28th August 2022

One of the highlights of the week has been regular sightings of Barn Owl (my first of the year) along Thrintoft Lane. This climaxed with an adult and three hissing young in one field. At one point the adult flew five feet over our head and actually tilted its head and looked down at us. That must be something like a vole’s eye view of a Barn Owl!

Along the river this week, Greenshank have been regular and it peaked today with four birds…

I also saw two Green Sandpiper, my first Golden Plover of the autumn and a new bird for the year, Common Sandpiper…

Six Kingfisher today was the highest count for some time and on a walk this week I did have the rare sight of one perched. The evening light wasn’t conducive to photography, but you can see what it is!

Other sightings today included at least six Little Egret (but no further sign of the Great White), seven Grey Partridge, another Small Heath butterfly and these two Roe Deer…

Yesterday I had six Wall butterflies and two Holly Blue and found the first village colony of the ‘infamous’ German Wasp (I think!)…

Finally, given it’s only a 45 minute drive away, it would have been rude not to go and see the lovely Greater Sand Plover which has taken up temporary residence on Redcar beach…

21st August 2022

After a very enjoyable couple of weeks in Dumfries and Galloway it was back to Ainderby and so this morning I walked along the Swale. The walk to the river was depressingly birdless but on the first bend I flushed a Little Egret and a Kingfisher. Soon after I picked up a Green Sandpiper and then a smart Greenshank.

These are less than annual visitors to the parish so always good to see. Another Kingfisher flashed by and then I spotted a second Green Sandpiper, three Cormorant and two more Little Egret…

They took off but I also glimpsed a third egret as it disappeared behind the rookery wood. It looked big but it was difficult to judge at distance so I walked on. A couple of Jays were here again and the Greenshank flew in to be joined by two more. It was turning into a good day.

As I walked back to try and photograph the ‘shanks, I decided I would retrace my steps just to see if the ‘funny’ egret had landed. As I rounded some vegetation there it was, Great White Egret! It was stood on the opposite bank but immediately took off and flew across in front of me. I should have had some excellent flight shots but completely messed up my camera settings so the following are the least worst of those I managed at distance…

GWE are one of the species which has moved rapidly north, presumably driven by climate change, so it was on my ‘possible new birds’ list for the parish but fantastic to actually tick it off.

As I walked on it appeared there had been some bird movement with a dozen Chiffchaff calling from bankside vegetation and also a smart Wheatear, only my second of the year…

The only other sighting worth mentioning is another first for the parish, a Red Underwing moth, which was under the kitchen window of our friends Jim and Sue.