Sunday, 8 March 2026

February 2026

Bird of the month was undoubtedly the first village record of Raven. They have been steadily recolonising the Yorkshire Dales and are seen regularly on the North York Moors but they remain a generally scarce bird in the Vale of Mowbray.

This is an even worse photo but does show the size against the Rooks escorting it out of the area…


Floods in the early part of the month…


These attracted some wildfowl with an excellent count of 108 Teal on the 1st, the highest village count to date

Together with six Shelduck and the first Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler and Oystercatcher of the year.

Up to 200 Black-headed and 30 Common Gulls were feeding on the edge of the floods as well as 32 Curlew and around 150 Lapwing…

Other additions to the village year list in February included Stock Dove, Coot (with three on the little Ladyfield flood pool - a village rarity!), Barn Owl, Grey Wagtail, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. The latter birds were feeding on the flood debris on the Swale.

The first Corn Bunting was also singing but I have only found one bird so far…

I did run the moth trap a couple of times during the month with generally very small catches, but I did get March Moth, a new village record…

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