The little things...

 Been a bit of a gap since my last post. This is probably because Ive been spending too long trying to identify insects and plants. When you area novice in such matters this can take time and the blog gets neglected. So by way of a catch up here we go...

I'm not really sure where to start. When birding I can be quite systematic in my approach, confident in my own abilities, but when looking at inverts etc, Im not even sure If I'm doing it right.

The last two weeks has been spent locally in an attempt not to break the bank on diesel.  

I may as well begin with the few birds of note. A visit to our local Nightjar spot on 15th June was good with 3 being seen very well and up to 12 birds calling in the area, the most I've had in one area, anywhere. The only problem on site was navigating windblown trees in the dark on the way back. What a plugging that was. In addition to the 'jars, we had a Spotted Flycatcher, 2 pairs of Tree Pipit, Crossbill and Tawny Owl.

 Around our village a few bits and pieces have provided interest.

Our neighbours and landlord. Howick Hall.

The Mullein Moth is a rare species in Northumberland, but I have had a few records of breeding in the garden but only one adult seen. This year has been exceptional with caterpillars being found all over the region so I checked out a few likely looking plants and found three different broods of caterpillars. A good omen for a  chance of another adult in the future.

Mullein Moth caterpillars on the foodplant, Verbascum.

In the hall grounds some ornamental borders had  a few Lambs Ears ( Stachys) and Astrantia plants that were proving very attractive to a wide range of bees.

Some tiny bees on a flower the size of a pound coin. The bigger one is Davies Colletes and the tiny waspish one is a Lassioglossum sp.

This was a new one for me, Fork-tailed Flower Bee.

Vestal Cuckoo Bee

 

Davies Colletes has the catchy latin name of Colletes daviesanus. And no, that's not a typo...  of 

For a couple of weeks the small patch of Red Valerian in our drive has hosted one or two Hummingbird Hawk-moths on most days. I never tire of watching them.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth .

The same clump also had a Painted Lady on one date, the only one I've seen this summer.

One Sunday while we were inland we popped in to see the Small Pearl bordered Fritillaries near Debdon. This small site is good but getting more scrub cover that I fear will push the butterflies out. There were also some hoverflies to check out.

Sericomyia lappona

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries.

Volucella pallescens

Xylota segnis

I think that will do for now, I must get back posting again more regularly...

Hoverflies and humpty back shaggers...

Despite the impression of the title, I am not talking about some of our more rural hill going Northumberland locals. All will be revealed later...

July in upland Northumberland isn't a great place for a birder. Its usually very quiet indeed, but if you have an open mind to other forms of wildlife, you can always find something of interest.

Yesterday morning was such a walk for John  and myself as we dropped inland, only 10 miles or so from my house. Our venue was the moor and forests west of Alnwick. I wont give a grid ref  as there are many similar areas in the county where exploration could give similar rewards.

One reason I have often avoided our midsummer moorland is often due to the large numbers of biting insects that just love me. Clegs, Mozzies and Midgies all home in, but they weren't too bad on Sunday due to the breeze. Here are some photos from the morning...

First thing we found very soon after leaving the car was this large female Adder basking on the track side. She was obviously well warmed because  as I tried to close in for a photo she was gone into cover in a flash, before I was anywhere near.

The tracksides were great for inverts. This one was south facing and sheltered from the wind so Hoverflies and Butterflies were in good numbers... I only took my macro lens on the DSLR and my point and shoot for habitat shots so didn't get any of the birds we encountered, so I'll get them out of the way.

We had 2 Raven, sev Buzzard inc young calling, several Crossbills and Redpolls over, 9 Tree Pipits based on two family parties, 3 Stonechats, a family group of 3 Redstarts, 1 Spotted Flycatcher, plus Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Whitethroats. This was much more than expected up here at this time of year. I might have had a few shots if I had the right gear? So back to the job in hand...

Butterflies were dotted around with many Ringlets and Meadow Browns, 8+ Small Skipper, 7+ Red Admiral, 3 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Small Heath and 4 Common Blues. Moths made an appearance too with red necked Footman and Latticed Heath.

Trackside flora.

Red necked Footman

Small Heath

Small Skipper

The only Odonata representative was the spectacular Gold-ringed Dragonfly with a single that did its best to keep hidden. I couldn't get near it so only have this record shot. Soon, Black Darters will be on the wing here.

Gold-ringed Dragonfly

The real stars of the show were the hoverflies but I'll start the pics with a lifer Bumblebee, Bombus jonellus. Tricky things, bees...

Bombus jonellus

Chrysotoxum arcuatum 

The nationally scarce Megasyrphus erraticus

Sericomyia silentis

Sericomyia lappona

Volucella bombylans

Referring back to the title, these Conopid Flies, Sicus ferrigineus were all over the damp areas. Ugly, hump backed bow legged critters as soon as another one landed nearby it was pounced upon! Whilst they would win no prizes in the beauty stakes, they pretty much kept to themselves.

Sicus ferrigineus or Humpty backed Shaggers to us.

 The walk back, down hill gave some great views over our countryside. All in all it was a good morning out.

By Royal Appointment...

As a young lad, I used to read the books of the naturalist and field sportsman Denys Watkins-Pitchford other wise known as 'BB'. He was a great writer and illustrator who's evocative descriptions of warm summer days watching butterflies or  wildfowling on ice and snow bound salt marshes would hold me captivated. 

In particular I loved to see his black and white lino cuts and ink drawings. He was agreat inspiration. Nowadays his field sports interests might be a little bit frowned upon but he was a man of his era.

I can remember reading about his love of Apatura iris, the Purple Emperor butterfly that was an elusive and declining insect of the forests of the midlands and south of England. BB used to look for the eggs on sallows and take them to rear into adults away from predators to release the next summer. He was concerned that they may disappear altogether as a result of foresters spraying pesticides on oak trees to rid the woods of tortrix moths.

Fortunately, this practice seems to have stopped and iris numbers are on the increase. Or maybe it is due to some warmer summers in recent years in the areas they are found?

Last summer was a good one in the East Midlands with many Purple Emperors on the wing in the Rockingham Forest woodlands of East Northants. It was then that I decided we must have a trip down to have a meeting with the creature affectionately known to his fans as 'His Imperial Majesty'.

Fast forward to the heatwave of summer 2018. As the UK basked in 30 degrees temps for weeks on end, the Emperor was on the wing earlier than  usual and in bigger numbers. At the Knepp Wildlands project in West Sussex, for example, Matthew Oates counted over 300 on the wing in late June, making them more numerous than Meadow Brown! Knepp is a bit far to go over two days for us (and a bit expensive to get access) so last weekend John and myself visited the old stomping grounds of BB himself - Fermyn Woods in Northamptonshire.

We left sunny Northumberland at 4am and were onsite by 8.30am. Only one car was parked and its occupants had already left for their walk. As we entered the woods, I was a bit disappointed to see that the forestry people had annihilated the trackside scrub including all of the sallows favoured for breeding by the Emperors. What would BB have thought?

Onwards and upwards though, and a movement half way up and oak trunk attracted my attention. It was a worn old female Purple Emperor! First butterfly of the day too. This is a doddle, we thought.

Male Purple Emperor showing why he has his name.

How wrong could we be. For the next several hours walking the length of Fermyn and Lady Woods all we manged were brief flight views of H.I.M gliding around his territory but always too high. Other great butterflies for us invaders from the north filled in the void, with good sightings of White Admiral, Purple Hairstreaks, Silver washed Fritillaries, Gatekeepers and Marbled Whites, let alone masses of Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Small and Large Whites, Small and Large Skippers all along the rides. It was fantastic.

White Admiral, now past their best.

Silver Washed Fritillary

Essex Skipper, only two seen amongst dozens of Small Skippers and Large Skippers 

Gatekeeper. We dont get these at home.

The heat almost made us succumb by 2pm so we headed back to the car, without an 'iris on the deck' shot.

Only 50 mtrs from the parking area, a young lady said she had a male up in the taller trees. Another visitor has sprayed a little attractant ( vile fish oil) onto the track to no avail. She soon left, and John and me stood, gazing back up the ride hoping for a large butterfly to appear. No joy, so we turned to head off and there, on the path, 3 feet away, was His Majesty spread eagled in the dappled shade. I pushed John to one side and I the other to prevent him being trodden on and thought that was our chance gone, he was bound to flush back to the high oaks. But no, he sat a while then flew a few feet and landed again and sat there for the next hour enjoying sucking his yellow proboscis on the hardcore path.

More of the male that granted us an audience.

Our concentration attracted the attention of other watchers and some even came from the Cafe at the country park around the corner for a look. Patience scarcely paid off as despite being a beautifully fresh butterfly he didnt want to open his wings again. I couldnt resist trying to see if he would sit on my finger and with the agreement of the observers left, I gently slid my flat hand towards him, just touching his legs before he glided safely up into the woods.

What a great experience!

We were staying in The Woolpack Inn not far away overnight so I'll do another post about the next day soon....its mostly odonata...

The backstage door, butterfly style. You can see the Emperor in the front.

Heartbeat Country..

I can't remember how I originally heard, that only about 120 miles away into the North Yorkshire wolds lurked some highly sought after species. It will probably have been on Twitter or some other internet spot. I then put social media to its best use and contacted some acquaintances for further advice. Soon a couple of people in the know, kindly gave me directions to their favourite spots and asked me not to widely broadcast, so forgive me for being a bit vague with the info on here. I'm sure a bit of dilligent internet searching will point you in the right direction.

Armed with our newly acquired info, on Sunday, we took a day trip out of the county to check out the sites . First stop was near Pickering for a couple of nice orchids that I did not know occurred this far north - Burnt Tip Orchid and Fly Orchid. In a very green and uninviting arable setting the small area below was a stunning oasis for flowers and butterflies.

We soon found several Dingy Skippers, Small Copper, Brown Argus and Small Heath butterflies, then 3 nice spikes of target No 1 Burnt Tip Orchid. Target No 2 lurked only a few feet away, Fly Orchids. There were more of these with about 8 spikes noted. We would normally have put the morning in at a site like this, but other delicacies were waiting...

The small limestone diggings shows the substrate favoured by the plants.

Dingy Skipper

Burnt tip Orchid

Early Purple Orchids in good numbers.

Above - Fly Orchids.

Brown Argus

Site No 2 was about 5 miles away, for a butterfly I have only seen once - Pearl bordered Fritillary.

We soon located up to 20 of these normally woodland insects, either dashing past a a rate of knots (males) or (females) being elusive, flutterhopping into dead bracken clumps looking for violets to lay egs on or near to. They are another declining species in the UK with scattered small colonies mainly with a westerly distribution.

Fritillaries dashed past or scurried around under the bracken laying eggs.

Pearl bordered Fritillaries above.

 As time was wearing on, we made a move, 16 miles further west towards Thirsk, for the star of the show, the headline act, so to speak, all arise please for - The Duke of  Burgundy.

The last time I met with the Duke, was on a Lancs limestone pavement a few years back, 

now here we are, in the other rose county, where we were very pleased to count 19+ in a small sunny area. Up to 7 at a time, 'kettled' in circles, squabbling together then dividing back to low perches on bramble leaves and grass stems. Anything flying by would be chased by these tiny terrors, not much bigger than a Small Blue.  I could have watched them all day.

Above - the haunt of the Duke...

Duke of Burgundy

 The time was getting on now and we headed off for the two hour drive home, very pleased that we had not only seen all of our target species, we had great views and decent numbers of them too!
While working out our next sortie away, its back to the patch for the rest of the Bank Holiday...