Insects Are Back

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.

Betwixt and Between

I don't like this time of year, when the butterflies gradually disappear and the bees become scarce.  

There still is the odd butterfly around of course but the last ones I saw were a large white and a speckled wood around 8th October and nothing since.  A week afterwards I thought I'd found some ivy bees next to the cycle track north of Styford but it proved they were all honey bees.  It was the pale version of western honey bee that I was confusing. 

The temperature does however remain mostly above seasonal norms and the birds are still gobbling up the sunflower seeds and hearts with gay abandon - particularly coal and other tits but nuthatch and bullfinch of both genders continue to visit regularly.  A good trick would be to catch one of each species feeding together but they are obviously not friendly so the best I managed was male and female bullfinch together.

Bullfinches

A pleasant surprise was to find a green lacewing on my shed window and, with no frost so far, some flowers are still blooming including a very late and rather pathetic attempt at a sunflower. 

With some reluctance though I decided it was time to concentrate on birds.  I started out a couple of weekends ago at Newbiggin.  It was a Sunday so the golf course was busy but on the coastal path I found a twitchy flock of about thirty birds I thought might be twite.  They weren't settling for long and the only ones I snapped were linnets, though I cursed the hiker who walked straight toward one settled group I was trying to photograph, thinking that linnet and twite often mix.

Linnet

I suppose though that twite tend to turn up a bit later in the year.

One or two snow buntings have been turning up, some apparently on the grass at Seaton Sluice so i set off to find them the Sunday after.

It looked like they'd be easy to find but there are a lot of twisting paths through grassy areas at Seaton Sluice so I didn't find them.  By way of compensation there were several stonechats, which I always like and also a solitary pair of male chaffinches, which I must say I regard almost as a rarity as they are one species that I never see in the garden.

Stonechat

Chaffinch

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.