Sunday 13 June 2021

13th June 2021

Best sighting this week was a Broad-bodied Chaser in the Magic Garden. This was my first sighting of this dragonfly in the village, although there were a couple of records from other people in the parish last year. It is another of the species which has been progressing northwards in recent years so hopefully records might become regular in future. Unfortunately it never settled to allow me to take a photo. Another chaser, Four-spotted, was also here along with my first Banded Demoiselle of the year…

And at least 50 Azure damselflies, many doing what comes naturally...

In the village Common Blue damselfly definitely doesn’t live up to its name but I did find a couple a long way from water on the path along the railway…

A few minutes after taking this picture I tripped over a hidden strand of fence wire and crashed down heavily on to my binoculars. Typical birder the first thing I did, whilst still lying on the floor, was to check my bins were still working but by the time I got home the pain was starting to build and got much worse over the next couple of days. I eventually ended up in hospital as I was struggling to breath. Fortunately it was only a broken rib and severe bruising of the sternum but it was the worse pain I have ever felt.  The only silver lining was the order from the doctor to rest just as the Euros started!!  (if my wife ever reads this it was an accident honestly…)

We also managed our second moth trapping session of the year catching a very creditable 114 moths of 41 species. This included six new species for the village: Brindled Flat-body, Yarrow Conch, Grey Pine Carpet, Scalloped Hazel, Rustic Shoulder-knot and Least Black Arches.

A few pictures from the catch…

Grey Poplar

Elephant Hawkmoth

Chinese Character


Poplar Hawkmoth


Scalloped Hazel

I mentioned in my last post the conditions had really suited Cowslips, another plant which, in the village at least, has done remarkably well this year is Ragged Robin with plants in many new areas and in much greater density than I have ever seen before.


Sunday 6 June 2021

6th June 2021

With a couple of days off this week it was a chance to go slightly further afield. On Wednesday I went with Chris to try and tick off my Yorkshire bogey bird, Bee eater but unfortunately they had departed early morning so we ended up looking for a couple of special butterflies on the North York Moors.

Duke of Burgundy is a small (and rapidly declining) species which occurs in just a couple of specialist habitats in Yorkshire, after a long trudge uphill we were treated to excellent views…

Also here we saw Dingy Skipper…


Small Heath and a surprise Red Kite cresting the ridge.

Near Appleton-le-Moors we caught up with our other target, the lovely Pearl-bordered Fritillary. This was on a sheltered bankside with bracken, not a particularly uncommon habitat on the moors but again it is a very localised, and declining, butterfly here.

On Friday I went with Frank up to Upper Teesdale, a glorious day…

We had good views of Ring Ouzel and other moorland birds but our main target was the specialist flora, in particular Spring Gentian. In the end we only managed a single bloom…

And this was only due to some public spirited botanist having been here before us!

Then yesterday I helped to survey a site in Wensleydale for orchids. It is managed particularly for Burnt orchids and we found at least 25 of these superb flowers…

Along with dozens of Green-winged and early Purple and half a dozen Frog orchids, a new Yorkshire species for me…