Friday 14th May

 As a postscript to my last entry, it appears that the Newbiggin Northern Mockingbird was its first ever appearance in the county of Northumberland.  It was hanging around the town for about ten days but hasn't been reported again for several days now.

After that excitement it was a return to the mundanity of my back garden.  I don't pay much attention to jackdaws these days but one did catch my eye as it was slightly leucistic.

Slightly leucistic Jackdaw

At last there has been a bit more warmth bringing some tentative butterfly appearances, most notably of a female tip that posed for a good while showing both under and upperwing.  This one does have the very faintest hint of an orange tip.

I wondered if it might be laying but on mahonia?  Probably not.

Female Orange Tip

Female Orange Tip - underwing

Butterflies were not too prominent during a rehabilitative bike ride along the Tyne on Tuesday, just a few green-veined white around Blaydon and a couple of peacocks at Prudhoe. There were however a lot of dandelions out and as a result a good number of bees to be seen.

I noted both white-tailed (queen and worker) and garden bumblebee and good numbers of carder bee wherever white dead-nettle could be found.  It seems to be a favourite of theirs.

Carder Bee

White-tailed Bumblebee

More difficult to identify were a tiny Early Bumblebee worker and a tiny Gooden's Nomad Bee.  More help from my contact at the Natural History Society of Northumbria suggests that the size of bees is affected by the amount of pollen they have absorbed.

Early Bumblebee

Gooden's Nomad Bee

On Wednesday Malcolm and I made a trip to Brenkley Pond, very much intent on carp and avoiding small fish.  We legered large stringers of sweet corn or luncheon meat on big hook hair-rigs resulting in only four good runs but four fish on the bank, three nice mirror carp (largest 5lb) and what I thought was a white koi.  In fact it seems it was a pink orfe.

Mirror Carp

Pink Orfe returns to water

So another identification issue but hardly a wonder.  I had never heard of pink orfe before.

Friday 7th May

 As if to prove my point a minor extreme weather event hit the area not long after I finished the last post.

Spring?

There were a few rolls of thunder, a flash of lightning and the village was suddenly bombarded by a heavy strafing of hailstones at least the size of marrowfat peas, which quickly covered the roads and gardens.  Who'd want to be a butterfly in that? 

Today a fortunate set of circumstances led to a more fortunate outcome.

I was supposed to be going cycling but my friend cancelled.  A recent cricket injury to my thigh was feeling tight anyway and I was worried I might do myself more harm than good by getting the bike out.

At breakfast I noted that a yellow wagtail had been reported at Bothal Pond and a ring ouzel at Nebiggin.  So I decided that chasing them up would be a healthier thing to do with not too much walking involved.

Flukily I turned up at exactly the right location at Bothal, as what was in fact a black-headed wagtail turned out to be in a horses' field on the other side of the road from the pond. An extensive band of twitchers had already custered by the hedge.  At first all I could see was a couple of swallows.

Amusingly the wagtail was spending its time following the horses to pick up whatever they were turning over in the field.  At first it was favouring the horse furthest away but when a woman entered that part of the field it switched horses and came gradually nearer.  Meanwhile one of the twitchers drew my attention to a wheatear on a dungheap and a couple of horses came over as if to ask what all the fuss was about.

Wheatear

At times the wagtail got really close to either end of a horse and on one occasion, looked like it was in danger of being eaten by one.  It was as if it was a matter of luck that the bird was hungrier than the horse!

Black-headed Wagtail - with horse

Among the twitchers there was some talk about a mockingbird having been seen but I decided to move on to Newbiggin to see if I could catch up with the ring ouzel. Before I moved on a quick glance at the pond revealed some tufted ducks, lapwing and greylag geese, so relative small beer.

At Newbiggin I missed my way slightly trying to find the path to the links when a couple of women in a car stopped to ask me what bird everyone was looking for.  I assumed the ring ouzel was meant but they showed me a picture of another large gathering of twitchers at a rather run down looking location.

I got to the relevant bit of waste ground just off the main street where apparently the bird had been showing all morning before moving off.  It then reappeared briefly on someone's shed just long enough for me to get a hurried shot before disappearing again.

Mockingbird

I waited for half an hour eating an apple but it didn't show up before rain moved in ahead of forecast.

Overall it was a remarkable morning.  The black-headed wagtail does turn up in Northumberland but is one of the rarest wagtails and the mockingbird was several thousand miles away from its normal haunts.  Plus it was complete chance that I found out it was at Newbiggin.

I owed both sightings to the activities of twitchers, who in particular pointed out where to look for the wagtail.  But another mystery must be:  What an earth inspired someone to check out a piece of waste ground in the centre of Newbiggin in the first place?

Wednesday 5th May

Last Thursday I decided to brave the weather and take a fishing trip to Brenkley Pond, partly as I still had some usuable maggots from several weeks ago and was happy enough to catch a few smaller fish on waggler in view of the ongoing near-freezing temperatures at night.  That was exactly what I got - 6 small perch and 6 small roach, some of which rivalled the ones at Milkhope for minuteness.

Even on fine tackle bites were infrequent and finicky and had a knack of arriving at inconvenient moments when I was pouring a coffee or fiddling with gear, so I should probably have caught more.  At least the presence of perch is likely to weed out some of the smaller fish over time.

Covid travel restrictions having been relaxed I took the opportunity to meet up with Alex and Vicki at a certain Scottish moorland last Friday in search of birds of prey.  Maximum temperature forecast 9C, actual temperature on arrival 3C, enlivened by strongish wind and a squally shower.

Within half an hour of arrival, we spotted what we thought was a barn owl hunting and soon there were two or three on the go.  Then hen harriers started to appear, both male and female, overall about a dozen sightings though some may have been the same birds returning.  Some of the males were displaying by zigzagging up and down on the horizon.

Not really dressed for the  cold, I was more interested in fiddling with a flask of tea and a pork pie than the camera, so left it to Vicki to provide the photos.  

Male Hen Harrier

Short-Eared Owl

It transpired on closer inspection that the photos were of short-eared owls, though I suppose it's just about possible that both were present.  At one point two owls were together and there was a clear size difference and all sightings were at some distance.  However the habitat certainly makes short-eared owl a good deal more likely.  We had also hoped for peregrine falcon or merlin but neither showed up, not even on returning later in the day.  Still, having only ever seen one male hen harrier before, it was great to see several on the same day.

Meanwhile, on a brief walk up a nearby valley, we encountered numerous meadow pipits, the first two swallows I have seen this year, a few pied and and one grey wagtail.  I had a notion there might have been a white wagtail but it didn't hang about, neither did one larger pipit on the stream which I suppose was a rock pipit.  On the return walk, there were a number of willow warblers around and one reed bunting as well as a pair of stonechats back on the moor.

I suspect this Spring will turn out to have been a disaster for butterflies and there have been remarkably few on the wing these last ten days.  Today a white landed that was either a female orange tip or a green-veined white.  After it departed a male orange tip appeared.  Otherwise there has been nothing apart from a single speckled wood at the tennis club on Sunday.

Orange Tip

Thursday 28th April

The bee spotting season has been in full swing.

The main event of the week was a trip to the Spetchells in the hope of catching up with ashy or tawny mining bee in addition to the hordes of buffish mining bees I expected to be present.  This certainly proved to be the case with males swarming around in some spots as well as numerous orgies taking place on the paths.

The other two did not make themselves apparent apart from one suspect tawny that was probably a carder bee. It would have been hard to spot them amongst all the others anyway.  However we did catch up with a couple of samples of Gooden's Nomad Bee, very small males, and the odd bumblebee.

Further along there was a single peacock butterfly and a good number of sand martins on the wing though they don't seem to have nested yet as the chalk holes were unvisited when we passed by.

Following the track back down towards the river there were a couple of red-tailed bumblebee queens and a few speckled wood.  Then we crossed over the hill again onto the track by the railway tracks I'd read somewhere that south facing slopes with dandelions are good for ashy mining bees.  None turned up but there were dandelions a plenty and a few minute male mining bees as well as a small tortoiseshell, a green-veined white and a couple of orange tips.

Unfortunately even phoning a friend couldn't help identify the last bee but in the same area I came across another specimen that is thought to be a gypsy cuckoo bumblebee.

Gooden's Nomad Bee	Red-tailed Bumblebee
Mystery Mining Bee	Gypsy Cuckoo Bumblebee

It's amazing what you see when you look.

By contrast things have been relatively quiet in the garden but even there another species turned up on the plum tree blooms - a white-tailed bumblebee queen.  One other surprise was the appearance of a small white trapped inside the summer house, which I hadn't been in for days.

White-tailed Bumblebee

Small White

Tuesday 20th April

Activity has understandably perked up as the night frosts gradually disappear.

I celebrated the opening of non-essential retail on the (glorious?) 12th by cycling to the Metrocentre and saw two goosander on the Derwent and a clear view of a chiffchaff near the Tyne but was too cold to linger.  On the same chilly day it was quite a surprise to see a green-veined white settle briefly in the garden as well as a single peacock.  Subsequent days lead to a couple of flypasts from orange tips.

On the Wednesday a walk to Chopwell Woods at least produced a good deal more birdsong and we returned to increased bee activity in the garden, which I investigated further.  Apart from the expected tree bumble bee queen, there were what I thought were honeybees and something a good deal smaller that proved to be a female buffish mining bee.  Fortuitously I had recently learned about beeflies and there have been a few visit from the dark-edged beefly.  More recently, a buff-tailed bumblebee queens have turned up too.  There's been a couple of ladybirds too but nothing spectacular.

Honey Bee (worker)

Female Buffish Mining Bee

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

Dark-edged Beefly

Tree Bumblebee Queen

On Thursday three of us did a bike ride from Weetslade to Matfen and back and there was a good number of small tortoiseshells on the wing, notably on the rough track just West of Darras Hall.

Up to this point I hadn't managed to snap any of the butterflies and it was a bit of a surprise when a speckled wood in the garden was my first subject of the year on Friday.  I'd have thought it was a bit early.  None of the other butterflies observed settled for any length of time.

Speckled Wood

Following a resolution to head South more often, I took a walk in Edmondsley Wood on Monday.  It was a very pleasant stroll long an enlarged burn that you repeatedly had to cross by stepping on rocks.  I disturbed the same heron repeatedly as I moved along but couldn't see any sign of fish in the very clear water.

More buff-tailed bumblebee queens were looking for places to nest, and the odd white butterfly began to appear.  When I settled to have something to eat, they also started to settle and I could see that they were green-veined whites.  I would estimate well over a dozen overall, plus a single peacock.

Green-veined White

There was a bit of birdlife high up in the trees and I thought I might have heard willow warblers calling.  On the way back a couple of courting goldfinches largely ignored me.

Incidentally thanks are due to Charlotte Rankin of the Natural History Society of Northumberland  for help with a couple of the bee identifications.

Saturday 10th April

 I noted some while back that spottings in my garden are a bit upside down in that birds that are normally common appear seldom - and vice versa.  A recent surprise was to spot two 'rarities' at the same time last week, a male garden sparrow and a siskin.  A female sparrow also turned up a couple of days later, as did briefly a goldfinch.  Both birds can be seen close at hand but don't usually visit the garden.  You'd really expect more siskins, given the amount of nearby woodland.

Siskin

To cap that I also got the best view I have ever had of a jay, which hung around for a couple of minutes just behind the bottom fence.  This happened while I was getting dressed upstairs, hence alas no photo.

The weather has done a major u-turn putting an end to butterfly sightings but Spring has now sprung and other species are abundant.  

A week ago on Friday Frances and I did a very scenic walk along the Blyth at Humford Mill near Bedlington.  There was wild garlic and other woodland flowers starting to come out all over the place, plus one plant I knew I recognised but needed to check - alternate leaf golden saxifrage.  There was less in the way of birdlife apart from a grey wagtail and a quick flash of a dipper flying downstream.

Grey Wagtail

Alternate Leaf Golden Saxifrage

Although the weather was already starting to cool there were a good few bumblebee queens on the move, one of which seemed to me on the basis of video evidence seemed to be a buff-tailed bumblebee.

One week later it was quite chilly when Malcolm and I set out from Low Newton to the outskirts of Beadnell against a northerly wind.

There were skylarks all over the place with a good number of meadow pipits, one of which posed nicely on a stretch of cut grass near a holiday park.

Meadow Pipit

It was one of those days when the further we walked, the more we saw.  By the time we got back we had also seen kestrels, stonechats, a flock of geese in flight that eventually landed at distance and looked to contain a mixture of greylag and pink-footed geese. there were a good few shelduck around, a couple of which were just about near enough to catch in the camera, though I never even spotted the curlew that was next to them.  A shallow pond produced a couple of gadwall and lapwing as well. however I was most pleased with a quick but unmistakeable view of a golden plover through the binoculars.

Shelduck - and curlew

Afterwards we stopped for a coffee back at Low Newton.  The tide was in and there was a proliferation of sanderling, redshank and oystercatchers on the crowded shoreline and a fleet of eider duck further out.

I reckoned there were some other small birds running around with the sanderling and took a few casual shots thinking to identify them later.  In fact I totally missed the foreshore and got instead a couple of blurred shots of birds in flight above the waves.  One had an upwardly curved beak but wasn't an avocet so I suppose possibly a godwit.  The other was a small wader but from what little I had looked more like illustrations of Temminck's Stint than the dunlin or knot I anticipated.  That however seems rather more unlikely.

If we had visited the foreshore at the beginning rather than the end of the day, I might have paid it more attention.

Thursday 1st April

A lurch into warmer weather has produced an increased level of sightings. 

The day after I last posted, we ventured on a fishing trip to Milkhope Loch on 24th March.  As I was parking the car I heard my first chaffinch of the year.  On a reasonably bright day, Malcolm managed to catch six small roach, although to be honest tiny in most cases.  The first one actually looked more like a rudd but wasn't retained. I stuck out for carp on ledger and short pole with bacon grill baits and had nothing more than a couple of sharp, bait stealing bites on the pole which I attributed to ide but it was more about catching something on this first visit.

On Tuesday this week I went back alone to Milkhope to use up the maggots and again had no trouble picking up small and tiny roach.  I switched to sweetcorn near in on the waggler after lunch in the hope of better things.  One large fish did move through the swim but otherwise it was just tiddlers failing to take the bait.

Bites were continuing on the feeder and the maggots were constantly getting sucked.  So I decided to fine down the tackle, which produced a skimmer bream as well as a couple more roach.  Then just before five I hooked into a much bigger fish which fought well for four or five minutes before snapping the 1lb 14 oz bs line just below the feeder.  Very frustrating as I didn't get a decent view of it, and probably underestimated how heavy it was.

It wasn't much of a consolation that I got a friendly visit from a greylag goose that also ate my apple core.  By this time chiffchaffs were calling all around.

Greylag Goose

Buffish Mining Bee

Previously I spent a windy Sunday afternoon at the Spetchells to see if the mining bees were active and ideally identify the rarer ones.  There were a few dozen buffish mining bees around as well as some garden and red-tailed bumblebee queens.  However I didn't catch up with ashy or tawny mining bee and there was no sign either of the sandmartins over the river yet.  Rather surprisingly, I did see a couple ofunidentified butterflies in an area of trees with dark bark and I wondered if they'd hibernated there.  On the way back along the river a kestrel hovered  enticingly.

Meanwhile I did finally manage to spot a greenfinch high up in a tree at the back of the house.  Stretching the capabilities of the camera, I got a shot which just about showed up the large beak and yellow stripe.

Greenfinch

Yesterday I did a bike run up to Lygett's Junction and a couple of miles up the Waskerley Way.  In considerably sunnier weather, there were quite a few butterflies on the wing.  I wasn't convinced they were all peacocks and red admirals either, too brown and, as I thought not quite right for small tortoiseshells either.  

Skylark

Just past Consett there were a lot of skylarks singing above a meadow and one of them was obliging enough to let forth from the fence of a nearby estate.  Again more of a silhouette but it's rare to get a skylark in the camera lense.

By the time I headed home butterflies were starting to settle in the sun and I caught sight of two peacocks and two red admirals, but none of them were inclined to linger when I appeared.

The extra two miles were worth it though, as there was a chance encounter with an early bumblebee queen as I took a quick break at the halfway stage.

Early Bumblebee Queen