Saturday 30 July 2016

30th July

The little flood pools in the bottom fields are drying rapidly but still hold enough water to pull in the odd bird. Last night these included four young Yellow Wagtails…



And this morning there were two Green Sandpipers and at least eight Snipe (the first since early Spring)…


In the Magic Garden there were high numbers of phylloscopus warblers with every sun-facing tree seeming to have birds in. I also saw my first Southern Hawkers of the year and a day-flying bat repeatedly splashing on the surface of the lake. Was it drinking or catching prey? Unfortunately impossible to photograph.
The Little Grebe chicks seem to be down to one now although it’s possible this is a second pair as yesterday they were sitting on a different nest platform…


In light of catching  nine of the scarce micro moth Prochoreutis myllerana I went to have a look at its host plant, the lovely double-flowered Skullcap which grows in some profusion in the fen area of the Garden…


I almost immediately saw one of the moths on a nettle amongst the Skullcap…


In the end I found a least a dozen perched on grass stems or nettle leaves. I suspect the apparent rarity of this moth in Yorkshire is really a function of the relative scarcity of this plant and the lack of local moth-ers but an interesting find nonetheless and increases the Yorkshire records of the species by over a third!

Tuesday 26 July 2016

Moths contd.

The final tally for Saturday’s mothing was an amazing 812 moths of 115 species. This added no less than 17 new species to the parish list (which I must update!).
Pick of these for me was this exquisite Beautiful China Mark..


According to the excellent Yorkshire Moths website there have only been three previous records of this species in Vice-County 65 so rare as well as stunning.
This Suspected is even scarcer with only two previous records in north-west Yorkshire...


It’s also a great name along with others such as Uncertain, Anomalous and Confused (and presumably, if the Victorians hadn’t been so decorous, we would have had “Haven’t got a bloody clue”)
Amongst the other new species were Barred Yellow…


Tawny-barred Angle…


And a True Lovers Knot…


and this lovely Poplar Grey was only the second parish record...



Sunday 24 July 2016

24th July

The conditions looked good for moth trapping last night so John Edwards came over to the village to set three traps in the Magic Garden. Whilst we were setting up I spotted my first Comma of the year…


It proved to be an excellent catch, with these boxes representing just the moths found on the outside of the traps!


In total there were over 750 moths of 117 species (with another half dozen to be confirmed). By some way the largest catch we have ever had in the parish. 
Perhaps the most interesting find was nine of the rare micro moth Prochoreutis myllerana one of which we caught in June (see blog entry 14th June). At that time that was the first record for North-west Yorkshire. I think this now means there have been more recorded in this one garden than in the rest of Yorkshire put together!
There were a number of new additions to the parish list including an exquisite Beautiful China Mark and Blue-bordered Carpet. I’ll include more details and some pictures in a later post.

As usual there were some striking species including a handful of these Garden Tigers


And this smaller, subtler Ruby Tiger…


Burnished Brass...


A Grey Dagger species..


And this Swallow Prominent...


There’s also usually a few other groups attracted to the traps including this large beetle


I think it’s one of the carrion beetles, possibly Nicrophorus investigator.

Finally, I can’t resist another Whitethroat photograph. This is a young bird photographed this morning…


Saturday 23 July 2016

23rd July

Heat at last and it has had an immediate impact with over 75 white butterflies counted in the Magic Garden and adjoining field. Around 90% of these were Green-veined Whites including some mating pairs…


The butterflies were particularly attracted to the stands of Purple Loosestrife, one of my favourite plants in the Garden…


Talking of butterflies Chris Knight made the excellent discovery of a colony of White-letter Hairstreak in Thrintoft with up to 20 individuals seen. The only previous parish record was a single insect in our garden ten years back.

Birds too were more active with up to five Spotted Flycatchers in the Garden…


Along with a dozen Goldcrests, a Treecreeper feeding a young fledged bird, the first Bullfinches for a few weeks and a smattering of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Whitethroats…


Yesterday there was another Brown Hawker over the lake plus free entertainment with the Red Arrows flying low over the village along with a Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane and a parachute display by the RAF Falcons…



Sunday 17 July 2016

17th July

The sunny weather brought out the dragonflies and the odonata year list doubled today with a cracking Brown Hawker, the first Common Blue damselfly I’ve had this year (although as they tend to stay out over the water I may well have missed them before), an Emperor Dragonfly…


And a Migrant Hawker perched high in a tree…


Only one Banded Demoiselle though, compared with the dozens seen this time last year.
The sun also encouraged a few butterflies, with half a dozen Meadow Browns and Ringlets along with four Speckled Wood and a handful of Small and Large Whites in the Magic Garden. Yesterday at the parish barbeque at Swalefields there were a couple of Small Tortoiseshells which have been very scarce this year. What I think was a Green Carpet moth was also briefly seen in a hedgerow here…


Hedgehogs have also been distinctly scarce in the village this year but July is often a good month to spot the less secretive youngsters and this one was in the Magic garden…


The only bird news of interest was another report of Green Woodpecker heard calling by a villager. This species hasn’t been recorded in Ainderby since the 1960s so is there an elusive bird about?

Sunday 10 July 2016

10th July

It’s been an overcast and rather dull weekend but the fence along the top field path is always worth checking at this time of year with three or four calling Skylarks spaced along it…


And it’s a popular perching site for (mainly young) Swallows…




I almost missed this cracking Sand Martin amongst it’s showier cousins…


Not a bird I often get chance to photograph perched.

At the bottom of this path the larger flood pool has held Green Sandpipers every day this week with a peak of three on Friday. They are as wary as ever, particularly as the pool is next to the footpath, so this (very!) distant shot is the best I’ve managed…


But it is another sign of things on the move like the sudden gathering of Swifts yesterday with a tight flock of around 60 over the garden and later a strong south-west movement of birds low over the top fields.
In the Magic Garden at least one of the Little Grebes has hatched (and hitched a lift….)


but I noticed one of the pair was continuing to cover the nest so there may still be unhatched eggs in there?

Finally, one of our neighbours had an unexpected visitor through the back door this week…


Sunday 3 July 2016

3rd July

I went with some of the family to  the open day at the excellent High Batts private nature reserve near North Stainley today. A good mix of things here for the kids with small mammal trapping (such as this Wood Mouse)…


Some rescued bats. This is a Brown Long-eared…


There was also Pipistrelle and a Noctule, the largest bat we get in the North. The bat conservation person was using a bat detector to show this individual was echo locating. Although thinking about it it’s obvious what I was surprised to see was the Noctule’s mouth moving each time it sent out one of its ‘pings’.
There was also pond dipping, this is the larva of some species of hawker dragonfly…


And bird ringing including this young Lesser Whitethroat....


Back in the parish it’s pretty quiet although the bottom field pools had another(?) Green Sandpiper on along with three Oystercatcher and this young Lapwing vainly trying to hide right by the footpath…



In the Magic Garden the Reed Warbler was last heard on 30th June. There’s a slim chance it has found a mate and gone quiet but I think it’s more likely it’s moved on. I also got a single poor shot of the Little Grebe on its nest. 


I didn’t want to get any closer as it hops off the nest at the least disturbance, although never before covering the eggs with water weed to disguise them…