Staying Local

On Sunday I had planned to cycle out to Parkhead on the Waskerley Way.  I was thinking that I hadn't seen a small copper since returning from Avignon and that seems to be a good area to look for them.  However the plan had to be abandoned as the Derwent Walk cycle track 14 is still closed. I could have sworn I'd seen a sign saying that it would only be closed until early July.

So another plan was called for and I decided to head in the opposite direction, effectively limiting my scope to revisiting a couple of gardens near the Tyne.

Comma

Cutting across to Blaydon, I hit the Keelman's Way westwards and quickly spotted a holly blue in the area of Blaydon Station. As it's a known site for small copper, I took a quick look around Ryton Meadows but, as elsewhere, the vegetation was so dry that the chances were minimal. In spite of one fleeting sighting of something brown, I doubled back and crossed Newburn Bridge to the local Community Garden.

Here the buddleia was producing the usual suspects - several painted ladies, red admiral, peacock and a good few comma.

As in my garden the other day however, the notable absentee was the small tortoiseshell.

People worry about the small tortoiseshell and for a while its decline was a bit of a mystery, but now ascribed to climate change, altered hibernation patterns and parasitic flies.

Moving on I took another look at the Calaminarian Grassland at Wylam to check - rather late in the year, or so I thought - the story that there might be harebells attracting the gold-tailed melitta.  In fact there were a good few harebells, if somewhat sparsely distributed, though I could not find any sort of bee activity on them.  One very small item was dismissed as a possible wasp.

Having expectedly also failed to find anything in the small Wylam Nature Reserve (more trees than flowers) I went up the hill to Bradley Gardens as the most likely of all to produce something interesting.

It wasn't long before, among the usual red admiral, peacock and plentiful painted ladies, I encountered another holly blue. 

Holly Blue

It wasn't long either before a few more turned up and by the end of the day I reckoned I saw about five including a late visitor in my own garden.  In fact a couple that flew past overhead looked very blue and I did wonder about common blue, however unlikely in a formal garden.

More of a surprise was the definite sighting of a couple of small copper, thereby achieving the original purpose of going out in the first place:

Small Copper

Neither would I have bet any money on a meadow brown turning up there. Mayne it's another statement about the arid nature of the grassland.

Meadow Brown

As ever the painted ladies were frequently posing on the ground.  The only other butterfly I caught on film was a rather battered green-veined white.

Painted Lady

Green-veined White

There were a few hoverflies around at both the gardens which i basically chose to ignore apart from one. Apparently it is a common tachinid.

Common Tachinid

Today I had a slightly strange sighting in the garden - a nuthatch scurrying over the path and stones picking up bits of food.  I didn't know they did that.  I have also positively identified a couple of small whites on the buddleia.  I wonder if I've been overlooking them?

Better Luck at Cambois

 First of all though I've been forgetting to take photos of what has been a very frequent visitor to the garden - the early bumblebee.  I've always thought I'd do it 'sooner or later' but finally did a week ago. 

Early Bumblebee

Numbers have definitely been up this year.  I'm not sure what plant it's on, possibly marjoram, but it's attracted a few others as well, including honey bee.

Another landmark this year has been the appearance of the first butterfly on the potted buddleia in the front garden - as ever a small tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshell

It nearly didn't happen though as the first flowers were already dying off in the hot, dry conditions by the time it arrived.

Meanwhile my main trip was a revisit to Cambois Beach last Tuesday, hoping to have better luck than a couple of weeks ago.  Conditions were distinctly unpromising though, as there was no sun and temperatures were down to 18C in a Northerly breeze.

Of course there were nevertheless a good number of meadow brown, notably some females settling flirtily on the paths:

Female Meadow Brown

Following the undergrowth close to the railway track, I did get lucky when a grayling flew in and landed directly in front of me.  It was even more lucky that I accidently snapped it with wings open as it flew off.

Grayling

Grayling in flight

One further sighting some moments later may or may not have been the same one.

Otherwise there were repeat sightings of a few small skippers and burnet moths, plus some other moths that my tentative identification skills suggest were common but nevertheless nice to see:

Yellow Shell

Shaded Broad Bar

Silver Y

Yesterday I made a quick visit to Chopwell East Field to see how the nature reserve is progressing.  Frankly it was a bit of a shock to see how little vegetation had survived the conditions, and notably there was very little sign of bird's foot trefoil or field vetch making progress.

So it was a similar pattern of some meadow brown, burnet moths and occasional small skipper.  Several of the bees seen were very faded, in one case unrecognisably so.  However one did catch my eye as I think this may be a white-tailed bumblebee.

White-tailed Bumblebee?

Also in good condition was the red-tailed bumblebee, offering a slightly better view of itself than is sometime the case.

Red-tailed Bumblebee

Some Hits and Some Misses - Part 1

Not for the first time, I've fallen rather behind with my nature record keeping. It's difficult keeping up with lots happening and the various distractions of the  World Cup, Wimbledon and the Tour de France.

Where to start?

Well I did do a couple of Large Heath surveys at Muckle Moss near Hadrian's Wall but the first on a windy day produced none and the second in slightly better conditions last Thursday only one definite and one suspected sighting. On the first occasion there was at least a possible sighting of the Manchester Treble Bar moth and there was a plump specimen of the oak eggar moth.

Oak Eggar Moth

It seems the season for Large Heath in the Hadrian's Wall area is pretty much over.  On the way back from the second trip, I made a bit of a detour to Bywell to see if I could find the white-letter hairstreak, only to discover that the tree where I saw it before was completely dead - presumably a victim of Dutch Elm Disease.

There was a similar disappointment a couple of days earlier when I took a bike ride to the Big Waters Reserve to see if the farmland nearby where the clouded yellow turned up was still under set-aside. It wasn't. At least on a fairly brief stay I managed to see two small skipper, a few dragonflies, a red admiral and two small tortoiseshell.

At the weekend I travelled West to link up with V&A and baby.  On the Saturday afternoon we went to Broughtonknowe Wood near Biggar, an impressive and large area of grassland.  I was quickly pleased to note a number of ringlet around. In fact there must have been over a hundred of them, considerably outnumbering meadow brown and all others.  The whites all proved to be green-veined white, a change from the mainly large whites I've been seeing at home.

Ringlet

Green-veined White

There were a couple of small skipper and a large number of burnet moths but bees were largely overshadowed by drone flies. Apart from a couple of azure damselflies, dragonflies weren't settling.

Azure Damselfly	Blotch-winged Hoverfly
Orange-spined Drone Fly	Furry Dronefly

In the evening we took a walk along the old railway line near Leadhills.  The objective here was a pair of hen harriers with chicks that had been observed by V&A as recently as last Thursday.

As it happened they weren't to be seen and we speculated that they may have left the area - perhaps wisely as this is a known shooting area.

So the main birds we saw perched on posts were a very distant buzzard and a juvenile wheatear.

Buzzard

Wheatear

Oh, and I did catch a view of a grey heron enjoying a scratch.

Heron

Missed Targets

I've been dotting about a bit over the past few days, and so have a lot of the butterflies.

One thing I haven't done justice to is the number of times an early bumblebee has turned up in the garden.  They really have been quite frequent but I've tended to see them in the passing while doing other things.

Harebells

After returning from Avignon I took a run to Wylam to check the calaminarian grassland area for harebells as there is apparently a bee that can be seen on them.  Unfortunately there are two bees that are colloquially knows as 'harebell bee' and I couldn't remember which one it was supposed to be!

In any case there weren't too many harebells and they weren't fully out yet, so no bees. 

What there was a lot of was ringlets, the first I have seen this year. But they were absolutely refusing to settle anywhere and so I couldn't get a picture. Doubtless there will be more.  

There wasn't any sign of the blood bees/suspected red-girdled mining bees from the last time I was there, just a few mini miners investigating the remaining holes on one part of the path.

Then there was a trip to Nottingham to see the test match, so not about nature. However as I was getting ready to go there was a lone harlequin ladybird in the house and the place we stayed in offered an orange underwing moth in the kitchen.

Harlequin Ladybird

Orange Underwing

Having noted that grayling butterfly sightings have started on Teesside, I decided to take an early trip to Cambois yesterday, having missed seeing them there last year.

The weather conditions were not at all favourable - a strong wind and cloudy outlook - and there were no initial signs of any butterflies, just a couple of red-tailed bumblebees. What caught my attention more was the array of wild flowers in bloom, really quite a display.  A couple I particularly noted were common restharrow (lots of) and lady's bedstraw.

Common Restharrow

Lady's Bedstraw

The grayling didn't turn up but skirting around perimeter areas I did come across 17 meadow brown, three small skipper (one very challenged by the wind) and across the road near the school, six six-spot burnet moths, one species I certainly was not expecting.

So no great triumphs but a pleasant day out.

On the Bike in Avignon - Day by Day (Part 1)

Day 1

Not far East of the Avignon suburb Les Angles, there was a nice South facing bank where I spent a bit of time.  It was quickly possible to see marbled white and a number of suspected fritillaries and brown butterflies, which turned out to be meadow browns. (I had hoped for gatekeeper!)  Very conspicuous also was the violet carpenter bee, as was the case throughout the whole trip.  I hadn't realised how big their wingspan is in flight. Nearby I noticed a parked lorry whose driver seemed to give me an ironic glance as I cycled past..

Not far down the road the first white admiral appeared, as did a single, slightly dilapidated holly blue, the only time I saw one on the whole trip. 

Violet Carpenter Bee

Holly Blue

In roughly the same area the first painted lady occurred as did the almost inevitable speckled wood, the South European version obviously.

Painted Lady

Speckled Wood

More excitingly the first for me new insect was this scarce chaser, a fine looking thing:

Scarce Chaser

It does occur in the UK but rarely according to AI:- "Threatened, it primarily inhabits slow-flowing river flood plains and marshes in southern and eastern England."  However the cycle track to Aramon was as dry as a bone.

After a break in Aramon I investigated a hilly area near Théziers where there a lot of white admirals and my fist sighting of a male cleopatra while I sat eating cherries bought in Aramon market.  Here, remembering my one off experience near Bordeaux last year, I started to wonder if some the really large butterflies I could see down the hillside were in fact hungarian gliders.  In retrospect however the flight

Spotted Fritillary

pattern and wing shape were wrong, though the upper wing position could easily lead to mistaking the vertical wing stripe of the admiral for the horizontal stripe of the glider. I hope that makes sense?

On the way hope I took a rest on a lone bench near Avignon and was eventually able to identify a spotted fritillary, which was particularly interested in the orange reflectors on my bike.  It must have been feeling amorous.

I was keeping an eye open for the South facing bank near Les Angles again but all of the vegetation had been cut back and I remembered the lorry driver from earlier.

Day 2

This was the day that I planned to tour all the gardens I could find in  Avignon, partly because this proved a successful approach when I visited Bordeaux last year and partly because I was looking to find at least some shelter from very strong winds gusting up to 40 mph.

Unfortunately none of the Avignon parks I visited had much to offer the naturalist although the Jardin des Doms is a big project with potential (and was the most windswept) and I elected not to join the hordes of tourists visiting the Palais des Papes.

What I did find however was a very nice piece of flower meadow sitting for no apparent reason next to a car park near the Chemin des Canaux cycle track.  Here there were a lot of small coppers for whom the mating season had clearly begun, making it easy to spot the difference between the males and females.

Male Small Copper

Female Small Copper

I don't think I've ever noticed this gender difference before.  The male is well darker.

Common blues were also mating and less easy to catch up with as constantly on the move and a few large skipper were also sighted.

However, the one that got me really going was a scarce swallowtail, drifting repeatedly around the sight.  I have seen them before but seldom and did not know that they were to turn up again over the coming days.

Scarce Swallowtail (underwing)

A couple of interesting bees turned up too, and I think the one on the right might just be a white-tailed bumblebee

Furrow Bee

White-tailed Bumblebee?

I can't identify the furrow bee more closely.

Win some, lose some

A minor furore of activity last Sunday, hoping to beat the declining weather.

I finally got to take a good look around the Cambois area for the grayling - but didn't see one!  The nearest I got was mistaking a meadow brown with a broader than usual white underwing patch as a possible.

Meadow Brown

This was disappointing as my two previous attempts were successful and so I found myself pondering the reasons.

In my head the best time for the grayling at Cambois is mid-July but I held off until August because the Butterfly Conservation website says that is when they are most on the wing.  But I noticed that most of the vegetation was dead and even meadow browns were scarce in comparison to my first visit, and there are news stories about Autumn arriving early because of the dry conditions...

Anyway there were a couple of minor consolations.  I visited a sunny overgrown bridge just past the plant hire company and found the first female common blue I have seen summer - which was also by far the tiniest one I've ever seen - as well as my first wall brown of the year.

Tiny Common Blue

Wall Brown

Afterwards I headed for the hills - the Havannah Three Hills Reserve near Hazlerigg to be precise. I wouldn't have done, having roundly criticised the deterioration of the area when I went last year.  However, there have been reports of a late dingy skipper and a silver-washed fritillary, which is almost non-existent this far North.

I started scouring the supposed butterfly hot spot, which has now been more or less completely overgrown by heather. Apart from a few whites and a red-tailed bumblebee, I did find one butterfly, a small heath.

Small Heath

However a more fortunate encounter was with another naturalist who reported seeing the dingy skipper, being chased around by male common blues in an area the other side of the rough path to the lake.

Obviously I took a look and did indeed come across said common blues (about 6 overall) and eventually the dingy skipper.  Seek and thou shalt find!

Common Blue

Dingy Skipper

The skipper struck me as being slightly small and rather more brown than ones I've seen before. But bearing the repeated trouble I had trying to see one earlier in the summer in mind, I was well satisfied.

Not knowing its exact location, I didn't realistically expect to see the fritillary, which was probably a bit of a one off.  However there was a nice surprise when I foraged around a bit on my way back to the main track:

Painted Lady

While there hasn't been a major irruption, there have been a few painted ladies around this summer and I still have hope that one may climb the 500' up to the buddleia in my garden.

Talking of which, butterfly sightings of previously mentioned species have continued in increased numbers.  Red admiral is still the most frequent and there has been one addition I was half expecting:

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

The tits continue to go nuts for the sunflower hearts I've been putting out and male and female bullfinches and nuthatches regularly visit the feeder as pairs.

Nuthatch

Lastly, I don't know what it is about the tailgate of my new car but pollinators seem to like it.  The latest visitor was a queen...

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

It was obviously struggling, caught out by the disappearance of the sun on a cool day.  So I performed the old trick of bringing it in the house to warm up for forty minutes, after which it happily flew off.