Slovenia - Day 2

On our second day the early risers in the group saw quite a few birds around the hotel and I did manage my first ever definite photo of a white wagtail while waiting for off.

White Wagtail

Generally though I couldn't see much of what the others saw in the way of birds during the whole trip and took a mental note to get an overdue eye test once back home again.

Eventually we set out to look for fresh meadows near the village of Hrastovalje, not far from the farm where the previous night's impromptu birdwatching session took place.

Obviously the main target was butterflies and on and after an upland walk, we found plenty to look at including clouded yellow, plenty of scarce swallowtail, holly blue, more skippers, wall brown, mallow skipper and grizzled skipper.  Particularly pleasing for me was my first encounters with Reverdin's Blue and Eastern Short-tailed Blue: 

Several grizzled skippers were seen near a puddle in the path we used, where there also there were a large number of wood whites puddling. The interesting thing here is that their black spots have shown up far larger than they appear to the naked eye:

Wood Whites puddling

I had mixed feelings when we came across the first small blue I've ever spotted but arrived on the scene late and only got very blurred and useless shots of it...

However the most spectacular photo opportunity, possibly of the whole trip, was presented by the newly-hatched European Swallowtail that flattered around the van when we got ready to move on and hung about for ages as if posing for the cameras.

European Swallowtail

While moving on to the afternoon venue, we saw a couple of white storks from the bus that even I couldn't fail to see.

White Stork

The next venue proved to be a disappointment.  The meadows looked promising and one or two butterflies briefly appeared but after twenty minutes the clouds moved in and, although it never properly rained and stayed warm, butterflies were scarcely to be seen at all.

I think the only one a I noted was a marbled white that remained stoically attached to the same bit of knapweed for ages with wings closed:

Marbled White

When in such circumstances others turn to birds I turn these days to insects but would be hard put to name any of the ones I saw apart from the nine-spot and red wave moths.

Various Bugs

I feel I should be able to identify the bee, which I first thought was a nomad but, having considered colletes and yellow-faced bees, I don't have a clue.

Amongst other animals we came across during the day were a pool frog, a green lizard and a wall lizard.   

Pool Frog

Green Lizard

Wall Lizard

After dinner we returned to the farm area to look for Scops Owls, which duly did not turn up, though we did see a kield skimmer (dragonfly), raven and dulbentan bat and, learning from past experiences, I decided video was the best media to catch the non-stop flight of the hummingbird hawk moth.

Humming Bird Hawk Moth

Altogether quite a productive day the talk at dinner was already about the relative shortage of butterflies compared to previous years due to poor weather throughout Europe..

Slovenia - Day 1

Another year, another summer so obviously time for another butterfly holiday, this time to Slovenia with Greenwings  which is where I was last week.

By way of a prelude, I think all the group I was with were impressed with the cleanliness and friendliness of Slovenia.  Although a small country, it contains large tracts of natural countryside attractive to those of many forms of wildlife.  The locations we visited were in the West and North West of Slovenia.

Day 1

The first few days were spent near the town of Rakov.  We got in a reasonable session  at a meadow near our hotel but the rains came down while looking round a second area by the River Reka, so we ended up settling for a birdwatching session near a farm.

It wasn't all about butterflies anyway.  By the river there were numerous damselflies, of which the banded demoiselle tends to catch the attention.

Banded Demoiselle

White-legged Damselfly

On the pm birdwatch, a good number of species turned up, including whinchat, white crane, fieldfare, spotted flycatcher, tree sparrow, and black redstart.  Awaiting eye test, I didn't manage to photograph all that was seen.

Spotted Flycatcher

Black Redstart

Fieldfare

Tree Sparrows

We scored well on butterflies in the first field, but not so well by the river, which at the time we attributed to deteriorating weather conditions.  As often the case on my nature trips abroad, there are so many I made them into a short video, including a couple of moths:

I hope I haven't misidentified anything.  My notes suggest we also saw marbled and twin spot fritillaries.

A couple of specimens I struggled with were one bee I couldn't get anywhere with - possibly some sort of mining bee but could be a lot of things - and this cricket that could perhaps be a dark bush cricket.

Mining Bee?

Dark Bush Crcket?

Even More Butterflies

A quick ride round the northern part of Chopwell Wood proved that my previous laments about the shortages of speckled wood do not signal its total demise, as I saw half a dozen of them within half an hour.

Perhaps more interesting since I don't recall spotting them there before was a healthy display of orchids along the slightly remote track I followed:

Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid

I'm not sure what kind they are but they reminded me that I'd seen a cracker a few days earlier at the Spetchells - a common spotted orchid I believe. 

However I digress...

Last Sunday I cycled to Weetslade Country Park, enticed by an article suggesting the presence of small copper and small skipper, and still anxious to see as many butterflies as possible. 

I arrived about lunchtime and settled near the top of the hill and saw nothing for forty five minutes apart from a single red-tailed bumble bee.  Then just before I moved on a single common blue appeared.

Moving around a bit I didn't find anything until right near the western exit I came across a triangle of grassy heathland, where things really started to happen.

Within an hour I totalled 25 ringlets, 12 male common blue, one of which sunbathed next to me repeatedly plus 5 of what I assumed at the time would be small skipper. On inspection of photographs however they were more likely large skippers - wasn't expecting that one!

Large Skipper

Small copper didn't appear - probably between broods - but a couple of girls said they had seen several small heath and I reckon I might have caught sight of one in flight but wasn't certain.

As at the Spetchells, I noticed a lack of bird's foot trefoil.  As there the main compensation seems to be an immense number of buttercups, which is what the skipper was nectaring on.

There were also a couple of speckled wood along the woodland edge and several on the cycle track through Ponteland, proving that rumours of its demise are indeed exaggerated.

Back at home the tits have finally realised that the caged peanut feeder is indeed for their benefit.

Plus there was a brief but noticeable reappearance of female red mason bees around the bug hotel.

One of them landed on my hand yesterday but more significant was the appearance of a broken-belted bumblebee worker on the plants nearest the house.  Unfortunately, my new wonder camera let me down, only managing hopelessly blurry shots, but I got a clear view and was pretty confident of what I saw.

More Butterflies Less Bees

Taking advantage of the very first day of a predicted dry spell, I rode to The Spetchells last Monday, hoping to at last find some butterflies on the wing, in particular the common blue

I wasn't disappointed.  Within a few minutes of mounting the chalk steps, I'd found a couple of meandering meadow browns and, wandering further, two solitary male common blues within short succession of each other.

Common Blue

Meadow Brown

There were as expected no buffish mining bees to be found but plenty of its predator, Gooden's Nomad Bee, prowling around the holes the miners have made in the paths. 

Gooden's Nomad Bee

At one point I thought I saw a blood bee entering one of the holes but it never re-emerged. Apart from that I only saw a couple of bumble bees (one red-tailed.)

Even a couple of speckled wood appeared underneath the birch trees and on the way back I happened upon four very fresh-looking ringlets. It was the first time I've seen either species this year.

Speckled Wood

Ringlet

I duly reported all to Butterfly Conservation North East and immediately got an automated message saying the ringlets were the first to be reported this year, which really surprised me but tallies with the fresh appearance. The speckled wood looks in good nick as well.

In all of this, I couldn't help noticing that there was far less bird's foot trefoil at the Spetchells than on previous visits, perhaps explaining why there was no sign of the dingy skipper or any burnet moths.  I begin to wonder if I've struck a bit lucky with the blues.

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

Getting Around (cont)

My latest trip was to Saltholme RSPB with Jen and Joe on Sunday.

There was no shortage of sightings.  I had certainly hoped to see an avocet but in the end we must have seen going on 20!  We also caught up with a rarity in the form of Temmincks Stint (two birds).  Overall there were too many photos to display individually so I've run them together in a video:

This actually excludes some of the more common birds such as sand martin, shoveler, pochard, tufted duck mallard and a pair of canada geese who escorted their (already plump) brood to hoover up leftover bird seed underneath the feeders outside the cafe. 

The bright coloration of the two linnets we saw was particularly striking, but spare a thought for the poor reed bunting.

When we stopped to watch it, it started to come nearer and nearer, calling all the while.  At first we thought it might be begging for scraps but it was actually in distress as Joe found out when he spotted a stoat nearby escaping with a chick in its mouth.

I wasn't too sure about the identification of the sedge warbler, as the head shape and eye stripe in my photo didn't look right but other photos of the same bird were conclusive.

We didn't manage to see spoonbill or marsh harrier (apart from one suspect) but both are present.

It might be added that, on a finer day, we would have seen butterflies and bees in the plentiful wild vegetation but a see fret and resulting 12C temperature and north wind (!) meant we were restricted to just one very small buff-tailed bumblebee.

Meanwhile the garden has been fairly quiet.  I did at last manage to capture a male orange tip on film.

Orange Tip

Typically, I also managed to identify a couple of mystery bees about a week back.  After consulting inaturalist for not very impressive feedback, I'm plumping for Willughby's leafcutter bee and Marsham's nomad bee but without a great deal of conviction.  Who really knows about these nomad bees?..

Willughby's Leafcutter Bee?

Marsham's Nomad Bee?

Getting Around

I got out on a couple more trips this week.

On Monday the U3A Nature Watchers made it to the Low Barns Reserve next to the River Wear, which looks quite promising and certainly produced several pleasant if not unexpected sightings.

Straight away we caught my first sighting this year of a swallow in the typical 'bird on a wire' pose.

Swallow

Of course there were a couple of pairs of Canada Geese, one of which had some charming chicks, the other distinctly amusing in their mating activities.

Canada Geese mating

...and having mated...

Also we found the more obvious members of the grebe family:

Great-crested Grebe

Little Grebe

I was also quite amused to spot what I take to be a pair of immature greylag geese.  I think they look rather stately.

Greylag geese

Then at one point, something out of the ordinary happened when a bird appeared briefly on the fence and bushes in front of the hide - and appeared to be sporting a definite red breast,  Unfortunately, I had turned away briefly to check the feeders and couldn't get a photo of it.  But I did see it later in flight, which was noticeably rapid and again got a clear flash of red breast. The only conclusion I could come to was that it might have been a red-breasted flycatcher, a relatively rare passage bird.

Unfortunately the only photo that someone did manage to take was inconclusive and looked more like a reed warbler and no further reports have followed.

As it happened I had to content myself with a shot of the first speckled wood butterfly I have seen settle this year.

Speckled Wood

In fact there's been remarkably few of them around this year.  Perhaps something to do with the cool, damp spring?