Mainly About Bees

The first honeybees have started to show in the garden but so far no butterflies.  This is partly down to bad weather but partly because I chopped back the garlic mustard extensively last year expecting it to grow back quickly.  It hasn't and so little reason for any orange tips or green-veined whites to visit.  In fact I have only seen two orange tips so far this Spring - one from the bus at Winlaton Mill and one yesterday on the path up to the wood from Blackhall Mill.  

Honey Bee

I forgot to mention last time that I have seen a treecreeper climbing the birches at the back - about three times now - and there was a jay briefly in the trees. A greenfinch and a regular chiffchaff have been heard but not seen.

Last week I took a trip up to Edinburgh, where the weather was a good bit more favourable if a bit breezy.

I made straight for the Royal Botanic Gardens as it was known that a good number of flowers would already be in bloom.  In fact I was quite surprised to see that most of the rhododendrons were already in full bloom. 

Apart from buff-tailed bumblebee queens, there were a few carder bees around possibly including the paler form and a red-tailed bumblebee queen.  In the woodland garden, there were a few flying around a form of broom that seemed to have very white tails.

Doubling back North of the cafe, there were about 20 male hairy-footed flower bees nectaring on a plant called Munstead Blue.  Then I noticed that there was one that appeared to have an azure blue spot on its thorax.  After some effort I managed to capture it and it proved to be a small blue sticker bearing the number 12.

Hairy-footed Flower Bee

Same with sticker

How that can have happened is anybody's guess.  Maybe it had just come off the subs' bench?  Anyway it was still flying around quite happily when I visited the spot again two days later.

A visit to Malleny Garden at Balerno the next day looked less promising as there was very little that was already in bloom.  However the first tree bumblebee I have seen this year was rooting around in some undergrowth and was shortly followed by a flypast by my first comma butterfly this year.  Even better, I managed to capture this item, which proved as I had guessed to be a garden bumblebee.

Garden Bumblebee

So not at all a bad result - even though the noted doocoot was totally deserted - before I returned early to sample the entertainments of the City Centre.  Incidentally the comma was the only butterfly apart from an unidentified white I saw on the whole trip - a testament to the unfriendly weather up to now.

Here on a brief ice cream stop, I caught up with another red-tailed bumblebee nectaring on the dandelions near Princes Street.

Red-tailed Bumblebee

It looks like a male.

On my last day in Edinburgh I went back to the Royal Botanic Gardens and got into some more interesting parts of the Woodland Garden.

Here I spotted a goodish number of small bees working a flower border.  They were quite nippy and tricky to catch.  On investigation, I was surprised to find one of the bees trapped has a clear blue luminescence, which would seem to point to blue mason bee.  This is a species I've never seen before but does occur in the Edinburgh area, so I'm seeking expert confirmation.

Blue Mason Bees?

Male Blue Mason Bee?

I revisited the spot where I thought I might have seen white-tailed bumblebees two days before and managed to trap a suspect.

White-tailed Bumblebee?

Well it certainly has a white tail but I'm not entirely convinced by this not great photo.  It was bigger than the others I saw and the stripes aren't unambiguously 'lemony'.  My field guide says sometimes best to record them as bombus locurum agg, i.e. not too sure.

Lastly, I was quite amused on my way back to the guest house by the antics of this crow by the Water of Leith. It has obviously learned to pan for insects in the shallows as well as to ignore the anguished cries of owners of disobedient dogs.

Low Force and High Force Wind

On Saturday I joined up with Jennifer and Joe who are walking the Pennine Way in stages.

We met at Middleton-in-Teesdale to do the section to High Force.  Unfortunately I 'hit the wall' at about four miles and only made it to Low Force, the easy access to High Force from the nearby hotel having closed about 15 minutes before I got there. 

High Force

We saw surprisingly little wildlife during the couple of hours or so.  We thought there was a flock of fieldfares in some trees and there were three butterflies, one of which was a red admiral and a few buff-tailed bumblebee queens.  Birdwise there was the odd lapwing and curlew plus a few pied wagtails.

One surprise though was three completely white mallards that paddled their way across the Tees below Low Force.  Apparently this almost certainly means they were escapees as mallards held domestically are often bred to lose their natural colours.

We actually saw more birds while driving around the moors from place to place: partridge, a possible cuckoo, red grouse and short-eared owl.  And many skylarks.

A buff tailed bumblebee queen finally landed in my garden the other day.  So far they hadn't settled.

Queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Due to poor weather I hadn't been out on the bike for a long time apart from a couple of short refresher rides.  Again not much was seen but having got stopped at the level crossing at Wylam, I took a snap of the grey heron that frequently resides there.

Heron

Anyway, on Sunday I took advantage of what had been an excellent weather forecast for a ride up the coast to Cresswell and Druridge - except that the non-stop sunshine expected never happened and I was buffeted all day by a heavy onshore breeze that made me wish I'd taken my winter gloves!

On the Blyth estuary I got a couple of nice views of shelduck and redshank on the mudflats.

Shelduck

Redshank

I've always liked shelduck.

I did a detour around the Newbiggin area in search of Sandy Bay where rarities sometimes turn up - notably a bluethroat recently- but couldn't find it and made a quick exit to escape the Easter festivities.

At Cresswell and Druridge the most notable sighting was my first bar-tailed godwits, which turned up in both locations.  The one of Cresswell has spilled some weed on itself.

Bar-tailed godwit

I had hoped for avocets, which have recently appeared at both locations but unfortunately no luck and the spoonbill at Druridge didn't show either.  

Nevertheless there was a reasonable tally of further sightings recorded including a little egret in the corner at Cresswell, sanderling, lapwing, canada and greylag geese, shoveler, teal, wigeon, lapwing and several more shelduck

Lapwing

Shoveler

Unsurprisingly no butterflies were seen.

Exciting Springtime Sightings

 Starting with a bit of bad news, I found this dead great tit in the garden last week.  

Great Tit

I sort of assumed that it had crashed into the summerhouse, but on inspection it seemed to have a wound on its upper breast so maybe got nobbled by something.

Yesterday, I went on the first big trip of the year with son and fiancee to Leighton Moss, which provided a sufficient parade of sightings to justify even the £9 entry fee for non-RSPB members.

We saw a good number of marsh harriers flying at considerable height, which surprised me a bit.  On previous occasions in the Netherlands and at Leighton Moss before, I'd been used to seeing them flying low looking for prey.  Often they were in groups of two or more so I supposed that it was some sort of pre-mating routine, disturbed by occasional buzzards.  Anyway, I was delighted to get a photo of one in flight with my pocket camera, even though it wasn't brilliant.

Although we didn't manage to see one, we did hear numerous bitterns booming, which was a first time for me.  I must say 'booming' is a bit of a misnomer.  As one of the signs pointed out, it sounds much more like someone blowing over the top of an old-fashioned glass milk bottle.

Also not seen was the bearded tit.  We hadn't really expected them to show at this time of year although apparently they are still around.

One bird that is present is the ring-necked duck and I thought I might have seen one at distance from the tower.  In fact it proved to be just another tufted duck.

Shortly afterwards, heading for lunch I spotted some small red fungi next to the path.  I think they are called scarlet elf cups.

At the last hide we visited there was a view over several bits of land sticking out into the water, surrounded by various ducks.  A group of twitchers reckoned there was a water pipit working its way along one of them.  Unfortunately, try as we might, we couldn't confirm or deny it as a sighting as the photos we took of the wee bird were all too blurry.  Apparently it had been identified earlier by someone using a powerful telescope, so presumably correctly.

Overall, there were just too many photos to post individually, so I've amalgamated them together in  brief video.  Unfortunately there is no background music as that now costs extra from Microsoft!

Onshore and Inland

Having survived a cold snap over the past week, I decided on a trip to the coast on Thursday after dropping my ebike off for a service.  I'd thought about concentrating on birdwatching but decided to meet a friend instead, and actually saw a couple of things anyway.

Walking into Cullercoats there was a stonechat on the promenade railing and a woman drew my attention to a kestrel hovering for long periods over the foreshore.

Kestrel

I've never had the chance to capture a hovering kestrel with my wee camera before so it was a pleasing result.

Having collected my bike again, I saw what I initially thought was a woodpecker of some kind crossing my path at the top of the Byker Link track, where there is a bit of a flytipper's paradise.  It had a stripey appearance that put me in mind of illustrations I had seen of a three-toed woodpecker.  Knowing it couldn't really be that I stopped and approached with camera in hand.  The bird took fright at my high vis jacket and made itself scarce but I saw it long enough to note that it was a leucistic blackbird.

The day after I was on a Naturewatch walk to Letah Wood near Hexham.  The main idea was to see the wild daffodils that grow there, which should have been showing well.  However the cold weather over the previous few days has held them back and it was hard to find a decent batch.

Wild Daffodils

There were plenty of birds singing but high up in the canopy and I only actually saw a robin and some woodpigeons.  

However, there was a very healthy tree fungus, probably a shelf fungus and a healthy colony of wood ants.

Shelf Fungus

Wood Ants

The day after I was out again after visiting my son's new house in Crawford when we went along a nice track near Leadhills.  Before we got soaked in a sudden downpour we had managed to see all of curlew, lapwing, buzzard, red kite, meadow pipit, pied wagtail, and raven.

However most sightings were at distance above the horizon.  At one point a lapwing was mobbing a buzzard.  It must be because nesting time is near.

Today I briefly saw the first bumble bee of the year in the garden and at the tennis courts there were several honey bees struggling across the surface. They must have come out too early.

Butterfly in February

The next time we played tennis, the teal were still on the weir and afterwards we stopped to watch a group of long-tailed tits messing around in the trees and spotted a treecreeper - my first for some considerable while.  I was also sure I heard a bee buzzing around my head at one point but couldn't see it.

Temperatures were rising and the day after (21st February) they were up to 14C so I went for a longish bike ride inland along the Tyne after dropping my car off for a service.

There was another goosander on the Derwent just upstream from Derwenthaugh but it dived for a long time once it saw me and didn't resurface anywhere nearby.  

Then came a big surprise just behind Blaydon station when I got a clear view of a red admiral flying over the track.  I had wondered if there would be any insects but was thinking more of bees rather than overwintering butterflies.  So I notified it to Butterfly Conservation North East and got a message back saying it was the first report they've had this year.

I didn't see any bees but got momentarily excited by a drone fly on ivy while I was having a break at Wylam Bridge.  After midday it clouded over and my attention turned to food.

On a less fortunate note I have decided to stop putting the peanut feeders out in the garden for a while as a number of brown rats have been visiting lately.  A pity as I recently had a one-off visit from a chaffinch and even the dunnocks had started using them.

Variety is the Spice...

By chance I managed two trips out in two days.

Last Sunday I was at Geltsdale with my son and his fiancee.  Unfortunately there was only a light breeze but we did manage to see a few birds of prey, notably several kestrel, one of which I thought might have been a sparrow hawk and a single buzzard as well as canada geese, lapwing, curlew and a stonechat.  Snowdrops are now out and there was a nice wee bunch near the RSPB Visitor Centre.

Snowdrops

The day after I was on a Naturewatch trip to Big Waters, which produced a pleasing variety of species, without turning up any major rarities.

As well as tufted duck and a couple of great crested grebe debating whether the mating season has started, there was a good head of lapwing on the stony island.

Lapwing

There were several teal around and one showed nicely on a sail past.

Teal

Further round we also caught up with wigeon, pochard and goldeneye.

Goldeneye

Wigeon

Pochard

Around the Western hide there were no snipe or water rail this time but several finches on the feeders and a pair of reed buntings, the female of which had a brownish head that kept us guessing for a while.

Reed Bunting

On the way to tennis today, I had a little time to spare at the weir on the Derwent and noticed some more teal that were standing and sliding around in the fast water by the fish run.  They appeared to be feeding on grubs in the newly-formed streamer weed.

On the way back there was also a pair of goosander diving away.  Usually all you see there is  couple of mallard and maybe a heron.

The Many and The Few

January hasn't been a great month for me healthwise.  Having missed the beginning with a cold I lost the end with a nasty chest infection.

In the mean time I managed another trip to Prestwick Carr, which didn't produce anything spectacular but did offer some nice sightings of the regular customers at the bird feeders.

On a chilly day with little wind,  I noticed three or four times trees in the distance with a raptor perched in the crown, as if waiting for some reason to get more active.  Distance made identification difficult but I reckoned they were sparrow hawks.

Sparrow Hawk

Walking along the subsided road there were no more signs of redwing or fieldfare but around three pairs of bullfinches were scavenging in the hedgerow.

Bullfinch

It's not often that bullfinches stay close but they seemed relaxed, particularly this female.  I think you often see them in January, feeding on fresh buds.

There was quite a party going on at the feeders, where someone had added some coconut halves and filled the wee tray with seed.  So I managed to get some quite good shots of participants that weren't members of the tit family.

Tree Sparrow

Chaffinch

Reed Bunting

The one that sort of got away was willow tit, which did visit sporadically.  It was showing interest in the bits of apple I had spread close to where I was standing and I thought there was a chance of a really good close up.  But it never stayed for more than just a few seconds and after about forty minutes, I got fed up of cold fingers and moved on at a brisker pace.

On the way back to the car there were a number of roe deer in the far distance.

Still trying to figure out the lack of non-tit small bird appearances in my garden, I wondered about the theory of a near neighbour that bird flu is to blame.

In this case it would seem to suggest that it has particularly affected the following species here:  bullfinch (which normally show up in January), nuthatch, woodpecker, jay and (in nearby trees at least) greenfinch.

However my complaint about poor sightings in Chopwell Woods was contradicted on the way to the doctor's yesterday, when I heard hundreds of small birds chattering high up in the birches near Chopwell East Field.  I think they were tits, but I did observe half a dozen chaffinches towards the end of the stoney road.