A short 'Summery' !

 While it has been very much warm enough for me, the North Northumberland coast has not seen the roasting temperatures of the south and inland. On Saturday it did reach 28 degrees in the afternoon but has mainly been in the 21 - 25 degree range. We had a massive thunderstorm on Wednesday night that frightened Peggy half to death so we were up from 3am til 6am comforting her on the settee. The wind has been a touch irritating too, with SW 3 - 5 most of the time, but over all it has just been summery weather.

As I mentioned last time, one star this week was the garden arrival of Wool Carder Bees. These are rare in Northumberland with only a few records around Berwick and the Tyne Valley so these were not on my radar. In fact it was only from photos I took of a 'Leafcutter Bee' that made me cotton on to their presence.

To begin with a single male was photographed on Great Mullein chewing at the furry leaves. His yellow spotting on abdomen and legs was quite obvious in photos, a nice colourful little bee a bit like Hairy Footed Flower Bee.

After a few days I planted two new Stachys byzantina plants ( Lambs Ears, a Wool Carder favourite) . Before I had patted the soil down around them a male Wool Carder had taken them as his territory and was fighting off other bees. Since then both male and female bees have been present, females taking away 'cotton wool buds' of fluff away to nest holes out of the garden somewhere. 

They are a great addition to the garden fauna.

 

Wool Carder Bees in the garden.

 As if that nice surprise wasn't good enough, the warm weather had another stunning gift in store.

On Sunday morning the moth trap was particularly busy with micros, the over night minimum temperature being 17 degrees. I was being as diligent with them as I could not wanting any to escape as there was a good chance of a garden first in these conditions.

As I rolled back the covering towel to extract the last egg tray I was struck by a real shocker! Sat there was a proper Blackpool Illumination of a moth, a Scarlet Tiger! Wow, what a stunner and full Northumberland first too, for both VCs 67 and 68. Looks like the most Northerly UK record too.

When I looked back again, the egg tray was empty. The moth was flying circuits around the trap. Shaking in case it got away, I took the whole trap into the greehouse just in case it did get out where I could at least have another chance, As it happened the potting went well and I could relax.

I had only seen my first last year at Cley, Norfolk. In my post last June, I say, 'only found in the south' never expecting one in the garden a year later.

My friend Ian Fisher was keen to twitch the moth so I kept it until late afternoon then released it after a photo session. Iain Leach commented on Scottish Moths that they had also been recorded in Dumfries and Galloway and Carlisle in recent times, so I wouldnt take bets on us being blase about these in 5 years time. 

Unusual or extreme weather even far away can drop some interesting stuff in to the garden...

Scarlet Tiger