Head down

It's that time of year again...

Rather than looking up into the sky or even into the canopy of the bushes, my head is down, looking at flower heads and grasses in search of invertebrates. I do enjoy the challenge of identifying these tiny insects and spiders but it takes time and patience,  I have precious little of either.

On Saturday evening Janet and I had wander around the patch. There were at least 40 Black-tailed Godwits on the Budge fields, most of them look like icelandica race birds and five Ruff including a juvenile, there was also Little Ringed Plover and a handful of Dunlin.  At least one of the cuckoos was still present and there were plenty of 'toggers' lined up along the road all taking the same photo - we left them to it and went looking for bees and hovers but it was a bit late in the day. We did find some more of the funky caterpillars of Depressaria daucella which are starting to build their cocoons. We summoned Tom Tams away from the Cuckoo as we knew he was keen to see them as they aren't a commonly recorded moth in the county.

Depressaria daucella Caterpillar building its cocoon in cow parsley

We had some adult moths and butterflies and other stuff. I'll put Sunday's sightings on here tomorrow hopefully.

Male Syrphus sp hoverfly

Beautiful China Mark moth (Nymphula nitidulata)

Common Blue butterfly (female)

Potato Mirid Closterotomus norwegicus

Yellow Shell moth (Camptogramma bilineata)

Small skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)

Field grasshopper 

Fog Blog

This weekend has been dominated by fog. Saturday started wet but the fog never really lifted all day, Sunday was brighter, it was grey and wet at first but it brightened up at times. The wind was light from the North East.

Why don't we get weekends like this in September?

It took us until after 3pm to get down to Druridge on Saturday, the wet start delaying our departure. Janet joined me and we had a wander around the patch looking for migrants - we didn't see many migrant birds but we did see lots of migrant hoverflies. All of a sudden, the cow parsley and buttercups were lifting with hovers  - a huge arrival. Spurn reported thousands and an observer on a North Sea oil rig had hundreds on his rig.

I'll do a separate hover blog later in the week when they've been identified.

It was a damp fog on Saturday and the light was awful so I left the SLR behind, which I regret as the there were so many hovers as well as this nice fresh ringlet butterfly which sat out well.

Ringlet

On the Budge fields, an little-ringed plover and a ringed-plover were on the mud and a whimbrel flew over with curlew - that was the highlights.

The avocet pair on the Budge fields still have their three chicks - a new breeding record for the reserves. It's been a funny year for breeding birds on the patch and I'm not sure why:

Avocet - new breeding record for the reserves

Bullfinch -  female with a brood patch caught last week and a pair present today - my first records outside of the October-February period other than a single August record

Coal Tit - normally a autumn and winter species only. I watched a pair taking food into the plantation today  - my first breeding record on the reserves

Lesser whitethroat - used to breed on the wider patch around High Chibburn but never in the bushes on the reserve - female caught with brood patch

and today a spotted flycatcher fly-catching by the entrance - either a very late migrant or maybe a breeding bird?

This morning I spent five and a half hours on the patch form 7am.  I was birding first thing then looking at insects and bugs. I've already mentioned the spotted flycatcher, coal tits and bullfinches. One, maybe two barn owls were hunting and lots of warblers had fledged youths with them including family parties of blackcap, whitethroat (x2) and sedge warbler.

Offshore a flock of 400-500 common scoter was out in the bay, I grilled them for surf scoter without any joy but did turn up at least two drake velvet scoters. Roseate terns were feeding amongst them.

I took the macro lens for a walk along the track to the hides - I only got about half-way, there was so much to see.

Tree Bumble Bee - Bombus hypnorum 

Odynerus spinipes - Shiny Mason Wasp

Not sure what this nest-like construction is

Early Bumble Bee - Bombus pratorum

Common Blue butterfly from above 

and the underside

Blue-tailed damselfly - Ischnura elegans 

This is Picromerus bidens Spiked Shieldbug (final instar nymph) with a caterpillar for consumption later. I think the  caterpillar is that of Autumnal rustic Eugnorisma glareosa

Common Scorpion Fly  - Panorpa communis

An unidentified spider dismantles an unidentified prey item

Not sure about this wasp yet. 

Stay tuned for some hover action later in the week!

An influx of migrants

On the day that our new leader and his Home Secretary announce that they are are going to strengthen our immigration laws a tidal-wave of migrants from Africa arrived, via Europe, onto our shores overnight.

Even Boris can't stop these migrants however - painted lady butterflies - millions of them.

Painted Lady Butterfly

A typical scene this morning

In a short walk at Druridge this morning we counted over 250 of them. Other observers counted similar numbers up and down the coast. This is the third and most impressive arrival of painted lady butterflies this summer. What's also amazing is that we witnessed a mass movement of the same species over Athens in April - thousands passing through the city centre.

Today was a good day for butterflies at Druridge with at least eleven species noted.

small skipper

Comma

a beautiful 'blue' female Common Blue

Migrant moths were also noticeable with diamond back moths, silver Y's and a yet-to-be-identified moth all over the dunes and grasslands.

Diamond back moth

There were hundreds of these in the dunes this evening...

Whilst we were photographing some of the hoverflies a couple of visitors showed us a photo of a hummingbird hawkmoth they had just photographed and we soon relocated it - a patch first for me and only my third in Northumberland.

Hummingbird hawkmoth - new for the patch

Some hoverflies from today

Rhingia campestris - sometimes known as the 'Heineken hoverfly'

Pellucid hoverfly - Volucella pellucens

 Female Syrphus sp. possibly ribesii

tbc

female Platycheirus sp

male Eristalis sp. possibly E. tenax

Most of this stuff still needs identifying...

One of the 'picture-winged flies'

Crabro cribarius  - female

Tenthrado sp

Orthops campestris

Spider - underside

Same spider from above

Grasshopper Sp

Back to Birds...
Wader numbers were much-reduced from what they were on Friday. Today there were two wood sandpipers, one common sand, five black-tailed godwits, two ruff and greenshank of note. On Friday there were 10 common sand, one wood sand, one green sand, one little ringed plover, 27 black-tailed godwit, four knot, ten snipe, two ruff, whimbrel and a the first returning golden plover of the autumn.

We had hoped to try to ring some storm petrels tonight but the sea was still boiling after recent northerlies, loud enough to drown-out or speaker for sure. We did go and check the volume out though and had ten Med gulls in the beach roost including a juvenile.

New Macro Lens

I've splashed out on a new macro lens - the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG to be precise. So after a quick play around in the garden yesterday I thought I test it for real at Druridge this morning. As a result very little birding was done in the limited time I had!

It's taking a bit a of getting used to, the depth of field is tiny, even at higher F stops. You only have to move a tiny bit and the subject is out of focus... I do like it though and I'm impressed by the results so far... The only problem now is identifying some of these critters!

Here are today's efforts - click to enlarge.

Not from Druridge but in my garden - Common green bottle fly Lucilia sericata

Marbled Bell moth Eucosma campoliliana - I think it should be called bird shit moth as that what it looks like at first glance - great camouflage 

Bloody cranesbill Geranium sanguineum

Common blue butterfly Polyommatus icarus

Seed head of one of the hawkbit/hawkweed type things - I though it looked nice!

Blue-tailed damselfly Iscnura elegans

Common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum - male

Narrow-bordered five spot burnet moths Zygaena lonicerae emerging from their chrysalis 

Narrow-bordered five spot burnet moth Zygaena lonicerae

Common Restharrow Ononis repens

Cinnabar moth caterpillars 

Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus

Black and red froghopper Cercopis vulnerata - this species seems to be colonising the north-east of England

Small Heath Coenonympha pamphilus

Dark green fritillary Argynnis aglaja - there were at least two on the wing today at Druridge