Bit of a catch up....

 Time for a catch up about what has been happening on the local patches.

22nd June 2025

Overnight on 22^nd, a thunder storm broke the spell of warmer weather. 

In the morning we took a walk through one of our neglected upland patches, Corby Woods, to the Pond to look for dragonflies. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and breezy so it was an Odonata no-show apart from a couple of Large Red and Common Blue Damselflies but we did see a few things of interest.

 Butterflies were undaunted by the weather. We saw 3 Large Skipper, 7 Red Admiral, 6 Speckled Wood, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 4 Ringlet, 1 Small Skipper and  1 Common Blue, while Moths included 10+ Brown China Mark, an aquatic breeding moth around the pond, and a Bordered White.

Large Skipper

Ringlet

Small Skipper

A few birds were also added to the notebook – 4 Crossbills, 4 Redpolls, 3 Tree Pipits, 9 Willow Warbler, 1 Buzzard and 2 Garden Warblers, one of which was unusually showy. It seemed to mob us as we walked past so there may have been a nest of newly fledged young nearby.

Garden Warbler mobbing us on the path so we moved along.

The last week of June at home had ups and downs. The down just about out weighing the up!

28th June 2025.

We were coming back through our village with the dog when we bumped into a family of Spotted Flycatchers. This was the first local breeders here for about a decade so it was great to see them. My first thought was how have I missed the adults when I am out several times every day here? All I can think is that they have been in the grounds of the Old Rectory, a place without access.

Spotty Fly family, with adult at the top.

A Peregrine was seen on a couple of days too, once low overhead carrying prey of some kind, looked like a young Jackdaw maybe?

Now, on to the downside. Tim Dean the Northumberland County Recorder advised that a visitor to the area from Lincs had seen and photographed a female Honey Buzzard coming in-off the sea at Seahouses Farm at 11am this morning! Ive never seen one in the county and it is 30 years since my last in the UK, so that one smarts a bit...A first for my patch.

 29th June 2025

After a short visit to the Aln Estuary first thing where it was nice to see a brood of 3 Avocet chicks teetering around their pool, a sight that would have been considered unthinkable here only 10 years ago we moved up to Alnwick to look for White letter Hairstreaks.

We didn’t have to look far. As we parked beside the Denwick Bridge bottle banks, 3 were flitting around the top of an elm on the edge of the car park but they stayed up top while we were there. 

Downstream, through the wood a damp field corner was home to a pair of Broad bodied Chasers that gave great views when the male was pestering the egg laying female. A few Banded Demoiselle were on the river.

Back home, a Hummingbird Hawk-moth was nectaring on the valerian especially planted for the purpose.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth.

1st July 2025

Let the Seawatching commence...

An hour at Cullernose Point this evening in torrential rain, never been so pleased to have the fishing brolly. 61 Manx Shearwater N, 1 Puffin, 71 Sandwich Tern, 1 Little Tern, 4 Arctic Tern, 22 Common Scoter, 1 Whimbrel, 6 Lesser black backed Gulls. Not earth shattering but it is always good to make a start.

6th July 2025

The morning started with a Raven calling from Hips Heugh outside our garden.

I headed off toe Seaton Point to wait for John. While loitering I had good views of an immature Peregrine hunting the 300 Linnets in the weedy field, a male Kestrel and a Barn owl hunting too.

We wandered to the bench on Seaton Point and put the morning in watching the tide back in.

In calmish conditions we had - 

 

Shelduck 16 inc with 2 broods of 6 and 8.

Goosander 2 N

Golden Plover 3 sum plum on the rocks

Whimbrel 2

Bar tailed Godwit 2 S

Common Sandpiper 1 on the rocks

Dunlin 2

Puffin many, 50+ all over the place.

Lesser black backed Gulls 13 N

Roseate Tern 12 N

Sandwich Tern 111 N

Arctic Tern 5 N

Common Tern 4 N 

Manx Shearwater 17 N

Sedge Warbler 1

Whitethroat 9+   

Mothing update - 

Few Dark Swordgrass this week.

Zeiraphera isertana a first for me.

Monochroa ctytisella

Sand Dart

Cydia fagiglandana

Freyers Pug

Large Twin Spot Carpet

Rhigognostis incarnatella, a pair of them.

Crocidosema plebejana about 5th for the county.

Standard and dark forms Slender Brindle.

I see a Rainbow Rising....

 Whats going on? My local patch is getting some good birds. After last weeks post anyone would think I had peaked for the year but no, that was just an apperitif. Things were going to take an upward turn...

Saturday 31st May. 

Jane is off to Newcastle with friends, so me and Peggy are left at a loose end back at home. I could have gone birding, but no, I am out on Sunday so I thought I might use my free time productively for the good of the village.

Our Village Hall has a small wildlife pond less than 100 mtrs from our house and it needed a bit more of a tidy up after starting it last month. Then, with the help of a few Coast Care Volunteers, we removed some choking vegetation to create more open water for amphibians. This was done successfully and in no time we had Toads, Smooth and Palmate Newts back where they belong.

We stacked a large mound of chopped soft vegetation on the decking where it was up to me to mulch around shrubs with it at a later date. Today was the day.

Armed with a wheelbarrow of tools I pottered off down to the pond. While I am here, it looked like it could do with a top up so the hose was deployed and left to run into the shallows as I worked. After a few barrow loads of rotten rushes and iris leaves had been removed a movement over the water caught my attention. It was a female Broad bodied Chaser and she was egg laying. She delicately dipped up and down to the surface, touching the water with her abdomen each time. She is the first Broad bodied Chaser I have seen on the patch so I was very pleased.

An old shot of a female Broad bodied Chaser. I didnt have my camera with me for the sighting above.

At 4pm I had finished the donkey work and was now using the hose to wash off the decking to tidy the site.

As I did this, in a trance really, a quiet soft call made me pause. Now it couldnt be. Surely not? Could it?.

Not really expecting anything at all, I stopped hosing and glanced beyond the pond to the Old Rectory paddock opposite to see a BEE-EATER gliding around! ( In the top image the bird was half way out to that Shepherds hut.) The funny thing is I was quite relaxed about it. I stood and watched it flap and glide when it called again , then moved off behind some tall sycamore trees and off south.

It was time to put the word out incase it might be picked up by birders south of me, so I walked back home collected my Bins, Camera and the dog and headed back out, hoping the bird might be sitting on some wires for me to get a photograph.

We walked back through the village where there was no sight or sound  (de-ja-vu Rosefinch) and out along the lane. Three quarters of the way along I stopped to scan east with the bins. It was now 4.15 and I expected the bird to be away south by now when all of a sudden, there it was. It was distant as it arced up over the rise in the fields. It was feeding beside Seahouses Farm where cattle would attract some flies. This is two fields from my current position so off we strode with purpose.

Arriving at the spot there was no sign of the Bee-eater. only a few Swifts were hawking around. I gave it 10 minutes then left to knock up some notes while the sighting was fresh in my mind.

I see today that it was seen yesterday at Spurn and this morning along the Lincs coast.

What a bird for my village. I have hoped for one for years and each summer on a daily basis day dream as I scan the phone wires across the fields. Despite not seeing it perched up, my sighting was good enough for me, and it wont be beaten this year thats for sure...

  

 

A fine weekend!

 That made a nice change, a sunny warm interlude in the weather.

On Sunday while most were squinting down the scope into the glare of a Northumberland sun rise for a tropical tern, we played it cool and headed inland to one of our local upland patches for the first time in ages. Our target? Odonata.

A sea of Cotton Grass waving in the wind.

Not another soul did we see.

The Pond.

From the car, there is a walk of about a mile through forestry to get to the best pond. On route it was quiet but we did have Raven, Redpolls and Cuckoo calling while in clearfell a Tree Pipit showed well as it displayed next to the ride.

Displaying Tree Pipit

As the morning warmed we took a sit and wait tactic beside the pond. It was still and bright but it took another hour before it was warm enough for the insects to emerge. Here we had lots of Large Red, Common Blue and Azure Damselflies then the stars appeared. Four spotted Chasers and a beaut of a male Broad bodied Chaser, still not too common up here.

Azure Damsel

A big Broad bodied Chaser. Stunner

Common Blue Damsel

Glittering Four spotted Chasers

Newly emerged Four spotted Chaser.

While we sat, we pondered the Bridled Tern on Coquet Island and half planned to try this tea time but I couldnt make it, so Monday was the day for me...

Sunday last day of May...

That's spring done, or almost if you are a birder in the North. Some of Northumberland's best birds arrive in the first 10 days of June, so I am keeping fingers crossed.

On Sunday I made the decision to don the binoculars and camera and venture further afield than our village. The first time I have done so on a quest for natural history, since 15th March. My anxiety was through the roof but I had arranged to meet John, not in the usual Homebase car park where we usually head off in one vehicle, but we met up in separate cars at our destination, only a few miles west of Alnwick, not far from the moors.

It is a spot we often explore during good weather for insects, reptiles and birds. It is usually quiet in terms of disturbance from humans and today was no exception. From 7am until 12 noon we saw two men out for a walk and two farmers in vehicles as they passed so social distancing was no problem at all. How these folks head off to crowded tourist spots to fly tip a single use BBQ is beyond me, I want none of that. How I will fare in the event a good bird turns up will need to be evaluated on the day, but I wont be venturing into a scrum situation that's for sure.

We started down a very quiet lane without traffic where a small river runs below a footbridge. Here we hoped to find Banded Demoiselles and we weren't disappointed. These tropical looking damsels are still a novelty to me being relatively new arrivals on the Northumberland scene, but they are to be found on most of our rivers now so it looks like they are here to stay. At this spot there were 6 males and 2 females, all flashy and metallic as they were freshly emerged.

3 male Redstarts sang around the field edges and we were approached by a curious young Brown Hare. Lapwings were already flocked up, well 10 were, in one field. Autumn will be here before we know it.

 Next we drove another three miles back up to our moorland patch for a hunt for more odonata as the weather was wonderful. We don't get too many days like this, so its good to enjoy them.

We were greeted by two Cuckoos flying around and calling to each other, both males. Redpolls danced overhead and a Sparrowhawk dropped from a tree into some birch scrub nearby but I didnt see it leave.

The two small ponds here are contrasting. One is old and edged with several metres of juncus so access is tricky, the other is new, only a few years old and on the side of a forest drive. Both held some nice insects. In total we had 20+ Four spotted and 2 Broad bodied Chasers, several Large Red, Azure and Blue tailed Damselflies, a few Small Heath butterflies and one Peacock looking its age by now.

The new pond.

The old pond.

Above - Adult and teneral Broad bodied Chasers. Nice to prove breeding.

Four-spotted Chaser

Newly emerged Southern Hawker.

Above -  a pair of Large Red Damsels 'in cop'. 

So my first venture back to some semblance of normality went well. I felt fine that no one was being placed at risk, so for the time being at least, this is how we will play it on a Sunday.

The rest as of the day was spent back at home and in the garden. One of the moth trap by catches was a pleasing find, a new spider I have wanted to see since I got the new field guide - Tetrix denticulata.

Tetrix denticulata, a new spider for me.

I also forgot to post a nice new bee for me in the garden the other day, Red tailed Cuckoo Bee, Bombus rupestris, a scarce visitor in VC68....The additional time spent in the garden as a result of COVID enforced home working has really paid dividends this year.

Red tailed Cuckoo Bee, Bomus rupestris.

Its not all Purple...

One of dozens of Banded Demoiselles.

After the heat and butterfly excitement of Sunday, we were pleased to get back to the pub for food and drink. The scampi and chips were excellent and a very cold pint of Aspalls dry cider went down very nicely.  Our rooms at the Woolpack Inn were in annexed accommodation behind the pub. The room was basic but clean and comfortable. It would have been perfect had it not been for 'Junior Kickstart' taking place only 20 yards from our window! A quad, a rally car and a mini motor treid their best to out gun each other in the noise stakes around a small paddock. This was not advertised on the website, take note!

Due to the heat it was hard to get to sleep but it was soon Monday morning and after breakfast we went out for a wander. The River Nene was just outside and from the road bridge we could count 21+ Red eyed Damselflies basking on water lillies while a nice shoal of hand sized Roach hung in the current, occasionally rising to take some unseen snack. 

The damsels were added to the nice selection found yesterday around Fermyn Woods Country Park where we recorded, 13+ Emperor Dragons, 7+ Brown Hawker, 2 Broad bodied Chaser, 1 Four spotted Chaser, 2 Ruddy Darter, 1 Emerald Damsel and many Blue tailed Damsels.

Male Ruddy Darter sky pointing due to the heat. Its something when dragonflies are too hot!

Broad bodied Chaser looking a bit worn and leathery now, his season almost over...

We visited Fermyn again for a couple of hours or so but it was much quieter than yesterday but we did find 5+ Purple Hairstreaks basking around a ditch only 2 feet from the ground and my only lifer of the trip -  2 Essex Skippers showed well in masses of Small and Large Skippers along the rides.

Inspired by the excellent selection of odonata, we are very impoverished for odonata in the North east, we were on the look out for more likely spots. A small road on our way back towards the A1 looked promising as it crossed the junction between a canal and a river at Cotterstock Lock.

When we pulled up the temp on the car read 34 degrees! It was baking. A pleasant triangular walk around the waterside gave us a great variety of dragons and some damsels too. We had 2 male Scarce Chasers, 1 male Black tailed Skimmer, 2 male Emperor Dragonfly, 2 male Brown Hawker, 1 Red eyed Damsel, 50+ Banded Demoiselle and 2+ Common Blue Damsels.

A short last ditch try for Black Hairstreak proved a week too late at Glapthorn Cow Pastures but we did have more Purple Hairstreaks, Silver washed Fritillaries, Gatekeepers etc while three Ravens cronked over head.

It was now lunchtime and we had a long journey home. It was an excellent couple of days out with loads of stuff of interest to two northern naturalists, so no doubt we will be down this way again sometime...

This one is a male Scarce Chaser see the black triangles at the wing bases. And its on a plant. This seperates it from the next species...

Black tailed Skimmer. No black triangles and flat on a bit of concrete. It doesnt perch on emergent vegetation prefering harder surfaces.