Sunday 10 September 2017

10th September

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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