Flaming June!

 Well, not so much flaming in the heat sense as flaming June in the cold, annoying, sense!

This month has been a downer after that warmer week at the end of May, so here is a catch up.

In late May a Goldfinch built a nest in the apple tree just outside my home office window. We could watch her weaving the structure together with her finely pointed bill and rounding the cup with her body pushing downwards. By 27th May she was sitting, so we looked forward to the family developing. Sadly, that was not to be because after two or three days she just left the nest never to return. At the same time a poorly looking female Goldfinch was in the garden on the other side of the house. It may have been her, who can say.  

Goldfinch on the nest. Its a shoddy image as it is taken through an old cottage window so as not to disturb her.

  At the beginning of June, small numbers of Painted Lady arrived with half a dozen in a morning passing through the garden and with them a couple of Hummingbird Hawk-moths were seen.

Painted Lady looking a bit dishevelled after its flight from Africa.

Hummer on valerian on our drive.

More unusually, unprecedented in fact, was the arrival of Small Mottled Willow. Before this year I had only seen 3 in my life, but 22 have graced the trap so far in last few weeks. Shame there were no Eastern Bordered Straw that deluged as far north as Tynemouth.

Small Mottled Willow

  Insect migration soon dried up as the wind swung back NW with a colder edge and has been there ever since. Other resident garden and village wildlife included -

 

Large Pine Weevil, a lifer for me and randomly was found in our bathroom. I put it on the valerian before identification so I could get a photo.

 

Pammene aurana on verbascum when it should be on Hogweed...

Nemaphora degeerella seems to be having a good season.

We have 5 Mullein caterpillars across three Verbascums in the garden. This was the biggest of them and its enjoying the plant.

The first of the garden Tree Sparrows are out and about now, with adults taking nest material into boxes to refurbish for a second brood. We also have House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail and Blackbirds all with young. 

Pied Wagtail with fledgling .

Tree Sparrow juvs.

Dune.

On a fine warm summers day there is no finer place to be than in a Northumberland Dune system. Today we visited Birling Links a few miles down the road from us. Its a good spot as it takes a bit of a walk to get there, so tourists are few and far between.

Our goals today were to check out the flora and try to get a photo of the Wolf Spider Arctosa perita that we saw last year but without a macro lens. No birds at all went into the notebook, probably because my head was down and eyes were focussed to under a metre. Its probably best to let the photos do the talking...

View North towards Alnmouth.

Dune flora reminds me of the machair in the Hebrides

Bee Orchid

Eyebright

Restharrow 

Depressaria daucella caterpillar on Hemlock Water Dropwort

Drinker moth caterpillar are common here.

Not too sure but looks like an Ectimnius Digger Wasp with prey.

Dune Chafer 

Garden Tiger caterpillar

Micropterix aruncella

Coastal Silver Stiletto Fly

Coastal Silver Stiletto Fly

One of the Spider Hunting Wasps poss Priocnemis parvula or Caliadurgus sp? Witha  Wolf Spider 

Yellow-tail Moth caterpillar, the first one of these larvae Ive seen.

The main target, Arctosa perita found on the bare sandy patches. What a stunner...

Around the garden and village.

Long-tailed Tit feeding on aphids below elder leaves.

Grey Dagger caterpillar.

I'm off work now for a couple of days for no reason really, I just fancied it.

As the weather has been quite nice yesterday and today ( yesterday best, today was a little bit dull) we've been catching up on some gardening and just generally mooching around the village with Bunty.

On Thursday at dusk my first Pink footed Geese of the autumn flew south over the house, about 100 birds in total.

Yesterday arrivals continued with 30, 65, 70 all going south. I thought that the low cloud today would bring a better count but I only saw one party of 60 all day.

A few phylloscs have been hanging around, with 8+ Chiffchaffs and a single bright Willow Warbler associating with 13+ Long tailed Tits, 2 Goldcrests and the usual commoner garden dwellers. Long tailed Tit is not that common in the village, usually being found in the wooded areas along the road. I've been grilling this flock until I am boss-eyed trying to find a Yellow-browed Warbler. Maybe next weekend...

Over head some viz mig has produced   a few Redpolls, Skylarks and Grey Wagtails with one or two Song Thrushes newly arrived from the east.

This mild summery weather has brought a lot of butterfly activity to the garden. There have been Red Admirals, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Large and Small White, Speckled Wood and Wall Brown. Two Painted Lady were along the coast path.

This lot is all well and good but its not adding to the flagging patch list. Hows about a hint of easterly in the weather forecast please?

Down to earth...

...with some commoner species of autumn moth found in last nights garden moth trap...

Angle Shades, a lovely fresh one.

Chestnut. First one of the autumn, again nice and fresh.

Red line Quaker

Green brindled Crescent

Buff Ermine caterpillar.

Silence of the Lambs...

Death's Head Hawk-moth caterpillar.

 Yesterday, Jane's sister, Victoria sent me a text with a photo of this caterpillar saying she had found it walking across the path, near her home in Northampton, and was it dangerous. As soon as I saw it, I got a tad excitable - its a Death's Head Hawk-moth caterpillar like the moths of Hannibal Lecter fame in Silence of the lambs!

Straight away, I gave her instructions on how to post the creature to me immediately as we must have a go at rearing it to adult hood. The moth is the Holy Grail of moth trappers in the UK and this chance might never come again. Next day, before 9am delivery cost a whopping £25 but to see this monster was well worth it. What a belter!

It was placed in a tank with some Privet and Potato tops to feed on but it just wanted to wander around the edge. This must mean that feeding time was over, it was a big lad after all, and its time to get underground to pupate.

After consulting various internet sources and with help from Alan Fairclough, I gathered some nice molehill soil, gave it a blast in the microwave to clear off any undesirables and laid it in the tank so it could bury itself away for a month or so. We didn't think it would go in so quickly! The whole vanishing act took no more than 10 minutes.

All we have to do now is keep the tank at a nice 25 degrees for a month and hopefully the adult will emerge. I'll never sleep!