End of Summer Awards

It's become traditional to post something like "End of Summer" at this time of year when frankly I'm prone to early Autumn depression after the the end of the cricket season, and butterfly and bee sightings also become an increasingly rare occurrence.

I've been trying to avoid taking constant repeat photos of the same species over the summer months.  However this year I decided to reflect on which species have been the star features in my back garden and take photos of them before the buddleia flowers came to an inevitable end.

The overall winners were in no doubt.  In joint first place came red admiral, considerably outnumbering other members of the Nymphalidae family.  It was still being seen in good numbers on 16th September and the following couple of days before I went on on holiday on the 20th.

Red Admiral

In equal first place, and the most numerous species overall was the large white, including a big number of males.

Female Large White

Male Large White

The male large white also carries the distinction of being the last butterfly to be seen, studiously visiting the last sprigs of buddleia on 29th September - shortly after which date a storm moved in and effectively called a halt to proceedings.  

This meant that my annual ambition of seeing a butterfly on Buddleia after the start of October once again went unachieved this year.  There's only one wee sprig left now.  Ironically I have seen one more large white since - in Ashington Town Centre on 2nd October in decidedly overcast conditions.

Honourable mentions also go to small tortoiseshell, which proved to be a regular visitor once it got going at the beginning of August, and comma, which after an absence of about three weeks, turned up to surprise me by joining the admirals and tortoiseshells on the 16th.

Small Tortoiseshell

Meanwhile tits and nuthatches continued to visit the sunflower hearts feeders if somewhat less regularly.  Bullfinches haven't been sighted recently but I did catch a brief glimpse of a marsh tit while sheltering from the reduced temperatures in the summer house. I haven't seen one of those here for over a year.

I managed to lengthen my summer experience by spending five days in Berlin in continuing warm weather.  This wasn't at all a Nature trip but of course one or two things did turn up.

It's sometimes observed that bird species have different behaviour patterns in the British Isles compared to Europe.  The hooded crow for example we would need to look for in craggy seaside areas near the coast, but in Europe can be found strutting their stuff in posh residential areas, like this one I found in Westend district.

Hooded Crow

There were half a dozen of them later on in the day on Onkel-Tom-Straße in Zehlendorf. 

On the other side of the road, was a very red red squirrel bounding around in someone's front garden.

Red Squirrel

Near the Gedenkstätte Plötzensee when I visited there was a nice meadow verge where I saw but couldn't get a decent photo of some common carder bees that had a much more gingery appearance than the ones I see here. There were a few small white butterflies too but, in the whole five days, I interestingly in view of the fine weather, did not see another species of butterfly - just a few dragonflies and a hornet at a cemetery I visited.

Autumn in Berlin

So it's been a rather long time since my last post declaring the end of Summer.

I've been mainly preoccupied with writing my "Death in Berlin" article (q.v.) following a very enjoyable return there in the middle of October.

Although not out looking for wildlife and without my binoculars, I did nevertheless happen on a couple of interesting sightings.

While wandering through leafy Zehlendorf, I was a little alarmed when an object from a tree landed on my shoulder and several more thudded down onto the roofs of parked cars nearby.  At first I thought they were conkers but a closer look showed it was a volley of acorns.

Clearly on the lookout for them were a trio of hooded crows and one of them was sufficiently interested to come onto the path near me.

Hooded Crow

I think there must be a lot of hooded crows in European cities.  The last one I saw was in Vienna.

Also pretty common on the basis of internet research was this firebug found on the wall of the entrance to the Gents' toilets at the Haus der Wannseekonferenz.

Firebug

While still in Zehlendorf  I came across what I at first thought was a flower but is in fact clearly a shrub.

Mystery Shrub

It looks a bit like a cultivar but was growing freely at the edge of a woodland area.

I'm still searching for answers on that one...

In spite of temperatures reaching 24C on the day in question, I only saw a single butterfly, a white.

Tuesday 12th March

Hooded Crow

In the last few weeks I've taken a bit of a break from my fitness and nature-related activities for various reasons, notably to have a long weekend in the art galleries in Vienna.  On the last day there I was however pleased to spot a couple of hooded crows grazing in the Volksgarten and one got near enough for a snap on the mobile phone.

Here the odd red kite is still hovering around at low altitude and a grey squirrel hopped along the length of my garden fence one day.  I was in the garden myself during the unseasonably warm weather at the end of February but, unlike others did not see an early butterfly.

There was a slightly strange sight yesterday when I came through Medomsley in the car.  Two roe deer stood out on the horizon of a large field of cabbages, immediately causing me to wonder if deer eat cabbages. I suppose they probably do.

Yesterday it was back to normal with a trip to Shibdon Pond with the U3A group.  I got there early to find a large number of gulls and only a few other common species showing, but it just goes to show how useful it can be to be in a group.  Someone pointed out a couple of gadwall that were briefly visible and one hawk-eyed member spotted a group of snipe on an island near to the hide.

Snipe

 They were so well camouflaged, it took a few of us some while to spot them and it was hard work getting a view in the camera. A pair of shovelers and one of shelduck also showed up in due course to add to the mallards, coots and moorhens.

A walk to the Nature Reserve on the far side of the lake proved a little disappointing as we only saw a few teal, some tits and a bullfinch.  This was similar when I visited last autumn, so perhaps summer will be a better time to visit.

I did however see a very large bumblebee in flight (garden or white-tailed) and suspected it might be a queen. It's certainly the right time of year. Flowering early was this blackthorn although those in the know said that the unusually large flowers show that it is an introduced version that could interbreed with the native variety. Very sinister!

Non-native Blackthorn

Bulgaria Day 7

It was fortunate that yesterday ended early.  I had been struggling with hayfever for the last couple of days in the Rhodopes and by the end of yesterday, it had developed into a full blown cold and I found I didn't want to do any more wildlife hunts for a bit.

Thankfully I felt a fair bit better after 12 hours in bed as we set off into the mountains where it was distinctly cool and very misty.  I needed some exercise and decided to walk on ahead of the group in the murky weather.  It proved a good idea to follow my instincts and I really enjoyed the visual conditions, which more resembled the Highlands than the Balkans, albeit with different vegetation.

Mountain Scenery

I found the visual effects in the eerie light conditions interesting and started particularly to notice some of the trees and branches:

During this period, I didn't notice much wildlife at all but I did get one poorish photo of a nutcracker from below, which is however the best I have ever managed:

Nutcracker

The sombre conditions remained all day and it was amazing that we managed another walk in the afternoon without facing a major downpour.  This time it was in a woodland area that again put me in mind of the highlands.  We managed to see a few things, notably marsh tit, a hill cuckoo bumblebee (new one on me), and a sooty copper.  During the last 40 minutes it looked like it was going to brighten up and bring the butterflies out, but it never did.

On arriving at the hotel again I also got a distance shot of a hooded crow for the first time, although they were seen most days.

Hill Cuckoo Bumblebee

Hooded Crow

This day worked for me in a weird way.  Although it was a bit of a nonentity for spottings, the pace relaxed and I felt much better by the end of it. I did try a bit of a stroll in the evening but all I got was a couple of furtive goats:

Thursday 5th May

I'm playing catch up again here.

Not much more happened mid April until I departed for my planned holiday in Naples.  This should have included a couple of nature outings, but inconsistent weather and poor local cycling limited the scope to get outdoors a little.  The main trip I did manage was to the Parco Virgiliano along the Naples peninsular at Posillipo. This is pretty much an urban Sunday stroll but on the 24th, cooler

Stone Pines

temperatures and occasional showers perhaps reduced visitor numbers.

The approach to the park is lined by rows of massive conifers that I was pleased to identify as stone pines, though I had less luck in identifying subsequent local species of tree apart from some almond willows and some lemon trees already in fruit.

During some intermittent spells of sunshine, a couple of wall butterflies and a red admiral showed themselves but, curiously, it wasn't until I was sheltering under a disused ice cream stand that I started to pick out some of the bird species.

A serin parked itself on top of an unpromising bare treetop a few yards away and shortly afterwards, a pair of hooded crows settled briefly in roughly the same area.  Apart from a very dubious possible

Callistemon

sighting at Balcary some time back, this is the first time I've seen them, so it was a pity they couldn't stay to pose for the camera.

I had been seeing some sparrow like birds creeping around in the hedgerows and tree foliage. Whilst again sheltering briefly next to the ladies toilets (!), I found I was seeing them again while looking up into a shrub with spiky red flowers that I believe was a callistemon.

A little bit of book work in my German Book of European Birds revealed that it was in fact an italian (cisalpine) sparrow, an

Italian Sparrow

interesting species or sub-species depending on your point of view.  The opinion of the German Book of European Birds is that it is a cross between a house sparrow and a spanish sparrow (Weidensperling). Little matter - it basically looks like a house sparrow with a totally brown head.

More italian sparrows and serins turned up at different times and I also identified a couple of mail blackcaps. They looked a bit slimmer and more agile than UK blackcaps, but I decided they weren't sardinian warblers (Samtkopf-Grasmücke). These matters get very complicated in mainland Europe!

Two days later I was visiting Pompeii and, although not on nature alert, was pleased to see a swallowtail and a couple more wall butterflies on the wing, as well as a few wall lizards creeping over the remains.  I didn't allow myself to check out the birdlife, as there is more than enough to see at Pompeii in a day.

Altogether a pleasing result for what threatened to be a non-nature holiday.

Spot the wall lizard