Swans dominated the sightings again this week. I had a working from home bonus of a skein of 12 Whoopers over the garden on Thursday (and a flock of 50 Golden Plover). Then walking down Potter Lane yesterday I saw a distant herd of swans in the mist. I assumed they were the Mutes from last week...

When I got closer they turned out to be mainly Whoopers with 21 counted, an excellent total for the parish. Less positively there were only two immature birds amongst them.  

Also here were around 60 Greylags and four Shelduck and a skein of Pinkfeet flew north over the field.

To show how quickly things turn over, Andy walked down here today and there were only five Whoopers (three adults and two youngsters) but there was a single Pinkfoot now feeding with the geese.

To round it off I had five Whoopers flying out of the mist low over Morton this afternoon.

Yesterday’s low temperatures brought ten Teal on to the river and in the frozen ground the good old steaming muck heap here was a real focus for birds with a very nice flock of 60+ Tree Sparrows…

A few hundred Starlings, half a dozen Pied Wagtails and a smart Grey Wagtail…

Talking of muckheaps this is a phenomenon I have seen a number of times in the village…

I assume it’s spiders webs but I must try and find out what causes it.

Finally I had brief views of a Chiffchaff by the railway in Morton this afternoon. It gave a distinctly different call but unfortunately I lost it in the misty conditions. Hopefully it might hang around for closer scrutiny.  

22nd November

I walked down Potter’s Lane and along the Swale yesterday. The water was high and apart from two Little Egrets and a Sparrowhawk it was very quiet on the river itself. One distant field held a small flock of swans. Hoping for Whoopers it turned out it was a flock of ten Mutes, two adults and eight young birds. Unusual and the biggest count of Mute swans I’ve ever had in the parish.

As I walked closer I flushed a nice covey of twenty Grey Partridges and then spotted a black and white bird in the field. My over optimistic brain starting thinking of Avocet but it was, of course, a Shelduck, a quick sweep found a further four birds grazing in the stubble field. Again very unusual as I can’t recall a previous Shelduck sighting this late.

I had to walk around a ploughed field to get closer to the swans and in there was a huge flock of Starling, I would conservatively estimate 6000 birds in a restless blanket of feeding birds. Finally I got a little nearer to the swans and did a quick recount, there were now 12 and the reason was two cracking adult Whooper Swans had joined the flock…

Shortly after this some horse riders inadvertently flushed the birds but what were presumably the same two Whoopers were later seen briefly by Chris on the little flood pool between Ainderby and Thrintoft.

This morning I walked down to see if they had returned to the fields by the river. A covey of 12 Grey Partridge on Langlands continued a good set of records this year. The birds were back but this time there were thirteen, and no Whoopers.

Three more juvenile Mutes had joined the flock. I have never seen more than two or three swans on this stretch of the river so I’ve no idea how these birds find each other.

15th November

It’s been a little while since I last posted. This week has seen good numbers of Curlews feeding around the village both on the flood meadows and on the cropped potato fields. It’s hard to get a full count as they are spread widely but these photos show some of a flock of 200+ that was on the remnant flood pools by the railway bridge…

Two Oystercatchers in the mist were the only other waders of note and continue a recent series of winter records of Oycs

This pool also attracted a few duck with half a dozen Teal and seven Wigeon…

A few Whoopers have been noted this month, I had a skein of 18 over Morton-on-Swale, a dozen were seen over Warlaby and Andy had a superb flock of 40 which flew in and landed on the floodwater along Potter’s Lane (not entirely fair given how many times I walk along there!).

Other sightings of note since I last posted include a Stonechat found by Chris on the path to Thrintoft and Tracy had a very close encounter with a Barn Owl at the end of Greenhills Lane. My wife had excellent views of a Peregrine half-heartedly stooping at Woodpigeons along Manor Lane and Chris found a very late Common Sandpiper on the river. When I went (unsuccessfully) looking for this bird I found six Grey Wagtails roosting together by the river bank.