We have just come back from a marvellous holiday in Northumberland (the last county before Scotland if your geography is like mine). This was the first time we had visited the county. The weather was marvellous and the scenery wonderful. We stayed near Alnwick  (pronounced Annick, you will be in serious trouble with the locals if you call it Alnwick) a lovely town with a magnificent castle and gardens. The gardens are well worth a visit if ever you are in that area. The wild life along the sandy sea coast was alive with sand martins and swallows. Swifts were abundant at Bamburgh castle, flying high and very fast among the battlements. The castle is owned by Lord Armstrong who was once part of Vickers Armstrong the aircraft company who made the Spitfire, and later in the early 1950s, a jet plane called the Swift, I wondered if there was any connection. 

Many tree sparrows were seen hovering over seed heads along the grassy tussocks of the coastal dunes. These sparrows are becoming a rarity in many parts of Britain but they are easily distinguished by the bright chestnut head and wings and the white cheeks marked with black, unlike other species of sparrows the male and females are alike.

Among the dunes in the middle of a sandy path that lead to the beach I came across a tiny vole. It was a young one, with a round chubby face, grey/brown body and a short tail. When I tried to encourage it back into the grass it sat tight and uttered a tiny squeak. I picked it up and put it into the grass whereupon it started to eat the roots of some grass. The vole has many predators including owls but I was concerned that this one could have been trodden on  or taken by some dogs that were playing on the beach not to far away. Thrift or sea pink were plentiful, nodding their pretty pink heads in the breeze, clearly liking the sandy conditions. Red valerian was also much in evidence growing in the old walls .

Back home we can hear the sparrow hawk chicks calling, but further away than last year; and the butterflies are out in force with many meadow browns skipping over the grass. Tortoiseshells love our mock orange which has just finished flowering after putting on a heady scented display. (Richards car is covered with the falling blossom). I have also seen small skippers, bright orange, flashes of brilliance, very fast. these butterflies favour long grass with plenty of wild flowers. They drink the nectar of scabious mayweed, dandelions, and thistles amongst other plants; they only live for about 20 days. The caterpillars eat grass. An occasional visitor to the garden is a speckled wood butterfly which as it's name suggests prefers woodland areas where it is more camouflaged but is some times seen along garden hedges. With the warm weather as this is written I wonder if we will see any glowworms.  We have some evidence that they are in the garden as we frequently come across empty snail shells.  The glow worms suck out the snails inside leaving the shell behind.  I don't know of any other creature who does this but perhaps one of our readers knows better.

Diana & Richard Terry