A Slow Spring

We are already experiencing summery days but I have so far seen little of much interest.

About a week ago people started reporting occasional buff-tailed bumblebees and the odd butterfly.  I noticed three of the buff-tailed bumblebee queens in the garden on Monday and a couple more since but no sign yet of the red mason bees that live in the bug hotel and so far no butterflies at all.  Interestingly several records of the brimstone have been registered in the Darlington area and one as far North as Sunniside.  It would be great if one of those turned up on my travels

Again I'm regretting the lack of garlic mustard in the garden, once prolific and a food plant for the orange tip and green-veined white until I decided it was getting out of hand and uprooted virtually the whole lot.

Apart from an increase in blackbirds and robins, collar doves have been fairly frequent visitors, fleeing into the trees at the back if they caught my attention.

Collar Dove

I remember being excited when they first turned up as a mystery in our garden in Blyth in the early eighties, having only recently established a presence in the area.

A bike ride to Matfen a fortnight ago produced a sighting of a yellowhammer and hearing my first chiffchaff, which are now singing out all over the place as they do.  On several occasions I have also heard greenfinches in the tree tops but so far haven't seen one.

Perhaps the most interesting thing I did see was crawling around in the summer house rather than in the garden itself.

Green Lacewing

Nothing special and I have had lacewings before in the Spring, but I rather like them and daresay the trout in the Derwent like them too.

Bees but no Butterflies

Foraging in the garden and a visit to Wallington Hall Walled Garden have produced a fair selection of bees but not much in the way of butterflies.  The occasional orange tip and green-veined white has turned up but mainly on trips out.  The big question is what has happened to the speckled wood? I reckon my confirmed total for Spring was two when normally I would have expected to see scores.

In the garden tree bumblebees and carder bees have been fairly consistent while the red mason bee has been much less in evidence.  More common than in previous years have been garden bumblebee and early bumblebee, turning up fairly regularly.

Garden Bumblebee

Early Bumblebee

I've continued to tangle with the odd nomad bee, of which this is an example:

Nomad Bee

Nomad (underside)

I've seen these before so not uncommon. I'd hoped the all-red and black underside might be a clue, but it seems to get me no further.

Red-tailed bumblebees have started to turn up and at Wallington, I got a nice view of a red queen:

Red-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Also there were a few white-tailed bumblebees and one or two that had a break in the abdominal stripe, meaning they could have been broken-belted bumblebees.  White-tailed have also been spotted in the garden.

White-tailed Bumblebees

Wallington provided me with a first damselfly of the year - a common blue.

Common Blue Damselfly

More of a puzzle amongst the honeybees was this. Eventually I came to the conclusion it was a late-appearing buffish mining bee.

Buffish Mining Bee

On the way to and from Wallington I heard and saw several yellowhammer, and tried unsuccessfully to take a photo of one on the way back.  Notably I did not see a single bird of prey and only heard one skylark.  At one point I thought I might have heard a grasshopper warbler but couldn't be certain.

In the garden there have been no noteworthy birds apart from a brief appearance by a woodpecker , but there is an obvious reason for this:

Grey Squirrel

Signs of Life

Nature is only progressing slowly through an extremely wet cool spell.

Reckoning I had tracked down where the mandarin ducks on the Derwent have been appearing, I took a look for them a few weeks ago without success but did manage to identify a buff-tailed bumblebee hunting for somewhere to nest,

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

A few days later it was at last warm enough to sit out in the summerhouse for a while.  I didn't take a camera not expecting to see anything but one of a couple of ladybirds trapped inside proved to be a harlequin ladybird.  It looked half-dead so I put it down thinking to photograph it later but it obviously moved off while I was finishing a coffee.  Apparently they can invade buildings in large numbers.

Meanwhile a chiffchaff had turned up and settled briefly on a plant pot, so it was the only time I have seen my first chiffchaff of the year before hearing one..

Last Saturday, I took a roundabout bike ride and caught a brief glimpse of a yellowhammer.  Stopping briefly at the feeders at Weetslade Country Park, nothing special was visiting but another buff-tailed queen was milling round noisily.

However I did manage to disturb a single red admiral on my way back up Blaydon Burn - so it was my first butterfly sighting of the year (30th March).

Today I decided to visit Rainton Meadows as an identified promising area, as there were no major sightings reported elsewhere.

The ponds were a bit disappointing as views were partially obscured and the ducks as you would have expected and a good way off.  One greylag goose looked to be enjoying the sunshine at the pond's edge.

Greylag Goose

While exploring the woodland areas, and mainly getting lost, I did however come across an early bumblebee nectaring on gorse.

Early Bumblebee

There were also a couple of pleasing moments when a comma landed briefly, and another red admiral was disturbed by my passing.

Near Joe's Pond there was a bullfinch rooting in the undergrowth and, best of all on the Coalfield Path, a lovely if brief display by a singing blackcap.

New Sightings

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.

Friday 26th June

A slightly strange period during which the has got really hot, only to be about to lapse badly over the coming weekend following a few thunderstorms.

I got out to Big Waters on the Tuesday, which was rather as I remembered it from ages ago, expansive and windy.  There weren't too many obvious places to fish.  Several swims looked like they were best fished at distance.  I spoke to a lad fishing just where the reed beds start and he was catching small roach just below the surface while waiting for action on two carp rods. I could also see them turning in the water further round the reeds.  The handbook suggests it is a venue that needs a good deal of study, so perhaps not for me just yet.  You need to park somewhere else to get to the Little Big Water on the other side of the main road, so did not visit there.

What was slightly unexpected was a flower meadow where the water is completely weeded over.  There were a couple of ringlets and small tortoiseshells in the area and quite a few meadow browns.

Meadow Browns

There were a few things I couldn't account for on Wednesday, when I cycled to Matfen. Before I set off, what appeared to be a small skipper tried unsuccessfully to get into one of the foxgloves.  I haven't seen them do that before, nor have I seen one in the garden before and so wondered if I was mistaken.

Going along the cycle track at Wylam, what looked like a large four-winged moth drifted into a hedgerow.  It had more the shape of a dragonfly but without translucent wings so it was hard to say what it was.

There were plenty of small tortoiseshells in the Ovington area but one that flew right by my front wheel looked suspiciously like a painted lady, which would have been noteworthy.  On the way home a suspected orange tip morphed into another moth. And some large, sliver fish splashing out of the Tyne might very well have been salmon.

All of these were fleeting sightings with no chance to check things.  I'm still fairly confident about the small skipper though.  And the salmon.

Another major feature of the day was that yellowhammers were almost everywhere.  I was pleased about the small tortoiseshell. The parasitoid wasp that restricts their numbers must be having a bad year.

Today there was a short walk round the Blagdon Hall Circular where there were numerous ringlet butterflies to be seen. though few settled.  Also a few red admirals.

Ringlet

Friday 10th April

Like everyone else I'm maximising my coronavirus exercise sessions.

Last week warmer weather finally broke through and further peacocks have turned up in the garden and, on a walk in Chopwell Woods, I saw seven (plus a couple of suspects) and a single small tortoiseshell so it looks like they're doing well this Spring.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

On arriving home I found a tree bumblebee struggling in the sink, a performance that was repeated recently when there was one just behind the taps, so heaven knows how they are getting there. On the subject of bees, I spotted this item a few days back in the garden.  I suspect it is a queen buff-tailed bumblebee (the buff tail doesn't really show) looking around for somewhere to nest.

Buff-tailed Bumblequeen

Birdlife in the garden has been reasonably consistent. The weather closed in a bit yesterday, which seemed to have the effect of attracting bigger numbers to the feeders. A couple of 'long time no see' appearances were a female woodpecker and a tree sparrow.

Woodpecker

Tree Sparrow

Then this morning there were two tree sparrows feeding on the bird table. Unlike other species, it looks as though they actually like the finch bird food that has recently been offered.

Bike rides lately have been producing more to hear than to see, including lapwing and curlew.  It was very pleasant near Hedley on the Hill today, an area which I suspect might have more to offer in future.  There was another small tortoiseshell on the road leading to the village. On the way down to Prudhoe, I caught up with a nice yellowhammer.

Yellowhammer

Tuesday 31st March

A week ago today I got out for a bike ride from Matfen to Bellingham (or Wark as it turned out) not realising that driving in order to take exercise would shortly be expressly forbidden.

Almost as soon as I left Matfen, there was a nice view of a kestrel.  On the way up to Ryal a few butterflies were settling on some yellow colt's foot type flowers and I managed to identify my first small tortoiseshell of the year.  There were several other butterflies around during the rest of week, even on the cooler days, including in the garden, but all were on the wing and frustratingly impossible to identify positively.

Heading towards the moors it was actually possible to observe rather than just hear some skylarks in action and in the wooded areas chiffchaffs were now established and singing strongly. Somewhere around Throckrington some meadow pipits appeared and I briefly saw a falcon with a red chest and pointed wings in flight.  Not a good sighting, but I reckoned it was probably a male merlin - they like meadow pipits!

I decided to return by a slightly less arduous route but it was nice to see a yellowhammer in the hedgerows on the way back to Matfen - and an incidental buzzard.

A walk round Chopwell Woods a couple of days afterwards produced nothing but a robin begging for scraps and a pair of unidentified spiralling butterflies, so on Saturday I took the bike along the Tyne from Wylam. There were a pair of tufted ducks and a pair of wigeon on Bardley Pond - not bad for a smallish venue.

Going along the river was pleasant if not very eventful, but I did catch sight of some dozen or so ducks heading upstream past Ryton Golf Course.  Unfortunately the path was narrow and there were a lot of people around making it inadvisable to stop at the current time and the view was party obstructed by tree branches and twigs. I reckoned they might be goosanders, but if so it was a little strange as they all had brown beaks and so must have been females.

Going past the new housing towards Blaydon, there was a smart-looking great-crested grebe, which took me a bit by surprise as I've only seen them on lakes before.

Another legal cycle trip to Matfen produced little apart from lots of singing skylarks - and another stray buzzard.

I managed to get through all of this without getting a decent wildlife photo.  But I did take one of this green fly on the rather mucky window of my summerhouse. I'm not sure what it is but it reminded me of a fishing fly called Greenwell's Glory, meaning it might be some kind of olive - or maybe a lacewing?

Mystery green fly

Saturday 20th April

Not so much evidence of smaller birds coming to the garden this week, but I was treated to the spectacle of a magpie devouring a vole on the back fence, cleverly using a bit of climbing ivy to hold it on for some time. While driving down to the Derwent Valley a couple of days ago, I saw another one eating horse manure.  I know that they do this but hadn't observed it before.

What had been a pretty cold spring so far drew gradually to an end on Wednesday so I decided to take the bike out to Prestwick Carr as I thought it might be a possible venue for the emperor moth.  It took a while before the sun to break through and there wasn't too much to see at the observation platform apart from a begging chaffinch, a willoe tit on the feeder and a tree sparrow or two.

Comma

As soon as the sun did come out butterflies started to appear. They were in flight so it was hard to identify but I think I saw enough to suspect they were painted ladies, as well as a couple of small browns circling skyward.

Having missed a turn off down a mud track leaving Ponteland, I happened on a couple of comma butterflies.  At first I thought they looked very fresh, but the one that landed looked distinctly tatty.  On refinding the route there were several more, perhaps as many as twenty.

Later on heading for Stamfordham Road, a small tortoiseshell and a peacock appeared, the first I have seen of either this year.

Before all that,  I encountered a bit of a mystery. I clearly saw a yellowhammer perching on a hedge opposite Ponteland Golf Course.  It disappeared before I could get the camera out and I got this (below) instead.  Someone has suggested a sparrow but I saw it as being the same size as the yellowhammer.  Another bird on the same hedge turned out to be a thrush. A discovery of this dead moth (below) found in the summer house made it two mysteries in one week, as I can't identify that either.

Mystery 1

Mystery 2

The day after (18th April) the first male orange tip of the year sailed across the garden.

Wednesday 13th February

Blue Tit house hunting

A bit of a landmark moment occurred last weekend when the first blue tit (that I have seen anyway) undertook a fairly detailed viewing of the nesting box on the side of the summer house. So far there hasn't been a second viewing but it's a step in the right direction. Robins are starting to become tuneful as another sign of the approach of Spring. A red kite flew straight over the garden yesterday as well just after I had got of the bus around 4.20 pm. I've also seen goldfinches when walking to the bus stop.

Last Wednesday I was out on a bike ride and saw three or four bullfinches along the cycle track just west of Rowland's Gill and as good a view as I've had of a jay, plus a couple of grey squirrels and a buzzard and a kestrel later on.  The kestrel was actually hovering low over the left-hand side of the road as I was approaching Whittonstall.  For a moment, I thought it was going to let me ride straight underneath it.

This was all largely eclipsed by an excellent trip to the Big Waters reserve with the Nature Watchers group

Iceland Gull

this Monday.  There were a number of bullfinches on the way to the first hide, where a number of ducks and geese were quickly identified, including wigeon, teal, tufted duck, canada and greylag geese.

Gulls aren't really my thing but it was interesting to see a herring gull on a well-frequented island straight in front of us.  One of our more expert members also pointed out an iceland gull that clearly dominated the others. Later a number of lapwing landed there too, giving an excellent display of iridescent plumage in the bright sunlight.

The second hide was even more productive.  A number of reed buntings were passing through the reeds and eating the heads, as were incidentally a couple of blue tits.  A wren also passed through, low down into the reeds.

There was also an area of cut grass with a large number of bird tables and feeders to the rear of the hide, which attracted a very wide variety of visitors after a time, including bullfinch, great tit, blue tit, reed bunting, tree sparrow and yellowhammer.  This was not however where I would have expected to see a water rail, which strutted over the lawn on a couple of occasions and appeared to be relatively tame.

Reed Bunting

Water Rail

Yellowhammer

Both the water rail and the iceland gull were first sightings for me.               

Thursday 28th December

A long lapse has been brought on by an outburst of househunting and so no nature activity.  The one thing I did notice was a casual visit to the garden by a wren.  I'm sure this must have happened before at some point but I can't remember the last time I saw one there.

But yesterday I needed to get some fresh air after Christmas and set off to Mersehead following a couple of reports of bramblings in the area, notably on the feeders at the Visitor's Centre which seemed a good idea on a chilly day.

Greenfinches

I duly arrived and found a profusion of birds around the feeders, the first being a yellowhammer that was not to reappear later.  It was nice to see a couple of tree sparrows quite quickly too. The low, bright sunlight made it difficult to see colour and I at first thought there were some bright, small birds that might be of some note. The photos showed some birds obviously had a yellowish tinge and on finally using the binoculars I could see that they were female greenfinches and almost all the others were tree sparrows.

This was in itself interesting as I would never have expected the scene to be dominated by these two species and have never seen either bird in such large numbers.  There were some tits, dunnocks and blackbirds plus a fair few chaffinches but at times every second bird was a tree sparrow or a greenfinch.  It also seemed to me that the female greenfinches were a bit smaller than the males, something I hadn't observed before.

Meanwhile I scanned the chaffinches for anything that looked a bit different, i.e. a brambling but no brambling did appear.

After some time I set off for a wander towards the hides.  Apart from the barnacles, various flocks of which were honking all around the pace, there was a big cluster of birds motionless in one of the bushes on the path to Bruaich Hide.

Linnet

Again the light was difficult but I took them to be linnets.  They sat motionless as I gradually approached as if saving their energy on such a cold day.  In the end they did reluctantly fly off apart from one, presumably their PR Officer who stayed on his/her perch and allowed me to get a close up. 

Apart from that there was precious little to be sighted in the distance on the wetlands and I was having a bit of trouble focussing my binoculars, which got steamed up with the change of temperature on leaving the visitor's centre.

So I decided on a yomp across the beach before returning to the feeders just before dusk.  It was all very enjoyable in the sunshine, very still and quiet but again nothing to be seen (apart from a single heron over the wetland).  The reason in my view was that the tide was extremely far out, and so all the waders, birds of prey etc. move out with it.

Mersehead - very pretty, but no birds in sight!

At the end of the day I spent a good hour watching the feeders until the sun started to disappear.  Still no brambling...

Thursday 15th June

Half of June gone and the promising weather of late May has not continued.

On Tuesday I decided that the aubretia's attempt to invade the edge of the lawn had ended in a stalemate of World War 1 proportions and so was pushing it back and cutting the resulting long grass away when a large green frog emerged from where it had been.  This was ironic as I'm sure I had been telling someone I never get frogs in my garden any more.  It hopped off sharpish but no idea where it ended up as I'm sure it couldn't have leapt the wall.

I interrupted the Wednesday bike ride to do a little foray along the Nith south of Kingholm Quay, as one of the butterfly group told me it was quite good for birdlife.

Peek a boo! Baby Whitethroat

It was indeed a most pleasant short stroll.  I got
a good view of a willow warbler, though not a photo. Then there were some grating noises from some birds from an area of elder bushes and dog roses. The culprits were pretty elusive too, but I finally got a shot that suggests to me they were juvenile whitethroats.  That was one of the species my butterfly contact had indicated (forgot the other one!) and it was sort of confirmed when a senior whitethroat appeared a few yards down the track.

I also got a good snap of a song thrush, a poorish one of a goldfinch and a fleeting glimpse of what I took to be a rather pale looking painted lady - can it still have been one that overwintered?

Continuing the bike ride, I took a detour on the way back to go down to the entrance of Caerlaverock Wildlife and Wetlands Trust.  This only produced a nice sighting of a yellowhammer plus one of an otter constructed in lego before I retreated back to the high road in the grips of a major hayfever attack.

Lego Otter

Tuesday 21st February

Took advantage of some briefly favourable weather to take a trip to Mersehead RSPB Reserve on Sunday morning, although the sun had pretty much disappeared by the time I got there.

The volunteer at reception spoke of some twites having been seen in the treetops near Meida Hide, which immediately caught my attention.  But first I took a quick look at the feeders and bird table behind the office to see what was going on.

On the bird table - greenfinch, sparrow, yellowhammer, chaffinch

There were a few greenfinches around and a female yellowhammer that had me thinking how hard she would be to distinguish from other species on a fleeting sighting. No sign of a tree sparrow though.

So I decided to head for the narrow wooded area near Meida Hide.  However, scanning the trees revealed nothing but tits and chaffinches apart from one single treecreeper quietly going about his business.  Nearer the hide there was a rookery that was far from quiet as the occupants circled around the place. The only other thing to catch my attention was a greyish roe deer casually wandering along the woodland edge thirty yards away but it must have picked my scent and moved off more sharply.

There wasn't much to see from the hide either.  I did pick out a couple of tufted duck (a few of those around just now) and someone else saw a pintail.

Then, heading towards the shoreline, I thought I might have seen what I was looking for as there was a dead tree to the left of the path that had several finch-like birds sitting in its bald crown. The only thing was that they looked to me more like linnets.  It wasn't too easy to tell as it was becoming misty but I was fairly confident I had got it right. One or two birds had some slight reddish colouration and all the ones i checked had grey beaks and grey heads.

The wind was also getting up so I decided against a walk along the beach in the hope of spotting a little egret and doubled back.  The tide was out anyway, which I always think diminishes the number of birds about. I couldn't contact the linnets again but did see a song thrush on the edge of the wood and a couple of reed buntings in the hedgerow.

And of course there was loads of barnacle geese.

Sunday 16th October

A fairly quiet couple of weeks.  I did a couple of bike rides where not much was seen.  There was a yellowhammer on a telegraph wire on the way back from Gretna a week ago on Friday and I only identified that by taking a photograph of it and blowing it up.

Crab Apple?

Last Wednesday there were a good few birds stirring in the woods around Cowhill but not hanging around.  There were a couple of buzzards about and it's some time since I've seen them.

On the way back home I noticed this tree near Portrack House.  I assume it's a crab apple but the fruits look very small compared to the ones I remember when I was a kid.

Young Cormorant

More puzzling was a bird perching on the River Nith, which I could quickly see was not a heron.  I reckoned it was a juvenile
but couldn't work out which species.  The answer is actually quite simple - it's a young cormorant.  The white chest is misleading but the posture and other parts are quite typical.

Coal Tit

Meanwhile at home, a sunflower I allowed to grow has become very bedraggled but has attracted the regular attention of a coal tit. It has become extremely adapt at stealing the seeds one by one, but always moves off again to eat them.  In fact there are two coal tits around but I fancy
it's always the same one that goes for the sunflower.

A coal tit is not a rare visitor to the garden but recently they have become frequent. It has opened my eyes a bit to see how agile their flight is and far quicker than most other garden birds as they dart around the bushes.  They also seem to be capable of a hovering action that almost reminds of a humming bird.

Sunday 13th March

Wednesday's bike ride was to Thornhill and the approach to Portrack seemed promising.  A lot of singing was heard from the trees,a flock of goldfinches flew high over the trees and a small volley of yellowhammer passed over the hedgerow.  There was also a slightly mottled bird with some tail decoreation that didn't look spotty enough anyway to be a redwing or a fieldfare. I wondered about golden plover as I got the binoculars out just before it made off, but didn't convince myself.

After that there was just a heron standing in a farmer's field (why do they do that?) and a fleeting buzzard.  However, I did get a puncture and after that was more concerned with getting home in a sensible time than anything else.

On Friday I finally got round to my first attempt at flyfishing at Alderneuk Fishery but typically, the sport went off during the day while I slowly learned the art of casting a fly line.  In spite of a lot of water-whipping I didn't get anything in my net until I packed up (see below).

5 lb Catfish?

Today has been considerably warmer and the fish have been belting frenetically round the pond in the garden.  This seems to be a futile attempt at mating activity.  Also got out for a quick walk around Crichton Gardens listening for chiffchaffs, but no luck.

P.s. I forgot to add that last Monday (7th March) I saw my first butterfly of 2016, parading past the window of a friend's living room. It was a red admiral.

Wednesday 15th July

My knowledge of trees is pretty poor and I've been meaning to do something about it for some time.

So by way of a change, I took my Book of Trees along on today's bike ride (via Milton, Kirkgunzeon, Loch Arthur, New Abbey, Kirkconnel Flow) and set about identifying some of the broadleafs.  Thus I

Alder Leaf?

now know there are a lot of ash trees north of Kirkgunzeon and generally, plus a lot of oaks, hazels, sycamores and holly trees on the road past Kirkconnel Flow.

One tree near the cycle track in the town has confused me a bit.  I think it was an alder from the trunk and size but the leaves did not match the pictures in my book very well.

Of course there were also some goldfinches, a few yellowhammers near Kirkgunzeon and several ringlet butterflies. On the wilder bit of the run to New Abbey, there were also a couple of stonechats grinding away.  I haven't seen them there before.

A pleasant change from some of the frantic riding I've been doing. Who knows, maybe I will finally show some interest in wild flowers one day as well.

Wednesday 1st July

A not surprisingly unspectacular report after the ecitement of a fortnight ago.

Went on long bike ride to Dalry last Wednesday but did not pay attention to birdlife much as needed to keep time and somewhat birded out after my visit to Provence.  This was a pity in a way as there was clearly a good deal of activity.  Surprised to notice yellowhammers just North of Dumfries and a diving brown shadow over the moors may just have been a merlin.  Also observed a red kite getting mobbed by a crow.

River Aln

What was perhaps more telling was again the almost complete lack of butterflies on a day with periods of good sunshine.  All I saw was four small whites approaching Drumwhirn Forest.

The same was apparent on a walk up the River Aln in Northumberland on Tuesday.  This time the sun was consistent but there were only a couple of pairs of meadow brown and a fleeting skipper or fritillary.  We did at least manage to establish that the river holds some fish, as if the three herons we saw were not enough proof.  All web references suggest game fish only but we found a slow section between two weirs that looked very likely to contain coarse fish.

Back at home, there was a very large bumble bee in the front garden with a totally black body and a white tail.  I assumed it was a white-tailed bumble bee but cannot find any illustration to match it.

Saturday 25th April

The latest bike ride - since bike rides is mainly what I seem to do these days - was a trip to Palnackie via Milton, Kirkgunzeon, Falgunzeon and the B road from near Caulkerbush on through Dalbeattie, and was notable for some first encounters with summer visitors.

Kirkgunzeon Lane

The first of all was at Lochfoot, where a single house martin balanced on a telegraph wire.  Just afterwards I stopped to investigate some shapes jutting out of the water near an island in Lochrutton Loch, which proved to be a row of cormorants waiting for small fry.

On the run down to Kirkgunzeon it was nice to see a few yellowhammers, still frequent in that area amd a number of meadow pipits.  I always think Kirkgunzeon is an attractive spot amd stopped by the river bridge to notice my first willow warbler of the season in a bankside tree.  Last year there were trout to be seen but none today and the river was still flowing quite fast. Orange tip butterflies were already on the wing on the 'B' road and goldfinches were around again too.

On a fairly direct route back, just two newly-arrived swallows were sitting on the telegraph wires in Shawhead.

Spot the Willow Tit
Difficulty level: easy

Tuesday 10th March

As Wednesday's bike ride looks like a rain off, took advantage of bright weather to head east, biking to Annan via Ruthwell Station, Dalton, Hoddam and back along cycle route 7.  Partly my own fault I didn't see that much as I ended up looking straight into the sun for much of the run with no sunglasses on.

Nice however to see a male yellowhammer fly across my path just before Carrutherstown, the first for a good while. On the way back a relaxed female kestrel and siskin showed in the area of

Unusual cows at Dalton Pottery

Priestside and a first bumble bee of the season at Ruthwell Village.

There were also a couple of gaggles of swans and geese in farmers' fields at Brow Well and near Bankend.  However the most memorable nature sightings were the two strange cows seen in the grounds at Dalton Pottery, seemingly undisturbed by the badly parked beetle nearby.

Also heard but did not see curlew, oystercatcher and skylark but no lapwing.  There must be some reason why skylarks are hard to see at this time of year.  Maybe they are on the ground?