Late Summer Sightings

Long-tailed Tits

The long-tailed tits are still very keen on the suet ball feeder. Typically they arrive in good numbers but are clearly nervy and make off at the least disturbance so visits don't last long.  I notice too that they won't come much if the feeder is well-filled, perhaps fearsome of something bigger than them, but prefer to wait for the other tits to whittle the supplies down somewhat.

Up until about a week ago, large numbers of small tortoiseshells were continuing to visit the buddleia, often eight or nine at a time.  As the buddleia blooms gradually died back, it was possible to see as many as four or five clinging to the same sprig, occasionally landing on the shed or elsewhere to warm up a bit when the sun weakened.  In one case elsewhere proved to be my foot.  This was pleasing as about a month ago a red admiral landed on my shoulder.  I got the photo but accidently deleted it and so had no proof. 

Small Tortoiseshell on large foot

On the 20th,  the buddleia also attracted an early bumblebee queen.  I gather there have been a few on the wing and probably saw one a few days before as well.  On the same day I had been on a bike ride in mediocre weather not seeing much at all and certainly no butterflies.  Having also thought I'd already seen my only painted lady for the year it was bit of a surprise when one turned up on the route past Ryton Golf Club, and kindly posed on the track for a few seconds.

Painted Lady

Alex and Vicki visited at the weekend.  On Saturday we spent a good deal of time in the hide at Clara Vale, hoping that a kingfisher would turn up.  It didn't.  We just saw a little grebe and a couple of moorhens and nothing more to add on a tour of the small Nature Reserve.

The day after we made a trip to Holy Island on what was palpably the last day of the September mild spell.  Although a little too early for spectacular sightings we did manage to see a raven, redshanks, rock pipits, sanderling, ringed plovers, razorbill, cormorant, guillemot as well as a school of seals.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Ringed Plovers

Seals

There was also a little brown job that was in the same area as a flock of pipits but I didn't think it was one.  Awaiting identification on that one...

Lastly, on a quick visit to the Gertrude Jekyll Garden near the castle, we stumbled on my third painted lady of the season.  They all looked pretty fresh.  Perhaps there are more around than I thought.

Another Painted Lady

It's getting to the time of year when I wonder what will be the last butterfly I see.  The latest contender on the buddleia anyhow was this red admiral, found clinging to the last decent sprig of flower in the wind yesterday.

Red Admiral

Thursday 6th June

A recent run of mixed weather has somewhat curtailed nature activities over the past couple of weeks.

Meadow Pipit

Typical was last Friday's Naturewatch trip to Trow Point and Marsden Rock, when the last leg at the local quarry was cancelled after continuous drizzle meant that there was little chance of seeing butterflies or many flowers.  The main part at Trow Point was a geology session, though I did get a nice photo of a meadow pipit advertising the area.

At Marsden Rock there was a large colony of seabirds, from which we managed to pick out a number of razorbills.  I don't think we quite answered the question whether there were any guillemots among them.  My guess was that there had to be.

Yesterday I took the train to Haltwhistle and rode back along cycle track 72, passing Vindolanda then following the Stanegate road down from the hills south of the military
road.  I had hoped there might have been some interesting butterflies around but again it turned out duller than forecast and there was just a few isolated whites.

A view from the Stanegate road

There were several curlews and a couple of grey wagtails in flight and a lot of skylarks to be heard.  To be honest, I was a bit surprised that the scenery was not as wild as I was expecting.

I saw a yellowhammer by the Northumberland showground then, just after passing Bywell was wondering while looking for somewhere to rest why I hadn't seen any orange tips. When I did stop, the sun came out and I soon saw four one after the other.

Saturday 7th May

Still playing catch up...

On Wednesday it was back to what has become somewhat usual - a testing bike ride in rather challenging, windy conditions so that the concentration was more on the road on the wildlife.

Loch Arthur

Managed a stop at Loch Arthur for half an hour, where I did however see some swallows and house martins flying over the water surface in the search for flies, plus a great crested grebe and a diving cormorant.  A question arose as to why I did not see any swallows when I was in Italy last week?? And so here's a theory: the birds need to spend more time in Northern Europe than Southern Europe in order to get enough food to feed their offspring and nourish themselves for the flight back to Africa.

Whether this idea has any sense in it, I really do not know. I do however remember comparing notes with a German friend who told me one Autumn that swallows had already left Thuringia when I was still seeing them in Scotland, which struck me at the time as strange. The grebe incidentally was only just developing his crest.

Today took part in a walk from Whitehaven to St. Bees with the Amnesty West Cumbria Group, a total of about fifteen miles.  This is the first and only time I have walked that far, and I had wondered how well I would cope, as I often notice on birdwatching trips that I am quite tired after about six miles.

Guillemots

Well I was fine, although I saw comparatively little in the way of birdlife on the walk.  I think the main reason is that the pace was so much faster than when idling around scanning the horizon for birds. There were a couple of magpies and pipits, some skylarks and the odd cormorant.  And I did get the chance to photograph this guillemot colony, although did not attempt to count guillemots.

Another thing that is prejudicial to birdwatching on a long walk is the use of walking sticks. Although much appreciated in terms of getting through the walk, you really need to keep your eyes on the ground to see where you are going to put them.

I was pleased to manage the walk, but for nature purposes, I prefer to take things more slowly.