I’ll start with this magnificent beast, a Convolvulus
Hawkmoth. Unfortunately not in the parish but close by in Scruton found in a friend’s
garden…
It has still been fairly quiet on the bird front. A very
late Swift was still over the Magic Garden on Friday (8th)...
...and three Green Sandpipers were on the river. A Jay was in
the Magic Garden yesterday, the first I’ve seen in the village since
April. I wonder where they go in summer?
Today over 100 hirundines were feeding over Warlaby Lane, most were Swallows,
flying almost at head height, along with a few Sand Martins. Above this were 20
odd House Martins.
In terms of migration Blackcaps seemed to be ‘tacking’ from
nearly every bush yesterday but didn’t see, or hear, a single one today.
Instead there seemed to have been a strong arrival of Goldcrests overnight. Buzzards
were also on the move with up to ten seen over the village yesterday, including
a tight ‘kettle’ of seven birds. This one attracted the attention of the local
corvids...
They followed it up until they were all almost invisible to the
naked eye.
John, my resident moth expert, did a search for leaf mines
in the Magic Garden yesterday and added a remarkable 13 species of moth to the
parish list. This included Phyllonorycter esperella, the first record for North-West
Yorkshire (Vice-county 65).
He also came across a number of galls including this
striking Oak Artichoke Gall, caused by a tiny wasp Andricus
foecundatrix...
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