27th May

It has been a very quiet period in the parish hence the lack of recent posts. The only 'highlights' have been the Swifts returning in numbers since I last posted and Jim and Sue ringing to say the Spotted Flycatcher had reappeared in its regular haunt down Vicarage Lane on the 20th. I managed to see it but have failed so far to get anything other than a distant dot on the camera. This now looks to be the only pair in the whole village.  

Jim and Sue also had this Red-legged Partridge on their garden wall…

A species I have unaccountably failed to see myself so far this year.

I also saw my first odonata this week in the Magic Garden with Blue-tailed Damselfly, Banded Demoiselle and Large Red Damselfly…

Including this one happily munching a gnat on my son’s t-shirt…

Otherwise I’ve been out of the village on the trail of plants again with Lady’s Slipper orchid in the Dales…

this rather primitive Herb Paris in a lovely piece of ancient woodland near Rievaulx Abbey…

And these Burnt Tip orchid flowering near Leyburn… 

12th May

I took a foray out of the parish today to go and look for a couple of Yorkshire rarities. I very rarely go twitching these days but I do keep my Yorkshire bird list active so the chance of adding species number 359 and 360 to my county list was too tempting. These should have been a Brown Shrike and a Collared Flycatcher which were both seen on the Holderness coast yesterday. So an early start with Frank and we were over on Cowden Ranges by 7am but to cut a long story short the birds had flown. In fact every rare/scarce bird on the east coast seemed to have cleared out overnight!

A fruitless search did at least turn up a Barn Owl which flew right over our heads, a Cuckoo and an astonishing density of singing warblers including half a dozen Cetti’s and huge numbers of Whitethroats…

Later, back home I went with my botanist friend Helen to look for Green-winged Orchids at a lovely site near Leyburn….

Beautiful plants…

Particularly this single white-variant we found…

6th May

A cold, breezy weekend was not conducive to birds (or birding) but today dawned a little calmer and I went down to the river. Starting off on the Thrintoft path, no real signs of migrants on the move although there were definitely more Whitethroats singing.

As I headed back up towards Morton a big female Sparrowhawk drifted across carrying a prey item and then moments later a superb Hobby flashed in. It landed briefly in a distant tree where I took this awful picture in very low light…

And it then powered off over towards the river. Very unusual here to tick off Hobby ahead of swift.

On the river itself there were three Little Egrets, three Mute Swans, two Yellow Wagtails and amongst the dozens of Sand Martins (including these immediately using a fresh area of erosion)…

were my first House Martins of the year…

Any chance of discreet birding ended when I became the Pied Piper of Hamelin (Lamblin?)!

Earlier in the week a sunny evening gave me a chance to catch up with one or two butterflies In the Magic Garden…

Comma, Orange Tip and Speckled Wood…

Year list to end of April: 88 Species