Insects galore

With the warm, humid days of spring upon us the activity in the insect world seems to be increasing on a daily basis. A late night due to a spot of moth trapping brought the bonus of 5 new moths for our garden including Scorched Wing and Spectacle( and yes it does look like it is wearing spectacles).

Scorched Wing

A walk around Branton Ponds next morning produced the day shift and our first Damselfly of the year in the form of Common Blue.

Common Blue Damselfly

What was even more interesting was a Scorpion Fly(probably Panorpa communis) which is in the same group of insects as Lacewings, apparently the male at mating time is sometimes killed by the female, so to placate her he brings her a small ball of spit which to Scorpion flies is the same as a bunch of roses or a box of chocs, who says romance is dead.

Scorpion Fly

Holystone Woods 5th may

Wood Warbler

Bank holiday Monday and we decided to get as far away from the coast as possible so we headed to Holystone Woods,when we arrived the air was alive with bird song. We could hear Chiffchaff,Willow Warbler and Redstart, the ground was carpeted with Violets and Primroses but as we reached the oak woodland we could hear the distinctive call of Wood Warbler and soon we were in the middle of his territory, as he sang every part of his body shook. Moving on we left the oak woods and headed for more open Birch woodland where Tree Pipits called from the tree tops and parachuted from the sky, a few more species were added including Great Spotted Woodpecker, Cuckoo and Jay but nothing could eclipse the shear magic of the little sprite of the woods.

More in the pipeline ?

We were on our early morning dog walk around the west pond at Branton, the air was thick with Sand Martins as they skimmed the surface, a group of male Tufted Ducks squabbled and pairs of Shelduck flew around protecting their territory from intruders. As we walked along the pipeline Blackcaps and Garden Warblers piped out their similar calls and Whitethroats sang from the bushes.
We were about half way along when a ghostly shape came out of the mist in the shape of a Barn Owl hunting for it's breakfast, or optimistically a nest full of youngsters, we watched for a few minutes before it glided off towards the east pond. At this point we happened to look up and there above us heading east was a single Common Tern a great sight so far inland and a first for the site, after a spring Arctic Tern last year what will be next, we can only hope.

Spring is sprung

We've had Bee Flies around our Aubretia for a couple of weeks now, which is always a good sign of true spring.  But today we heard our first Cuckoo of the year.  The end of April is about par for the course for Cuckoos at Titlington Mount, but it's always a relief when the first returnee makes itself heard.

Moths

On the evening of 23rd April we decided to set up our moth trap in in the garden, the weather was mild and humid, perfect we thought, however the moths had other ideas. There were a few about but not in great numbers, mainly Common Quakers of which we had 5, others included, Hebrew Character, Water Carpet, Twenty Plume Moth, Diamond Back Moth, Powdered Quaker and a rather energetic member of the Agonopterix family. However the best moth typically wasn't caught in the trap , a stunning Herald moth which had been attracted to the light but had decided to rest on the window glass, a first for our garden and a real bonus, just like Christmas and Birthdays you are always surprised at what turns up. 

Herald.

Upper Teesdale 14th April

The promise of fine clear weather saw us heading off to Langdon Beck at 5.00 am, when we arrived there the light was perfect and the Black Grouse were lecking. There seemed to be Blackcock everywhere but what was also encouraging was the large number of Greyhens. we continued watching for some time before heading off towards Cow Green Reservoir and yet more Black Grouse on the way, our final total being 28 males and 14 females.
Around the reservoir itself were many Red Grouse, all paired up,the calls of many upland waders rang through the early morning air, including Golden Plover, Curlew, Common Snipe and Lapwing whilst overhead flew a single Peregrine.
They say the early bird catches the worm and that was certainly the case today as a few birders arrived as we were leaving by which point the Blackcocks had dispersed and were much harder to spot.  

Migrants...

Or should I say 'migrant'. My first Willow Warbler of the year was this bird, singing at Newton Pool this morning....