Wednesday 28 December 2016

28th December

I haven’t posted for a little while as it’s been so quiet. I went down the river this morning hoping the cold might have pushed birds off any frozen water. A group of 11 Cormorants flew over along with a single Goosander and a small group of Common Gulls was by the railway bridge…


This Grey Heron caught the early sun...


But after this the mist closed back in…


A large flock of geese was on the far side of the river but the mist was so thick I couldn’t see anything but vague shapes.
Yesterday there was a group of around 40 Curlew feeding here…


I flushed a small group of Teal…


a flock of 13 Wigeon was on a  riverside flood pool, 150 Golden Plover on the fields south of the bridge and a single Oystercatcher was still present…


And finally, in the misty distance today, a reminder that spring isn’t that far away…


Sunday 4 December 2016

4th December

Snipe are one of my favourite birds, a typical species of my younger days in Worcestershire in the damp meadows along the Avon. The Bottom Fields in Ainderby have similar habitat and yesterday there were around 45 Snipe there including this tight flock of 30 odd birds…



Today there were about half that number but I spotted a couple (very) distantly on the ground…


Numbers of wintering Snipe do seem to be on the increase in the parish despite a decline in the national numbers. I assume this is a feature of better habitat, so surely it can’t be long until I find my first village Jack Snipe…

A few Wigeon were also in the Bottom Fields but I didn’t see them until they were  flushed off by dog walkers. The third bird down looks different but may just be the angle?


Nearby This Grey Heron was stalking something in the ploughed field.


Herons will eat virtually anything, I once saw one swallow a Coot and I have also seen them reaching into rabbit burrows but I assume this one was after earthworms.  
I’ll finish with a couple of shots of Fieldfare, the first one showing clearly why the local dialect name for them was Blueback…


whilst this smart bird was perched in the garden of the Old Vicarage…



Sunday 27 November 2016

27th November

A quick pre-dark walk upstream from Morton bridge on Friday turned up this Oystercatcher. The first I’ve seen since the summer and probably the latest I’ve ever had one in the parish…


I also saw my first Goosander since late spring…


And on the interesting looking flood pool here…


There were a handful of Teal and half a dozen Snipe. Two Little Egret also flew over.

The Bottom Fields in Ainderby looked very promising for birds this morning too.


They would have been covered in gulls, Curlews and corvids if it hadn’t been for this…

Which, despite appearances, is not a speck on the camera lens but my second Peregrine of the year. The falcon sent everything up before flying up and over the village.
One bird that was on here was this cock Lapwing which looks to be in virtual full summer plumage, very strange at this time of year.... 


It appeared to be paired up and even seemed to have a half-hearted attempt at display flight.

The other highlights were a Fox which jumped out of the fen area almost at my feet and two Woodcock (flushed from the bog area and the willow patch). The only times I have seen Woodcock before have been on passage or in very hard weather. 

Sunday 20 November 2016

20th November

It has been very quiet recently hence the gap in posts. Thrushes have continued to flood in with a conservative estimate of 600 Redwings in the Magic Garden early last week. There is also a regular thrush roost here. The Redwings tend to use the trees on the island or the young oaks but the Fieldfares drop in to the tops of the more mature trees.
  
Cormorants used to be uncommon visitors to the village but are now seen very regularly. The bare Ash tree in the Magic Garden seems to be the perch site of choice.




This second bird looks to be of the continental race sinensis from the shape of the orange gular patch.
  
Another bird which has become much commoner in recent years is the Jay. It was the big autumn influx from the continent in 2012 which marked the real change with regular sightings since then (although they seem to disappear in the summer). The Magic Garden is the best site but birds are often seen on Langlands Farm too. I’ve included this poor picture as this is literally the only shot of this ultra-wary bird I have ever taken in the parish.


The only other birds of note were three Snipe in the bottom fields, a pair of Teal in the Magic Garden and a Grey Wagtail amongst the leaf litter on the village green (can you spot it?)


In terms of the weather there seems to be a real contrast at the moment. Both these pictures were taken within a few minutes of each other, snow on the Hambletons…


And this almost summery view in the Magic Garden...


And as if to emphasise the delayed autumn, driving to the pictures last night (‘Arrival’ – very good!) we saw quite a few moths and a bat out hunting.

I’ll finish with this striking sky-fire picture photographed last night (surely a warning from the gods after Trump’s victory!)


Thursday 27 October 2016

27th October

A walk along the river this morning in very gloomy conditions. Undoubted highlight was my first really good view of an English Otter. I almost missed it too, I heard a splash and assumed a fish jumping but fortunately lifted my bins and saw the Otter half out of the water. It then swam across the river and I caught up with it again when trying to photograph a Little Egret.


It was a big beast, presumably a dog otter, and rolled and tumbled in the water until it sensed me and dived deep and away.
Two Little Egrets were also on the river…



And my first Mute Swans since the spring...


The hawthorns in Migrant Alley were alive with scores of Redwings together with a handful of Goldcrests and a murmuration of around 3000 Starlings was seen swirling over Morton Flatts.

Other birds seen included Jay, Kingfisher, Golden Plover, three Buzzards, around 50 Greylags plus a Green Sandpiper in Ainderby.

Sunday 16 October 2016

16th October

The last mothing  of the season last night. The weather was much colder than forecast and resulted in only 27 moths being caught of just eight species. But this did include a new one for the parish, Feathered Thorn…


...and 11 examples of ‘November’ moths, there was some variation in these but they are very hard to distinguish the three very similar species and John has taken them for further analysis


As we emptied the traps this morning there was a large movement of Redwings over, all generally heading South-South-East, along with small numbers of Skylarks. This is in contrast to yesterday when it was almost exclusively Fieldfares, heading high west, presumably straight in from the coast.

Yesterday I flushed my second Woodcock of the year from the Magic Garden, a Buzzard has taken up almost permanent residence there…


And there was still the odd Chiffchaff hanging on (or passing through) the Garden. More remarkably Chris Knight spotted an exceptionally late Swift over the village on Wednesday. Given all the birds arriving from the east over the last few days it’s interesting to speculate where this bird originated from…

Sunday 9 October 2016

9th October

The first Fieldfares were back in the parish today, a flock of around 20 birds in the top fields. This is a good week earlier than last year. There definitely seemed to be birds on the move today. Good numbers of Skylarks were passing over, Meadow Pipit numbers had markedly increased..


And the first Corn Buntings for a couple of months dropped in to the top fields (along with small numbers of Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers).


Up to 30 Pied Wagtails fed in the newly ploughed fields here and three Grey Wagtails were in the marshy ground of the bottom fields…


A small group of Siskin flew over the Magic Garden and there were still two Chiffchaff singing in here. Most surprising find was this rather tame Wigeon on the tiny cattle pond in the bottom fields...


And finally, continuing my painfully slow progress on identifying insects, this striking creature which fell on my son’s head last night is a Hawthorn Shield Bug!


Saturday 8 October 2016

8th October

The first Redwings were back in the village today just a day earlier than last year.


Yesterday evening there were around ten Chiffchaffs in the Magic Garden, all in the same small patch of willow and willowherb. They weren’t there the day before so I assume must be migrants. Surely there’s got to be a stray Yellow-browed Warbler in there somewhere after record numbers on the Yorkshire coast?!
A Jay was back in the Magic Garden, the first I’ve seen since April. I don’t think I’ve missed birds through the summer so it would be interesting to know where these wintering birds come from. Similarly there have been a couple of Nuthatches in the Garden in the last couple of days, are these local movements from elsewhere in the parish or from further afield?
Last weekend’s highlight was a fine skein of around 60 Pinkfooted Geese which came in over the village and flew due south over the Bottom Fields.



Pinkfeet are probably annual migrants over the parish but actually spotting them depends on wind direction (they often pass to the west of the parish) and, critically, being in the right place at the right time. Another new bird for the year and pushes the list up to 112, already equalling the number of species seen in 2015. 

Sunday 25 September 2016

24th September

Moths can be a bit like buses…no Beaded Chestnuts recorded in the parish then 82(!) turn up together…


It was almost the same with another new species, Pink-barred Sallow, with an impressive 49 in the Magic Garden traps last night...


I actually wasn’t too hopeful coming out of a party Friday night as it was clear and cold but in the end it was a good catch with almost 200 moths of 26 species including at least nine new ones for the parish. This included this lovely Lunar Underwing…


Together with a Barred Sallow, a scarce moth this far north in Yorkshire…


Red-green Carpet (stunner!)…


Dusky-lemon Sallow…


Green-brindled Crescent…


Red-line Quaker…


And Chestnut…


We also caught a couple of Green Carpets last night but interestingly they were tiny…


Much smaller than the individuals we caught earlier in the season. Is this a feature of the later fliers?