A walk around the patch

A walk around the local area came across some more Bee Orchids some not looking their best probably the heavy rains taking there toll ,but there where one or two just coming through , plenty of damsels again and a couple of Meadow Browns soon they will be everywhere or will they this year .

 Bee Orchid just coming through

 I have enlarged this one ,I crept up on this Common Blue Damselfly till I realised  it was captured by a Spider  which you can just see it's legs

 Another Yellow ladybird

 Common Spotted Orchid

Meadow Brown will they be common this year ?

Sunny Days

A sunny day looking for Dragonflies and Butterflies Meadow Browns and Ringlets in huge numbers along with Common Blue , only Damselflies on the pool, and a single Speckled Wood  was a new record, found another 20 or so spikes of Bee Orchids , I wonder if it is a good year for this species, Common Spotted Orchids also in good numbers.

 Small Skipper ?

 Ringlet

 Common Blue

 Bee Orchid

 Bee Orchid in the tall grass, nice healthy tall specimens

 Azure damselflies the dominant species but also , Blue-tailed  & Large red

Meadow Browns in the hundreds these two coupled in mating

Dragonflies 10-6-11

!0-6-11 I went off looking for Dragonflies around some of the local ponds they seem common just south over the water but I have yet to see any in Northumberland ,damselflies are out  but as yet none of the larger Dragonlies ,plenty of Butterflies today the Common Blue out in good numbers, also  day flying moths including the emergence of thousands of Five Spot Burnet's a very attractive Moth but as they are so common they hardly get a glance, came across some Bee Orchids a group of about 20 these are fantastic flowers , designed to attract a certain species of Bee ,if memory serves me right  does exist in Britain , so the pollen carriers just wither and the plant ends up fertilizing itself . Also lots of the commoner Orchids around , with some Betony just coming into Flower and one or two plants unknown to me ,but the problem is I forget the names of as many as I learn the names of  and constantly say to myself what's that  !!!

Anyway the day got colder and colder and I still have not seen a Dragonfly , so I headed off for Fish Quay to have a look for the Iceland Gull reported as having been there for a few days , listed as a third Summer it sounded interesting , arrived at the Quay and found the bird immediately but sitting up on the shed roof  , so I hung around and eventually it flew past several times  overhead at the time I thought  it looked OK for Iceland , it had darker outer Primary edges which would dispel Iceland but  I thought perhaps "Kumliens " , again I got it on the roof just above me took some head shots , looking at them it was more Herring Gull  but so what to me it was still interesting eventually just before I was going to leave it was down on the ground in the sheds ,sorted Leucistic Herring Gull , interesting bird to end the day, sometimes they are just not what you want them to be.

 These would be great to get some close up macro shots of but they are very hard to get near

 Common Blue damselfy

 Five Spot Burnet the top one is just emerging , I kept going back to get another shot but in the end I think it's dead

 A very Attractive Moth and very common ,I presume the colouration warns they are not edible , I have never seen a bird take them ?

 Bee Orchids are fantastic these probably introduced in with Wildflower seed mix although they are always in a loose group so perhaps not , could be the conditions are just right .

Leucistic Herring Gull North Shields Fish Quay