A Mixed Bag and a Bug Box

This post actually dates from 10th May but didn't get published at the time.

Although the red mason bee has remained the dominant species in the garden and the odd queen bumblebee continues to turn up, some more varied species have started to appear too.

Honey bees have appeared on a couple of occasions and an unidentified hoverfly that potentially looks like a nomad bee but the differences are easy to spot.

Honey Bee

Hoverfly

Today was typical in that three of the four main species of white butterfly all appeared in a short space of time, enabling some of the differences between them to be studied.

Female Orange Tip

Green-veined White

Small White

Most interesting of these is the small white, in that it showed no sign of any grey or black edging around the forewing tip.  Male orange tips have started to settle occasionally but aren't hanging around.

Yesterday I had also noticed the first garden bumblebee lying conspicuously in the flower of a californian poppy with its long tongue sticking out and today one could be seen in close-up, albeit with its tongue in.

\Garden Bumblebee

I was also able to make progress with identifying the nomad bee that has been seen frequently over the last few weeks - by trapping one in a recently purchased bug box.  Subject to confirmation, I now think it's the Flavous Nomad Bee and not Gooden's as I previously assumed.  However it could also be Panzer's Nomad Bee.

Flavous Nomad Bee

The problem previously was that I could never get a good enough view or photo to decipher the red stripe at the top of the abdomen.

Lastly, on a bike ride that wasn't intended for nature spotting, I chanced to see an urban fox with a bird in its mouth near Derwenthaugh Staithes.  Then I had to stop at Willington Quay to investigate some loud squawking from a tree I rode under.  I suspected a ring-necked parakeet but in spite of the closeness, it wasn't visible.  And riding up the coast towards Seaton Sluice, we happened on the first wheatear I've seen this summer.

Monday 29th October

The day after I finished writing about the apparent lack of interest in my fatball feeders, two or three long-tailed tits visited them briefly but haven't returned, though the weather has now certainly turned cold.  Today a grey squirrel was nosing around the garden but it was after peanuts.

Arguably more interesting was the appearance of a female pheasant on the back fence.  It sat there for quite a while, doing nothing.  It struck me that I never mention seeing a pheasant but of course I have been seeing them all the time, specially when I was out cycling in Dumfries.

Pheasant

Last Wednesday I went on a bike ride to Segedunum in Wallsend and encountered an urban fox trotting towards me on the cycle track in Walker.  I'm not sure who was the more surprised.

On Friday I deided to try out some of the local bird hides to see if winter visitors had started to arrive.

I started out at Shibdon Pond and quickly caught a duck I didn't recognise in the binoculars.  A quick google after a check in the hide log confirmed it was a ruddy shelduck, so something of a rarity although it's obviously featured regularly at Shibdon Pond and another couple of birdwatchers I talked to afterwards didn't seem to regard it as at all notable.  It isn't quite clear whether ruddy shelducks that appear in the UK are errant migrants or feral birds.  However, there are some at Washington WWT that eat out of your hand.

Ruddy shelduck (centre) and others

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera and had to make do with a poor shot on my phone.
The other main species at Shibdon were moorhen, shoveler and over 20 canada geese that probably had just arrived.

I then moved on to a hide at Lamesley where things were quiet but for some teal and a pair of gadwall.  Teal also featured closer at a hide near the Derwent at Thornley Woods, along with a heron hunting in slow motion and a diving cormorant that then settled to dry off its wings.

Saturday 19th May

A farly quiet week.  On Tuesday I took another run down the Derwent Valley but didn't see anything more exciting than the odd orange tip and specled wood.  I dropped in at the Thornley Woods hide the day after to check their sightings book but it seems that nothing more exotic than a nuthatch has been spotted so far in May.

On Thursday evening I walked along the river at West Wylam to try and identify an old fishing spot I used to visit 35 years ago.  The topography of the bankside has changed vastly including the addition of a tarmac cycle track but eventually I think I did nail it. On the way home a fox ambled casually across the road between Greenside and High Spen.

It can be amazing how long or how little time it can take to see something interesting.  On the Friday, with just 10 minutes to spare before catching a train at Prudhoe,  I took a quick walk on the river bank and saw a well-formed female orange tip settled on some greenery.  I got the camera out but it was then briefly disturbed by a male before returning so that, for once, I got the shot I wanted.

Female orange tip

Note of course the lack of any orange on the upper wings.

In the garden, the sparrows have come alive to the fact there is free food is on offer, but have not visited in the same numbers as these jackdaws.

Jackdaws

I realised after seeing them that I did not know the collective noun for a group of jackdaws.  Apparently there are in fact two - a clattering of jackdaws or a train of jackdaws.  Based on the behaviour they have exhibited so far, I would suggest that "clattering" seems more appropriate.

Thursday 16th October

Longish walk on Tuesday from Cairnsmore of Fleet Visitor Centre to Loch Grannoch and back with Tony. Heavy going at first as we tried to go via the old Paddy Line from the Big Water of Fleet Viaduct, but the trackway has become considerably overgrown and we ended up going through boggy areas and rough deforested areas for the first mile or so.

Curiously, most of the birdlife was between the Centre and the viaduct area.  Sighted hovering kestrel and red kite mobbed by crow on the way up and just before we parked a small brown bird of prey with white underparts flew over the moorland. Tony thought it was a merlin but somehow I wasn't convinced. There was no sign of any mottling and it appeared slender-bodied though the wing shape was about right. I don't know what else it could have been. Otherwise there were a couple of siskins near Loch Grannoch and a few stonechats near the viaduct on the way back, which was good to see after a long interval. Also saw roe deer and fox amongst the spruce plantations. Plus a solitary red admiral.

Big Water of Fleet Viaduct

Apparently there was a pair of golden eagles nesting in the Scots Pine by the old lodge at Loch Grannoch some years ago, but they were constantly getting disturbed so the nest was removed. It may be that this was the pair now at Hawes Water. It also used to contain a good head of trout, but acid rain has decimated them and they now only appear where a couple of streams flow into the loch.

Also a bike ride from Ken Dee Marshes to Kirkudbright and back via Castle Douglas, but not much seen apart from some buzzards and goldfinches, a red kite mobbed by many crows and one on the way home that hovered over the car as if on a bombing mission. Heard another small flight of barnacles.  On Monday, which was a misty day, a very large flock passed pretty much directly over the estate but could not be seen at all. Presumably flying above the cloud cover.

A coaltit visited the bird table this week, but there are no more blue tits since I pruned the silver birch where they were catching greenfly.

Wednesday 16th May

Fishing trip to Brooms FI to test before Malcolm comes up next week as weather has been so chilly this month.

Margin fishing was disrupted by swan eating bait off the bottom and sport slow.  Did manage a koi and a common (latter on very short rigged half hooker) and turned the whole thing round a bit by getting a nice barbel of about 4lb from the swim the swan had disturbed on a worm, which was a good piece of thinking.  Saw splendid fox with huge brush tail on other side of F1.