Coming soon...

 Mid July here and its ages since we've done any proper birding. But, fear not dear reader, there are some northerly winds forecast for the weekend so the seasons seawatching will begin...

In the meantime its back to creepy crawlies, flappy things both day and night and green stuff to keep us entertained.

When you drill down and take notice of the little things, there are never any quiet days. Lifers tend to call by every week, or day if you are a more diligent observer.

Last week I was about to leave our village hall and realised I was trapped. The wheelchair thresh outside had split and sprung up keeping the door shut. So, not being one for finesse a big push with the shoulder knocked the thresh into next week and I made my escape. Then I noticed a tiny creature jumping about on the concrete ramp, having been disturbed.

It was a small jumping spider that was duly captured for some pics then released back to its place.

The images showed it to be Euophrys frontalis a scarce spider up here. The males are even smaller but more colourful with red 'goggles' and black and white 'gloves'...

Euophrys frontalis, female, only about 4mm long. A scarce spider up here and a first for me. 

A calm mild night last week seemed a good time to start sugaring in the garden. Results were pleasing and by 11.45pm there were 1 Old Lady, 2 LYU, 2 Dark Arches, 1 Light Arches, 1 Double Square Spot, 1 Common Rustic agg. Since then its been cold windy and raining so that activity is on hold.

There was a good flurry of activity on Peggy's morning walk last Friday. The calling Quail that has not been heard for 10 days was singing up towards the Hips Heugh on Thursday then on Friday it or another was down beside the village in the coast fields. As I scanned around for it ( yes I know) almost as surprising was a sharp whistle alerting me to a Kingfisher darting past me over dry grass fields and into the village. It had come from the shore and was likely heading in to the ditches just inland.

Then as we walked along a nice adult Mediterranean Gull still in summer plumage flew over with some Black headeds.  

Not much happened over the weekend other than decorating, so on Monday when the sun shone I took a cuppa into the garden at lunchtime. A few nice bees on the Boarge looked interesting. They were male and female Willoughby's Leaf Cutter Bees, Megachile willughbiella. New to me and another example of how you can keep things fresh just by broadening your horizons a bit.

Female

Willoughby's Leaf Cutter Bees, Megachile willughbiella Male