This post actually dates from 10th May but didn't get published at the time.
Although the red mason bee has remained the dominant species in the garden and the odd queen bumblebee continues to turn up, some more varied species have started to appear too.
Honey bees have appeared on a couple of occasions and an unidentified hoverfly that potentially looks like a nomad bee but the differences are easy to spot.
Honey Bee
Hoverfly
Today was typical in that three of the four main species of white butterfly all appeared in a short space of time, enabling some of the differences between them to be studied.
Female Orange Tip
Green-veined White
Small White
Most interesting of these is the small white, in that it showed no sign of any grey or black edging around the forewing tip. Male orange tips have started to settle occasionally but aren't hanging around.
Yesterday I had also noticed the first garden bumblebee lying conspicuously in the flower of a californian poppy with its long tongue sticking out and today one could be seen in close-up, albeit with its tongue in.
\Garden Bumblebee
I was also able to make progress with identifying the nomad bee that has been seen frequently over the last few weeks - by trapping one in a recently purchased bug box. Subject to confirmation, I now think it's the Flavous Nomad Bee and not Gooden's as I previously assumed. However it could also be Panzer's Nomad Bee.
Flavous Nomad Bee
The problem previously was that I could never get a good enough view or photo to decipher the red stripe at the top of the abdomen.
Lastly, on a bike ride that wasn't intended for nature spotting, I chanced to see an urban fox with a bird in its mouth near Derwenthaugh Staithes. Then I had to stop at Willington Quay to investigate some loud squawking from a tree I rode under. I suspected a ring-necked parakeet but in spite of the closeness, it wasn't visible. And riding up the coast towards Seaton Sluice, we happened on the first wheatear I've seen this summer.
Not a bad past ten days even if the bird rarities aren't showing up in the numbers they were last year.
A week ago on Monday I decided to finally walk a stretch near Gosforth Golf Course, where I knew ring-necked parakeets had once been seen.
A few hundred metres after the start, an old chap with a crutch stopped to chat and told me that parakeets are often in the trees in the area where we were standing, but weren't there today as he would have heard them squawking.
I can't have gone on fifty yards before I did hear squawking and could make them out in the trees overhead, about four in total I reckoned This was a fair slice of luck as hardly anyone else I encountered muttered even hallo unlike most areas I visit.
For the rest of the walk I didn't see anything much beyond a few goldfinches even though I ventured into a North Tyneside designated ecozone, which was actually a rather unpromising strip of land sandwiched between the North end of Longbenton and an industrial estate.
On the way back I was wondering what else I had hoped to see and came to the conclusion it was redpolls, which turned up in some number at the end of last January.
Anyway, the parakeets were still in situ in the same couple of trees when I ended the walk and seemed to be pretty static, not crashing around all over the place like when I saw them in Brussels.
Ring-necked Parakeet
This was the first time I have seen a parakeet in this country. They are in the region but not in anything like the numbers in the South East.
The day after was a bike ride to Belsay, when I heard skylarks for the first time in a while and spotted a yellowhammer in a hedgerow. There were also a couple of buzzards, a kestrel and a probable sparrowhawk.
I tried a walk round Shibdon Pond at the weekend, an area that always strikes me as attractive but doesn't produce much of interest. Apart from large numbers of barnacle goose, I did manage to spot some shelduck and tufted duck on the pond itself.
Shelduck
Tufted Duck
The other thing I have noticed in the past few days is that a robin has started visiting the peanut feeders, not something that I've ever seen before as far as I can recall. I'm wondering if it's something they've learned from the numerous tits.. The winter has so far been mild so you wouldn't think food was in especially short supply.
Oh dear! New volutary work responsibilities mean I've had a busy fortnight and little time to report on nature events. Not sure if I'll get out anywhere tomorrow so best to catch up now.
Finally I did manage to see some redwings in a field South of Bogrie Moor last Wednesday. Some were actually sitting nicely in a tree right by the roadside but understandably took fright as I approached in my fluorescent yellow cycling jacket. There must have been about 50 in the field but too far away to get a decent photo on my camera.
Spent a lot of the ride to Dalry trying to keep pace with a member of Dumfries Cycling Club, but did get a good few of some hovering kites on the Crocketford Road a bit before Bogle Bridge. Some long-tailed tits were passing through the trees at some point but I really can't remember when. I did see a good few more today though, when picking up some shopping at the local Halford's.
Spot the parakeet Dificulty level = moderate
The week before the Brussels attacks I was there, visiting the European Parliament with Amnesty Scotland This was not a very nature-friendly environment but I did manage to sneak off to the Jubelpark to see if the ring-necked parakeets were still as much in evidence as on my last visit 18 months ago.
As soon as I entered the park a familiar screeching sound proved my odds-on suspicion to be correct and they were all over the place, though much more easily heard than seen as I discovered when trying to get this picture (left).
There has been at least one sighting of a ring-necked parakeet in Dumfries and Galloway, with some discussion as to whether they are a welcome arrival or not. Personally I like them.
Previously I think I may have referred to them erroneously as green parakeet.
