The Dry Season

After my brief outing to Chopwell East Field, I decided to see if things were any better at the brownfield site I visited early in the year and saw dingy skipper.  If anything they were worse and all I could muster in 45 minutes was a single green-veined white, one shaded broad bar moth and a tatty looking female common blue:

Common Blue

Otherwise the bird's foot trefoil had all but vanished and grasshoppers and mini moths patrolled the large expanses of sunburnt vegetation.

I don't know why I have been catching up with so many amorous butterflies lately but a quick exploration of the surrounds at a nearby car park revealed a couple of large whites getting in the mood.

Large Whites

Taking a policy decision it might be better to visit formal gardens (which get watered by human-beings) I set off yesterday to Seaton Delaval Hall gardens.

Conditions weren't great with a strong wind and very brief glimpses of sunshine.  The main formal garden seemed to have more emphasis on symmetry and exotic appearance than on encouraging nature and bees were the main visitors.

I was however quite pleased to find another white-tailed bumblebee on the lavender and also turned up what may be a member of the globetail hoverfly group. 

White-tailed Bumblebee

Globetail Hoverfly?

I haven't yet seen a specific suggestion for the hoverfly that accounts for the yellow face.

When the sun flourished briefly, the few whites were joined by the occasional red admiral and one peacock appeared.

Red Admiral

Peacock

The buddleia is now out in the back garden and has today been visited by large and small white as well as peacock. red admiral and some fresh-looking commas, flying strongly.

Comma

Today a couple of holly blues flew over and one caused a slight surprise when it landed briefly on the buddleia.  Not knowing they did that, I momentarily mistook it for an undersized small white!

I've been bemoaning the lack of bees, partly the result of a clearout of dying and over-invasive plants.  However a new pink plant has appeared without my intervention and has proved popular with honey bees and early bumblebees.

Honey Bee

I checked the plant out and it appeared to be marjoram, which was duly confirmed by sampling one of the leaves.

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.

Long Live The Small Tortoiseshell!

My recent sighting of the twenty plumed moth drew a bit of interest on social media, one commentator noting that he's only ever seen one before and not in the North East while another contradicted that there are many records of it in Northumberland.  Well, I'd certainly never seen one before.

During the recent partial heatwave, I've been taking the opportunity to check out some of the local gardens. An interesting find two weeks ago was Birkheads Secret Gardens near Sunniside.

There wasn't much sun on arrival, but I was assured the butterfly garden would have some sightings on offer. I wasn't so sure and thought I'd check out a couple of hoverflies and bees en route.

Common Drone Fly

White-tailed Bumblebee

For the Latin speakers the drone fly is Eristalis tenax according to a local expert.  I'm pretty sure about the white-tailed bumblebee.

For the other hoverfly spotted we're stuck with generalisations.  Apparently it belongs to the Syrphini tribe, otherwise known as common flower flies.

Common Flower Fly

Anyway on reaching the butterfly section, there were indeed a good number to be seen, and I found I was taking the sort of shots I had been hoping to get in my garden:

Red Admiral with Peacocks

Peacocks warming themselves

One noted absentee was small tortoiseshell.  As it hadn't been turning up at home either, I have been reflecting that it used to be far more common and seems to be in decline compared to other members of the Nymphalidae family.  The reasons for its demise are not fully clear but there may be some incidence of parasites and habitat loss.

Of more interest on the day was to learn from the lady in the wee shop that the County Recorder for Durham had spotted a brimstone in the Gardens, considerably further north than its known habitats.  It's not much on the wing just now but another visit later in the year seems obligatory.  

I was also struck by the number of flower meadows on the farm nearby.

Anyway six days later I was at Talkin Tarn for a catch-up with V&A.  We did a little walk but in more sombre weather only two butterflies were spotted, a small white and - you've guessed it - a small tortoiseshell!

Small Tortoiseshell

Another bit of useful learning was to find numerous clumps of devil's bit scabious and we wondered if the marsh fritillaries present elsewhere in Cumbria have discovered its existence.  It's their food plant.

Devil's Bit Scabious

Last Sunday, I was back on the garden trail, initially visiting Whickham Hermitage Garden at Newburn which wasn't too impressive. Flanked by high trees on the South side, it was hard to see that it would get a lot of sunshine.

Although smaller, the Tyne Country Park Sensory Garden at Newburn was more productive, producing all three main whites, the main members of Nymphalidae including comma - and of course a couple of small tortoiseshell.  The only absentee was painted lady.

I again focused briefly on hoverflies and was struck by the pattern on this one:

Drone Fly

This is another drone fly, exact identity uncertain.

My last call was at Bradley Hall Gardens which was the largest and had the biggest variation of flora. 

Butterfly sightings were similar to those at Newburn and with similar numbers, but with four or five small tortoiseshells.

Small Tortoiseshell

... plus I think I may have caught a fleeting view of a holly blue, though I didn't see it long enough to be certain.

Typically of course the small tortoiseshell then started to turn up in my garden after an absence of several weeks during which I had occasionally wondered if the comma had effectively replaced it.

I did a couple of counts for the Big Butterfly Count  Over the two, the highest numbers were for large white and red admiral, followed by comma, peacock, small white and green-veined white - and just one small tortoiseshell.

Nevertheless it is still with us!

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.

More Butterflies

Realising that, with a trip abroad forthcoming (watch this space) my opportunities were limited, I decided to make a concerted attempt to catch up with the dingy skipper this week.  My efforts took me back to Path Head Nature Reserve, The Spetchells and Weetslade Country Park and unfortunately remained unfulfilled.

Late morning at Path Head looked likely to produce nothing at all. I was actually on my way out when I finally caught up with five small heath, two common blue and a single speckled wood all pretty much in constant flight. 

Worn bumblebee

Later the same day at Spetchells, results were rather better.

The first thing that caught my attention was actually a bee.  My first impression was that it was a worn buff-tailed bumblebee.  it seemed to have some pollen underneath the abdomen so I wondered about another leafcutter but on balance it seems the first impression was correct.

The giveaway is the faded stripe on the thorax.

For a while I again didn't see butterflies and began to speculate why.  It strikes me that there isn't amount of bird's foot trefoil at the Eastern end of the area, where it used to be relatively easy to find common blues, burnet moths and of course dingy skipper.

At some parts it's apparent that bird's foot trefoil is being overwhelmed by cotoneaster spread, others look like they could do with some grazing but in some there was no clear reason.  There were at least a couple of nice orchids to look at:

Early Purple Orchid?

Common Spotted Orchid?

I've no idea if I've identified them correctly.

Anyway the result of my deliberations was that I headed further East, where there are more trees and bushes and somewhat surprisingly started to see things, in particular a number of ringlets.  While they settled long enough to get a decent look, they were too skittish to photograph - probably freshly emerged - and the same applied to pretty much everything else I saw. The butterfly tally this time was Ringlet nine, Common Blue five, Speckled Wood five, Small Heath one and Large Skipper one.

Of these, only speckled wood and the large skipper was posing for the camera:

Large Skipper

For a moment I thought I'd hit on something really interesting when what appeared to be a brimstone was floating around the trees.  Again it was skittish, but when it did briefly settle I detected some wing markings that indicated it was a brimstone moth.  Moths also played a role on the way back as four or five small orange moths turned up and were eventually identified as yellow shell, which together with the previous one were first sightings for me.

Yellow Shell Moth

The day after at Weetslade, I again didn't see much in windy weather until I started foraging, when the dominant species proved to be the meadow brown.  This interested me as it was the first time I haven't seen them earlier in the summer than the ringlet, which I tend to associate more with July and August.

At Weetslade the scores were:  Meadow Brown 17, Large Skipper five, Common Blue four (including the first female I've seen this year), Small Heath one.

Meadow Brown

Female Common Blue

I think the common blue may have been ovipositing. Incidentally, all the meadow browns showing their upper wing were male. It's also interesting that no small skippers were seen over the three visits.

So still no dingy skipper then.  Although local sources suggest May and June is the best time for them, the Butterfly Conservation website states they are still on the wing in July - so there may still be hope.

Back in the garden the male bullfinch continues to appear.  It seems to be getting more confident, even feeding on the lawn, and a female is occasionally sighted.  A couple of goldfinches have also visited briefly - the first time in the seven years I've been here.

The only notable appearance by a butterfly was by a lone red admiral but I did think I might have spotted a first white-tailed bumblebee but on balance I am not entirely convinced.

Red Admiral

White-tailed Bumblebee