26th July

The bird highlight of the week was confirmation that the Reed Warblers have nested in the Magic Garden. This represents the first confirmed breeding in the village since 1946!

The only other bird record of note was a Kingfisher on the Wiske. This shouldn’t really be news but this was only my second sighting of the year. I’m not clear what has happened But after a really strong recovery in numbers in recent years they seem to have become very scarce again.

Insects weren’t up to much either although there was a notable emergence of second-brood Peacock butterflies on the 24^th and I saw a dozen of these pristine insects along the railway footpath that evening… 

And this is (I think) a Ruby Tiger caterpillar seen the same day…

I also managed to add another couple of species to the village flower list. Bellflowers are obviously like buses, I saw my first last week and then two more turn up with both Harebell and Peach-leaved Bellflower seen this week.

And I also found this lovely Field Scabious…

I’ll finish with a brief excursion I took outside the parish to see my first Green-flowered Helleborine this afternoon. We found just a single plant, and a slightly battered one at that, in an area of old woodland but really nice to see what is a distinctly scarce flower in northern England.