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Not Another Not Northumberland Thread!!

PimperneBloke
27/05/2020 14:21

So day off this week was today, so decided to head Arne-wards, despite it being closed, as there a couple of similar heathland sites in the vicinity. In the end I plumped for Middlebere, hoping on the off chance with no visitors, the Dartford Warblers may have extended their range from Arne. Well, they might have, but I didn't notice if they did!! I was also hoping for male linnets, but I didn't spot any, but possibly some females!

Pretty much everything I saw remained obstinately far away, or with it's back to me....Grrr!

I was greeted by Meadow(?) Pipit

Female Stonechat

A warbler (possibly willow as it is yellower than chiffchaff...but hey... it didn't sing!)

A dragonfly-ey/chaser-ey/darter-ey type thing, but only managed this one shot before it flew away, so colouration not evident... but it looks like something has run over its body, so could be a very rare Tyred Flat-Bodied Roadkill Darter

Got some more of this one though :o) .... and I'm going for Yellow Winged darter, as it has yellow spots on the wings! (with my luck it will be a pink spotted darter, coz on the bottom of it's tongue there is a green spot, or something equally random!)

Some sort of Shield Bug?

A Gold and Blue Darter... could be one of many, so I'm going for the same again, but with Quink fetish

Not sure, in this twofer one shot, started thinking maybe female linnet and stonechat, but then went juvenile stonechat, or any combination and have now confused myself!

Lady Stonechat

Lord Stonechat

Probably a Chiffchaff

Another shiny beetle, very similar to one from last week

A wasp thing that likes holes? Not sure if it was digging this one, or hunting in it

One for the butterfly/moth ladies....

A convenient little puff of breeze allowed a sighting of the underwing, Cin Grin

There was some sort of fly...

In old money, I used 2 and a half rolls of film on the next subject...…. Lightened quite considerably on the PC

Elevenses

Mr Stonechat

Not sure on this fella

And not even going to guess on this one!

Peek-a-Boo...I'm coming for youuu

Not sure but this could be a tree pipit, as it was properly white on its belly, and also a really bright eye brow!

So despite no Dartfords, I saw my 1st "bigger than a damsel" dragonflies of the year, and despite everything remaining distant, a pleasant couple of hours was spent before it got too hot!

Stay Safe All

  • 27/05/2020 16:38
    My wild guess on the various dragons are that your first two are Mr & Mrs Keeled Skimmer, next might be an immature Black-tailed Skimmer - did you see any aerosols lying about?
    Your fancy myth drying out its wings is a Cinnabar moth - ragwort specialist with the glorious black and orange stripy cats.

    CinJ
  • 27/05/2020 17:09
    Good afternoon, PB. You invariably come back with something interesting.
    I agree mostly with Germain except I think they are all Keeled Skimmers - males being blue and females yellow ochre.. I think the key is the orange wing spots which they all have. Black-tailed Skimmers, even immature ones, have black wing spots. I could be wrong though. Keeled Skimmers tend to be quite localised so a nice find.
    Well done on getting the fidgety Goldcrest.
  • 27/05/2020 17:24
    Nice set PB, good to see so many different species and who can resist that charming little Goldcrest and all those lovely dragonflies.
  • 27/05/2020 18:23
    Some lovely sightings/photos even if you didn't find a Dartford.
    You're quite right to say a yellowish warbler is unknown as you didn't hear it, but the dark legs tend more to Chiffchaff (It's no guarantee but WW's normally have paler/pink legs).
    The wasp thingy is an Ichneumon wasp but they are very, very difficult to pin down to species level. Normally parasites that lay their eggs in other critters.
    I'd say the fella you're unsure of is a young Stonechat
    The last photo - I'm not convinced the spots on the flank are vague enough for a Tree Pipit. I think it's probably just a pale Meadow P.
  • 28/05/2020 10:15

    Ah, good, the holidays are still ongoing, I can relax and enjoy, beer in glass, glass in hand.... Grinning

    Great collection of photos PB, and the dragons are superb.

  • 28/05/2020 20:08
    Thank you all :o)
    Unfortunately Mike, no, not hols still, just the day off this week
    I'm arguing with none of you about skimmer ID's, I know Nuthinggggg!!