25th April 2021

I mentioned in an earlier post the list of target birds I had drawn up Last year and another unexpectedly got ticked off yesterday. I went to a neighbour’s garden to help set up a moth trap last night. I noticed a movement in a whitebeam and there was a superb male Pied Flycatcher!  It proved quite elusive in the shadows of evening but I managed a couple of shots…

I assumed if I was ever to catch up with this species in the parish that it would be some briefly glimpsed autumn migrant along the river but to find it a few yards from home and a spring male…A cracking bird!!

The mothing was less successful with only two Hebrew Characters caught!

Summer migrants continue to dribble only slowly in, I still haven’t seen House Martin and I only saw my first Whitethroat today. Swallows are slightly more frequent but none of the main village nesting sites are yet occupied. As if to emphasise it I saw a flock of around 120 Fieldfare still feeding in the pasture near Far Fairholme today. One of the latest flocks I have ever seen in the village. They were typically flighty so only a poor distant photo but they look very striking in full breeding dress…

Yesterday along the river I found five singing Corn Bunting and my first (three) Wheatear of the year...

Elsewhere, I had my first odonata of the year yesterday with a Large Red Damselfly in the Magic Garden…

And it seems to have been a good year for Bee Flies…

This is Dark-bordered Bee Fly, the only species we currently get in the village.

18th April 2021

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted but this has been a reflection of a very quiet period. The (at times bitterly) cold weather has slowed Spring down dramatically. With the exception of Chiffchaffs and Sand Martins, spring migrants are virtually non-existent. I had my first Swallow on 4^th  but have hardly seen a bird since, and certainly none of the usual nesting places are occupied. A Blackcap was singing along the railway on 4th but I have only had one other bird since and similarly my first Willow Warbler was on 10^th

but I have only heard a single singing bird since. A Yellow Wagtail flew over Greenhills yesterday.

Most interesting, but sad, find was a freshly dead Long-eared Owl  at the end of Langlands. It’s not clear what killed it but looked to be natural rather than shot. We have sent the body to the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme for analysis so hopefully might find out.

There has been the odd bird reported to me over the years including one by the river in January and a bird photographed on Ladyfield a couple of years ago. I have also just heard of a local farmer who took down a conifer for Christmas and three Long-eared Owls flew out so it may even be a regular wintering species but  I still haven’t caught up with one in Ainderby.  

The only other bird records of note were a flock of 48 Golden Plover in superb breeding dress.

Poor photos in the gloom of dusk but this is the third year in a row that I have had a flock in the same field in mid-April so it seems to be a regular stopping off point.

Three Whooper Swans flew over Langlands on 2^nd April...

and four Snipe were flushed here on 11^th. Another Snipe was on this lovely flood pool past Greenhills…

But despite looking superb for birds the only other sighting here was a pair of Shelduck. It’s likely it will have dried up before the delayed wader migration really gets going.

Away from birds I added a new bee species to the parish list, Gooden’s Nomad Bee…

A relatively common species but with a distinctly southerly distribution.