A Good Year For Butterflies...

As far as I'm concerned, it's definitely a good year for butterflies.

I've had my eye on the developing nature reserve at Chopwell East Field.  Over the winter I noticed it was being grazed by highland cattle and wondered what the results would be this summer.  I eventually revisited last Tuesday to find another abundant supply of butterflies.

In the more Southern area the initial accent was actually on moths as around seven five-spot (I think) burnet moths were found nectaring on knapweed, with a similar number of shaded broad bars showing up as well.

Five-spot Burnet

Shaded Broadbar

Again the dominant species in terms of numbers were meadow brown (some already very worn) and small skipper but also seen were large white, green-veined white, comma. small copper, and small tortoiseshell.

Comma	Green-veined White
Meadow Brown (worn)	Small Copper
Small Skipper	Small Tortoiseshell

I took a little detour into a promising field the other path and noted similar activity.  But on the way back I stopped to photo what I suspected to be a white-tailed bumblebee when it was chased off by another small butterfly that turned out to be a white letter hairstreak.

White-tailed Bumblebee

White Letter Hairstreak

This was a considerable surprise as I have never heard of a white letter hairstreak being reported there and I do not believe there are any elm trees.  It is however clear that there have been more of them about this year.

To trump it all  I achieved a longstanding ambition the day after when i managed to get a couple of distant snaps of purple hairstreaks in the oaks by one of the viaducts at Hamsterley Mill.  Unfortunately they weren't in great condition.

Purple Hairstreak

Meanwhile the first butterfly has been sighted on the buddleia in the front garden.  It was a red admiral.

Call me a Liar would you?

It's often interesting how nature can make a fool out of you.

I'd hardly finished writing the last post complaining about the lack of butterflies in the garden when they gradually started turning up, first of all a few whites and then one by one the common members of the maligned Nymphalidae family.

Meanwhile I managed a couple of expeditions to catch up on other species.  First was a bike ride to the dunes at Cambois in search of grayling where I did manage to catch up with one rather battered individual almost as soon as I arrived.

Grayling

That however was it - any number of meadow brown, small skipper, burnet moths and after a bit of foraging, a couple of small whites and small tortoiseshells.  I rather thought I'd done better on my last visit, but on checking this was hardly the case.

Right at the end of July, I tried the Hamsterley viaducts for purple hairstreaks and over a two hour period saw eight - a rather sparse result and as ever they were flattering around the oaks and impossible to photograph.

A mission to Bywell Bridge the day after proved abortive as there was no sign of the white-letter hairstreak and to my surprise the elms were already beginning to turn brown.

Then on the 31st - a really hot day - the first small tortoiseshell appeared in the back garden and, perhaps even more exciting, a brimstone moth slept over in the large bedroom.

Brimstone Moth

A couple of days ago was when the Nymphalidae began to appear, as well as both large and small whites.

Small White	Large White
Small Tortoiseshell	Red Admiral
Peacock	Comma

I'm starting to see an awful lot of peacocks when the sun shines, perhaps not unconnected to the fact that a woman down the road in Rowlands Gill has been breeding them. 

Two I haven't seen to date are humming bird hawk moth and holly blue.  I'd like to think things have changed for the better but the weather remains patchy and unreliable.

An extra frisson of excitement was nearly provided what seemed to be an obscure ladybird on my car door handle.  In fact it was a variation of the invasive harlequin ladybird, which apparently can take a variety of different patterns and colours.  It was completely different to the one I once found in the summer house.

Harlequin Ladybird

So that's what I also thought it was this morning when a black ladybird with two red spots turned up while I was trimming the laurel hedge.  Unless of course it was a kidney-spot ladybird...  That was one photo I should have taken but didn't!

Sunday 2nd August

I got out fishing on Killingworth Lake on Wednesday.  I enjoyed the experience of fishing a waggler for the first time in many years, though incompetence through lack of practice meant success was limited.  I managed to land three roach in the course of the afternoon when I should probably have had at least double that.  Several fish were missed or lost on the way to the net.  Barbless hooks seem to make it easy for smaller fish and the size I started with was probably also too small.

Unfortunately the lake is shallow where fishing is allowed and after teatime the swim was heavily invaded by swans happily eating up all the bait and I gave up earlier than planned.

The Catch

I got talking to a lad who was there for the night carp fishing and told me he had once caught a terrapin there.  There is photographic evidence to prove his claim is believable.

Terrapin

The weather forecast was that summer was due to take place on Friday so after slogging around the tennis court in 28 degree heat, I decided to have another run to Hamsterley Mill to see if I could get a better view of the purple hairstreaks.

Typically the weather had turned back to murk by the evening but the warmth was still there and there was a good deal of activity in the 'hotspot' at the second bridge.  This time there were about twenty sightings as they whirled around like mad things.  One settled momentarily on an ash right next to the bridge but did not open its wings and moved on pronto.

I don't think I used it at the time but this video I took last year shows what it's like trying to spot them in flight:

i checked out another spot and saw one more, by which time it started to rain. Once again I came ohome early.

There was a bit of rain again and precious little sun yesterday when I rode to check the meadows at Elswick and Derwenthaugh for commom blues and burnet moths.  No success, but equally interesting to note that bird's foot trefoil has disappeared at Elswick when there was plenty of it last year.  At Derwenthaugh there was none where it was last year but plenty of it further up the field.  I'm a bit puzzled as to why that should be.

It's still slim pickings on the garden buddleia.  A couple of small tortoiseshells have shown up, as did a rather ragged little comma.

Comma

As well as an increasingly bold grey squirrel, the woodpeckers continue to feast on the peanut feeder, in the most recent case a juvenile, judging by its extensive red pate.

Woodpecker

Tuesday 28th July

Finally a bit more success in the hairstreak hunt in spite of still indifferent weather.

I managed four brief sightings in different wych elms around Bywell Bridge.  One struck me as being too dark but the other three answered the broad description and probably were white-letter hairstreaks.  The only trouble was I couldn't prove it as none of them settled and so could theoretically have been something else.

It was a similar story later in the week when I took advantage of a couple of partially summer evenings to look for purple hairstreaks in the tops of the oaks from the old railway bridges just past Hamsterley Mill.  Although not around in the same numbers as my first visit last year, I was able to identify around 10 suspects flying around different trees, discounting a couple of others as moths.  The greyish hue in flight makes me fairly certain on identification and in one case there was a momentary flash of light blue that I regard as conclusive but again none settled anywhere visited.

Spotting these species isn't an easy task.  My conclusion based on this year's attempts is that the purple hairstreak is the easier option.  My last visit to Bywell on Sunday produced nothing at all but one compensation was spotting this rather dozy looking young tawny owl on a brief woodland walk.

Tawny Owl

Similarly the trips to Hamsterley revealed a jay and some rising trout viewed from above and, on the windier day, about a dozen red kites cruising around.

A week or so after they first bloomed, the buddlieae attracted their first butterfly, a green-veined white.  Since then three small tortoiseshells have followed suit, but this one needed to warm up on the path first.

Small Tortoiseshell

Woodpeckers have been visiting daily - a female and a juvenile - and a song thrush has been around a couple of times looking for worms.  But by far the commonest small bird is the blue tit, which has clearly had an excellent breeding season.

Wednesday 21st August

A bitty couple of weeks from a nature point of view - nothing major to report, but odd bits of interesting sightings.

Holly Blue

 Peacocks are now easy to find while there are less red admirals. Why is it you tend to see one more than the other? Travelling around there are still plenty of painted ladies to be seen, including in the garden.

The most pleasing thing at home has been a couple of brief appearances of the holly blue.  I've often wondered if the large amount of  ivy on the trees roundabout might attract them. While they weren't hanging around, the one that settled briefly could be seen to have the right underwing pattern, which just about shows up on enlarging the rather unhelpful pose I managed to capture.

The garden has also had occasional visits from a male woodpecker and one from long-tailed tits. For the first time this year that I know of, brown rat showed up and conducted an extensive search of the ground below the bird table and nearby.

There was also another example of the young magpies' favourite game, whereby one picks up an object such as a stone chip or a twig and the other one or ones chase it around for a while.

Last Monday was the only serious outing when I lead the Naturewatch group walk along the Derwent Walk towards Hamsterley, partly in the hope of more purple hairstreaks. As I suspected it would have been better to try a week or so earlier, especially as the temperature was low and the sun only briefly apparent.

Surprisingly, we did catch a glimpse of one strong suspect briefly circling the crown of the very first oak tree we saw from the viaduct at Rowland's Gill, but that was all.  Later we did get good sightings of a couple of red kites, a pensive roe dear and there was a small-leaved lime that looked quite spectacular in its decor of yellow catkins.  Really we were happy enough to have an evening out after some dire, stormy weather over the weekend.

Red Kite
(Photo by Kathy Clegg)

Thursday 25th July

On Tuesday I decided to do my bit for the Big Butterfly Count and set off along the Tyne looking for
promising spots. I eventually decided on an area by the main way up to the Spetchells where there was a good stand of thistles and other flowers and managed a total of 13 small tortoiseshells, 9 small whites, 4 meadow browns, 2 ringlet and 2 small skipper.  I couldn't be sure about all the whites as they weren't settling much but it confirms that it must be a good year for small tortoiseshells.  I haven't seen as many for a very long time indeed.

Small Tortoiseshell

I cycled on to Bywell Bridge where occasional white letter hairstreaks have been reported, but by the time I had done a bit of research on what vegetation to look for, the sun had started to disappear.  In retrospect I should maybe have checked out one or two items that floated across the road more carefully rather than assume they weren't significant.

At other spots on my little tour a couple of red admirals and speckled wood turned up.  The speckled woods don't seem to be coming in the same numbers as last year and I still haven't seen a peacock since Spring.

On Wednesday evening the temptation to confirm the purple hairstreak sightings of last week took hold and I ended up scouring the viaducts at Hamsterley once again, eventually having a slice of fortune. I had no sooner got off the bike when the first suspect appeared but overall appearances in the oak crowns were not as frequent as last Thursday.  So I moved around more, looking for other likely oak clusters and spending a bit of time on each.

Eventually I got back to the Eastern viaduct, where I peered down on what I thought was an oak tree.  it wasn't, it was a sycamore. At the very moment I was about to move on, a butterfly landed on one of the lower leaves.  Luckily the binoculars focussed on it straight away and I was clearly able to identify a male purple hairstreak.

I have read that they can frequent sycamores and the next tree along was an oak.  As I scoured it for further action, a comma butterfly flew over the bridge a few times and landed on a nearby rowan.

There were also several good sightings of red kites gliding around the area.

Monday 22nd July

I decided to make a definite assault on the purple hairstreak nearer to home, starting off with a wander along The Avenue at Gibside.  There are certainly a prestigious number of oak trees there, but they are so old and large it would be very difficult to make out any butterflies so far overhead. There were about three red admiral flying long distance, a few ringlet and several meadow brown.

On spec I passed through the walled garden where I noticed a strange looking bumble bee I couldn't get a decent photo of, followed by three small skipper and a single small tortoiseshell. The bee just didn't strike me as atypical garden bumblebee but buff-tailed bumblebee doesn't seem quite right either.  I wondered if it had a growth just behind its head.

Pausing for a rest, there was a very dark looking wagtail running around under the chairs outside.

Bumblebee

Wagtail

Then I moved on to the viaducts past Hamsterley and spent all my time observing a good cluster of oak crowns visible from the far end of the second one, observed by a cruising red kite.  The reason for the long stay was that there were clearly small butterflies of greyish appearance darting in and out of the treetops, but it was very hard to get a positive sighting of any of them.  This time I was sure they weren't speckled woods, which would have been more leisurely at times.  There was the occasional flash of violet blue so my belief is that they were purple hairstreaks though they were never still enough to identify the actual wing pattern positively.

I tried making a brief video of them but it didn't produce any conclusive evidence either.  There must have been at least ten of them, even allowing for double sightings.

Purple Hairstreaks

Friday 24th August

The last week  has been dominated by social events but what I have seen was interesting.

Last week I ended up cycling back from Gateshead along the Tanfield Railway path and took a rather ill-advised shortcut.  This took me along a rough bridle path through farmers' fields but I did get a quick view of a couple of bright male linnets on the hedgerow.

The same day I followed some recent advice and took a look at the viaducts on the cycle track near Rowlands Gill to check them out as possible places to see purple hairstreaks.  The idea is that the height gives a good view into the crowns of some oak trees and two of the three do indeed have oak trees growing right next to them.

The weather was already rather mixed and I did not see any hairstreaks.  A bit like in May with the green hairstreaks, I got the vital information just a bit too late and will need to store it until next year.  What I did see however, somewhat to my surprise, was the back end of a red deer disappearing into the bushes, no more than a mile or so a way from the town.

There has been a drop in temperature over the last couple of days and it has coincided with the sudden reappearance of long-tailed tits on the garden feeders - as many as four or five at the time.  I hadn't seen them all summer so it was a bit of a surprise.  However it does sort of coincide with my memory that you tend to see them more in colder weather.

Long-tailed tits and blue tits

I think some of them look like young birds.