I ran out of time to complete the whole of the path. So no small blue but hopefully I'll start looking in the right place next time!

More Landmark Sightings

The day after I finished writing the last post, I saw something I'd never seen before - in the dining room.

Apparently this is a moth fly (also known as a drain fly) of the pericomini genus but apparently you'd need to be a serious expert to identify one more closely.  It was tiny and had a wingspan of about 3/8".

Another pleasant surprise occurred on 30th August, when a painted lady was finally spotted in the garden and reappeared several times until the sun clouded over.  With the weather now on the change I doubt if it'll be seen again...

Unlike the bullfinches, which will probably keep turning up while sunflower hearts are available. This time I managed to capture the male.  You can't quite see the sunflower heart in its beak.

Male Bullfinch

Today I took a trip to the Big Waters Reserve, where something interesting has been reported.  I have mainly known it as a fishing and birdwatching venue, but was quite impressed on wandering around that there's quite a fair amount of invertebrate-friendly territory in the form of meadows (now mostly dead) and woodland clearings.

Near the Little Waters area there were a good few speckled wood and a few dragonflies.  I think the ones that actually landed were common darters.

Speckled Wood

Common Darter

There were also some large blue dragonflies - possibly emperor dragonflies.

Moving further around the area, I was pleased to come across some small coppers.

Even more were to turn up when I searched an area by the path near the track to the bird eyes, probably about twenty and also a good number of common blues, both male and female.

Common Blue

Small Copper

I wished I had taken the trouble to get a better photo of the small copper.  There were plenty of opportunities but they didn't land for long.

I was heading back to the car park when I bumped into a chap who said he knew where I could find what I was originally after.  We went back to the same area a bit further along where the farm fields have a good covering of bird's foot trefoil and after a fair bit of messing around (and me starting to head for the car park again) we found it.

Clouded Yellow

I'd never heard of the clouded yellow being observed this far North and had thought it might be rare here.  This isn't so as there have been scattered sightings in the past but it is distinctly scarce locally and I don't think I've seen one elsewhere in the UK.

There was actually a very large amount of farmland with a good covering of bird's foot trefoil, so who knows whether there are more of them at Big Waters?