Orange-tailed mining bees

Orange-tailed mining bees (Andrena haemorrhoa) foraging on viburnum at Hidcote Manor.  It is interesting that there is no pollen on the bee's knees!

Bird of the week - Guillemot

A bird called William - guillemot is derived from Guillaume, French for William, although why William I don't know.  In North America the same bird is a common murre and its scientific name is Uria aalge.

The Farne Islands are home to over 25,000 pairs of guillemots in the summer.

A small percentage are bridled guillemots, that is they have spectacle-like markings around the eyes.

The guillemot looks dark brown and white when compared with the razorbill.

Female guillemots lay a single egg and brood it on the rock face as there is no nest.  The eggs are conical-shaped to minimise the risk of rolling off the edge and have a special self-cleaning waterproof surface.

Young guillemots are known as jumplings because their first move is to jump off the rocks into the water.  We saw only one jumpling last week.  Its feet look enormous - all the better for jumping with.

Listen to Sir David Attenborough's BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on guillemots here.

Full circle

The arrival of the great spotted woodpecker chicks in the garden this week reminds me that it now just over a year since I started writing this blog. 

My first post on 14th June last year was on woodpeckers feeding their young.  Taking a good photo of the feeding is a challenge because the chick is usually sitting on the wrong branch, or the wrong tree or just out of view.  My luck was in this morning.  Considering the poor light under the trees on a cloudy windy day the photos aren't too bad.  It is interesting that most of the feeding seems to be done by the fathers.

Here is something I don't think I have ever seen before - both birds on the feeder.  And it happened twice this afternoon.

The chicks are quick learners and soon work out how to get onto the peanuts and feed themselves.

Banded and beautiful - Les demoiselles

The demoiselles are the only damselflies with coloured wings.  The banded demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) is found quite widely, including here in Northumberland, whereas the beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) is found mostly west of a line from Kent to Cheshire.  These pictures were taken on the River Nene in Northamptonshire near the ox hovel at Heyford Mill.

I first found a male banded demoiselle.

This is the female.

Then I found a few female beautiful demoiselles.

And finally a mature male beautiful demoiselle.  He was very relaxed about me getting close with the macro lens.  I hope he doesn't mind that his name in French means beautiful young lady!

Blue-eyed baby

Not many British birds have blue eyes but this young jackdaw is one.  The eyes turn brown and then white as the bird gets older.

Bird of the week - Arctic tern

Yesterday I took a trip to the Farne Islands on Serenity II skippered by Andrew Douglas.  One of many highlights was seeing the arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea).

This delicate-looking bird undertakes the world's longest migration, flying 25,000 miles a year to and from its "winter" home in the southern hemisphere although, of course, it experiences two summers each year.  In the course of its lifetime it will cover well over half a million miles.  Fifty per cent of birds live for more than 30 years.

Arctic terns mate for life and usually return to the same nesting ground year after year.  They nest side-by-side with common terns on the Farne Islands.  Some of the nests are on the footpath and are vigorously defended against visitors.

The female lays one or two eggs (sometimes three) and some have already hatched.  The chicks are fed by the parents for a month but then have to learn to fish before leaving with their parents on migration.

Watch a BTO video on identification of arctic and common terns here.  Listen to the BBC Radio 4 Tweet of the Day on arctic terns here.