Rising Sun Country Park

A recent wander around Rising Sun Country Park on the lookout for Damselfly there was plenty of distractions along the way. Birds were giving it full throttle from the rooftops, with Willow Warbler and Wren making the most of the sunshine

There were dozens of Orange Tip Butterfy alighting on the Lady's Smock which is their caterpillar's food source. I didnt realise until I zoomed into the pic below that this pair were about to do what comes naturally and the perched female is actually offering up herself to the approaching male, by bending her abdomen skyward 

There were good numbers of Speckled Wood in the sunlit areas

Damselfly hunt continued

I'm in the process of trying to establish when Damselfly emerge in different locations.
I have seen some of the first arrivals at Havannah and Big Waters so today, around lunchtime and early afternoon, I visited -
Rising Sun ponds at North end - none seen
Gosforth Park NR - none seen
Pond near Gosforth Park Aquatics  - none seen
Big Waters outlet stream - many as follows

Common Blue - immature male

Common Blue - immature female

Azure Damselfly - female blue form

Large Red - male
difficult to estimate but there must have been more than 50,  although I have yet to spot a female

Then 'lo and behold' have just realised I got this Large Red female without realising

Damsels galore

At last the Damselfly are emerging.
After lunch today we had a stroll along North side of Big Waters outlet stream, and the streamside vegetation held lots of Large Red and the first (for me) blue damselfly.
This is a maturing male Azure Damselfly - Coenagrion puella

and a pair of Large Red males

The wings are not quite fully open yet

Whittle Dene

After drawing a blank on my first Yellow Wagtail hunt last week we decided to have another go 22 April 11
Went straight to the dam wall but not a wagtail of any sort to be seen. Wandered down the road past the other reservoirs and the only birds of note was this Song Thrush

and a distant Tern, perched on one of the buoys

So back to the dam wall before leaving, and we were in luck

and was a little surprised to see this orchid flowering so early

Damselfly

I have been visiting a lot of the local ponds, over the past couple of weeks, hoping to catch an early Damselfly sighting without success, but thanks to Tim's tip  we wandered around Havannah NR and sure enough a first for me for this year. It was spotted a couple of hundred yards from the nearest open water.

Large Red, Pyrrhosoma nymphula

Nuthatch

Paid a visit to Gosforth Park NR today to see if there were any Damselfly appearing but drew a blank.
However it was nice to see this Nuthatch on the walk back.

The latest poser

A pair of Jackdaw are quickly becoming residents in the back garden, one of them has taken a fancy to the fat balls while the other plods around underneath picking up the scraps dropping from above.
This one is posing on top of the washing line post.