Monday 11th June

Female nuthatch

Of course the day after I complained about the jackdaws yobbish behaviour putting off other birds, a nuthatch turned up on the peanut feeder for the first time, a female.  It hasn't stopped me cutting down on the bird food over the past couple of days, though partly because I've been out most of the time.

I did a bike ride along cycle track 10 to Stamfordham and enjoyed the flatter landscape in the area.  There were some flowers just past Seaton Burn that I at first thought were orchids and haven't managed to identify, again lots of skylarks singing and most pleasingly a male redstart that appeared in some oaks just west of Stamfordham. Plus some sort of maple I wasn't totally sure about.

I held off reporting this as I knew that the Prudhoe U3A Nature Watch trip to Hawthorn Dene near Easington was coming off today, a venue that is known to be rich in wildlife because of the magnesian limestone geology (dolomite).

This inevitably lead to a profundity of less common flowers being seen and frankly I really did find it more or less impossible to keep up with the sightings.  We certainly saw some bee orchids and some mouse-ear hawkweed but eventually all the new names just swamped me. I stuck to what I know more - butterflies and birds.

And there was indeed a fair bit to occupy the attention in those areas.  Having not yet seen a blue this year, it was pleasing to see at least twenty common blues at different times and get a decent picture.  I saw my first small heath of the year and managed to get a picture of a dingy skipper (though it was very dingy) as well as a chimney sweeper moth.  I don't think I've seen as much flower meadow in one place for a long time.

Common blue

Chimney sweeper

Dingy dingy skipper

Ogling female kestrel

We did actually manage to get a glimpse of a skylark and an excellent view of a female kestrel, which some people thought was eyeing us up so it could move in to hunt in the same area once we passed on.  I was particularly pleased to see a whitethroat passing through.  There were also sand martins, a few swallows and pipits, a fulmar and a reed bunting.

The general consensus was the area will produce even more sightings in a couple of weeks in view of the delayed summer.

Maybe I will return.

Holiday am Bodensee (concluded)

The ride from Konstanz to Friedrichshafen was quite productive.  There was some nice maple trees near the Insel Mainau (which I didn't visit this time) and an assortment of squirrels, some very red and one in particular with an acorn between its paws. The bird selection was about the same but there was another mystifying pipit type bird I couldn't identify on the way to Wallhausen.  The mystery pipit phenomenon happened at least three times during the week and on each occasion the culprit escaped promptly, suspending any attempts at identification.

After a serene crossing to Uberlingen, I was immediately impressed by the place and in particular by the town gardens, where the bright flowers and the cacti really caught my eye - and I'm not generally the sort of person to go overboard about formal gardens.

The cacti at Uberlingen

At the Pfahlbauten Museum at Unteruhldingen there was a large shoal of small perch, clearly visible in the clear water, plus a couple of cruising carp and a grebe you could watch diving to the bottom to pick up weed.

The last day of the holiday was in one way the best in that it was the only day I actually made a couple of totally new sightings.  

The first was going through the Eriskircher Ried, which seemed to have much more going on than the other wetlands I visited and seems to be a hot spot for orioles.  I noticed a lot of squawking coming from some deciduous trees and after some difficulty got a brief but definite view of a woodpecker that looked 'different'.  I'm pretty sure it was a grey woodpecker and my suspicion was substantiated by an old chap I bumped into who confirmed they are in the area.  

I also got a view of one of the many hyperactive nuthatches and concluded they are slightly more slimly built that the UK variety and have a thinner headstripe, or so I thought.  There was also a good view through the binoculars of a jay carrying an acorn it its beak.  At first sight I thought it might have been a bird of prey but these remained few and far between barring the odd red kite... except for one buzzard I briefly observed overhead.

Mediterranean Gulls

Then right at the end of day I stopped at Lochau on the way back to Bregenz, finding a seat at a pleasant looking estuary.  There were a few birds about but notably some small gulls that flew up the estuary to pick bits of weed from the surface of the stream.  I don't normally have much regard for gulls but these seemed more dove-like apart from some minor bits of squabbling.  I was able to identify them as mediterranean gulls.  In German they are known as Lachmowe which, interestingly, gets translated on internet dictionaries as black-headed gull.  It's only by crosschecking the latin names that you can clearly see that this is an error.

But in a way the star bird performance happened slightly earlier when I was resting at Lindau and a cheeky sparrow took a fancy to my plum tart.  I enticed it onto the table but couldn't persuade it to eat from my hand.

Cheeky sparrow

It was a nice note for the last day of a holiday.

After my arrival home I was pleased to note that a red admiral landed on the last remaining sprig of buddleia on 21st September, the latest I have yet achieved.

Monday 7th August

Red admirals are now appearing regularly in the garden as the buddleia blooms though I think the maximum I've seen at any one time is three.  Last week there was also a nowadays rare appearance from a small tortoiseshell.  Then the same day I found one squashed on the patio step so I just hope it wasn't the same one and that I didn't accidentally stand on it when I took the rubbish out.

Today was also the first appearance of a peacock since early spring.  One thing I haven't noticed for a few days is any swifts chasing each other around the houses.  Surely they can't already have departed for Africa?

Last Friday I took a bike trip to the Birkshaw Forest from Lochmaben, hoping to see a few butterflies during an afternoon that was forecast to be sunny.  Birkshaw is one location where the Essex Skipper can be seen, though I would have settled for a bit of variety including a few blues.

In fact the sun disappeared totally and all I saw was a few peacocks trying to warm themselves up on the stones in an otherwise promising-looking flower meadow.  One of them was particularly large and the markings around the rings seemed to me to be more pronounced than usual.

Peacock on the rock

It was certainly in splendid condition.

Also of some interest was this fly the likes I've never seen before and a a fine maple I noticed on the end of a line of conifers.

Mystery fly

Surprise maple

P.s. A small white just turned up on the lavender.

Wednesday 21st September

A first tentative bike ride to Beeswing, but cutting the normal route by takeing the road to the east of Lochrutton Loch. On top of the hill saw half a dozen linnets playing in the hedgerows, but they wouldn't let me get very close.

On the way back to wards New Abbey, looked for the "red tree" I have noticed before more or less adjacent to the Waterloo Monument. It looks to be some sort of maple.  Eventually all the leaves will go red. Today it looked at first as if it was in blossom, but it's definitely the leaves turning.

The red tree