Stewchat...

A very nice sunny and warm bank holiday Monday...

We spent most of today outside either gardening or walking through the Howick Hall estate.

Although the light was good there weren't too many photo opportunities...




Above - These Rudd were gathered in a tiny pond on the estate. We heard an enormous splash that we think came from something much larger but unseen...Coarse fish are quite unusual in Northumberland, so this is a goody for the fish list....



Above - The Scarlet Pimpernel, not so damned elusive after all...



Above - Its a pity I found this Star of Bethlehem just after it had gone over. There was only the one, though I had one not far from here on the coast path afew years back, but this is only the second one I've seen.



Above - An Ichneumon Wasp possibly Amblyteles armatorius but some features are not quite right...Other insects around today were 10+ Wall Brown, 1 Small Copper, another different Speckled Wood, 1 male Orange Tip and a few Green veined Whites. My first Common Blue Damselflies were at the pond too...

This evening I popped down to the coast path for a half hour sea watch to see if I could boost my May patch list. I have not even pointed a scope seaward since moving in, so I was bound to add something...

Manx Shearwater 1 N 2 S (88)
Razorbill 3 (89)
Puffin 1 (90)
Red throated Diver 1 fs on the sea (91)

Plus an assortment of commoner species such as Gannets, Sandwich and Arctic Terns, Eider, Kittiwakes, Fulmar etc...

Speaking of which, there were another 4 or 5 Kitti eggs in the wood this morning...


Thanks to Mike Hodgson for sending this distribution map of Mother Shipton Moth in Northumberland, showing the recorded sightings. It is quite a scarce moth, but our local lepidoptera expert, Harry Eales, sayd that he sees them just about annually now but mainly on the coast...