11th March

Other commitments today meant very little opportunity for birding but I popped down to the Magic Garden this afternoon. A surprise find were a pair of Goosander on the lake…

The first I’ve seen on here.

The Little Grebes  and a pair of Canada Geese(my first of the year)  were also on, presumably the breeding pair of last year…

On the floodwater there were another six Canadas.

Yesterday’s heavy rain was equally unconducive to birding but I walked briefly along Warlaby Lane in the gap between the showers. Very quiet (and murky) along here but the first Lapwings were displaying and a small flock of Linnet were in a ploughed field.

On the flooded area there were a pair of Shelduck, my first of the year, and they aggressively drove off another group of four that attempted to land…

A total of six Herons were dotted around the edge…

The only other birds here were 150 Fieldfares, a handful of Mallard, 19 BH Gulls and this pair of Herring Gulls…

These two have been together in and around these fields all winter. I didn’t think they stayed in pairs in winter but there you go…

3rd March

There were still impressive amounts of snow around today and it remained very cold. I walked along the river for about a mile downstream of Morton bridge and then back up Potter Lane.

A single Curlew was by the bridge and my first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year flew over. Then along the river I clocked up 49 Greylags, 11 Teal, nine Goosander, 24 Mallard and seven Wigeon…

Waders included, unexpectedly, a Woodcock flushed from the river’s edge, two Redshank, four Oystercatcher…

And a good total of 14 Snipe. Another four Snipe were feeding on the ice of some frozen flood water along Potter Lane…

Near here a large field held around 100 Skylarks and a handful of Meadow Pipits…

And a single Treecreeper was in the trees by Swalefields. The first time I have seen the species in this part of the village.

I also got a call from Tracey Palmer saying she had a strange bird in her garden. It was our old friend the White-eye which I last saw around Christmas. Amazing it had avoided predators and survived the recent cold spell, particularly given it’s natural home is East Africa!

1st March

Working from home today because of the snow but hard not to get distracted by a very busy traffic in garden birds…

There were also seven Jackdaws, four Rooks, Goldcrest and a couple of Redwings, the latter being distinctly scarce visitors to the garden.

Year list to end of February a feeble 62 species.

25th February

Well the Beast from the East hasn’t arrived yet and it’s been a glorious weekend weather-wise, only the birds have disappointed. I didn’t add a single bird to the year list this weekend (and only four so far in February). If you took out corvids, tits and Woodpigeons I saw virtually nothing. I didn’t even see a single winter thrush (although there was a flock of around 400 Fieldfares in the paddocks around Yafforth church yesterday). It’s not really even lack of habitat it’s just a general, and worrying, dearth of birds.

The bright weather did get the birds singing though, including this Reed Bunting in the Magic Garden…

This morning I headed over to the north of Ainderby. I don’t walk this way that often because of the rather bleak open fields here but there are some patches of nicer habitat including a thin strip of the nearest we get to woodland in the village. A Treecreeper, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a small group of Long-tailed Tits were the best of slim pickings there…

Around 20 Tree Sparrows were around the waterworks…

A flock of 30 Lapwings, a pair of Buzzards and a Kestrel were near the Christmas trees…

...and, as I checked out a Common Gull flying over, I picked out another five Buzzards drifting over very high up. I wouldn’t have seen them if I hadn’t been looking at that precise spot. It’s probably a good lesson in keeping your eyes skywards.

This part of the parish seems to be good for birds of prey moving over (including a ‘kettle’ of 20 Buzzards last year). I don’t know whether it’s just coincidence or if it’s because the open fields generate more lift or perhaps it’s a shortcut between the Wiske and Swale?

    

Sandra photographed this blizzard of gulls this evening following the plough in the fields between Ainderby and Morton...

10th February

A bitterly cold day gave me thoughts of birds driven on to the river but in the end it was distinctly quiet. No Snipe or Redshank on the muddy margins although, in terms of waders, I spotted a flock of around 80 Golden Plover in the fields by the A684 and also ticked off my first Oystercatchers of the year…

These are the real harbingers of spring in the parish although these early birds usually move on up the Swale and over to breeding sites in the west. Our local breeding birds don’t tend to arrive until late March or early April.

The other year ticks were a total of three pairs of Goosander and a single Little Grebe on the river. Not a lot for near frostbite!

I also spotted more of the striking Willow Bracket fungus…

Earlier in the week I had Treecreeper in the garden, the first for quite a few years…

The other news this week was Chris had a Red Kite over Thrintoft and John reported a Cattle Egret on his land. No sign since but there were a couple of North Yorkshire records around the same time so who knows…   

27th January

Bitterly cold wind yesterday and the recent rain had left some small remnant flooding in the Bottom Fields. As I was hanging out some washing (ah, the jet-setting life of a Yorkshire birder!) I could hear geese so I headed down that way.

A good sized Lapwing flock flew in, around 200 birds, but instead of landing in the flood field they did their flickering predator reaction and headed off south-east. The cause soon appeared, a cracking male Peregrine. The first I have had for a couple of years. It did one quick sweep over the fields and then powered off through The Gap between Ainderby & Morton.

On the floods and neighbouring fields there were a total of just over 50 Greylags…

75 Black-headed Gulls, six Mallard and eight Curlew…

The only other birds I added to my year list were a pair of Teal on the Magic Garden lake, a single Common Gull with the Black-headed Gulls and a handful of Skylarks in the Back Lane fields. A flock of 11 Siskin flew high east over the Magic Garden.

Late in the evening I saw seven smaller geese flying over, I didn’t have bins and it was almost dark but there were seven Whitefronted Geese at Scaling Dam today, I wonder…

7th January

My final parish bird list for 2017 was a distinctly feeble 101 species, the loss of wader habitat is probably the main reason so waking yesterday to quite extensive floods in the Bottom Fields I was hopeful of kicking off the new year with one or two goodies.

In the end it was quiet, the only wildfowl were 22 Mallard and half a dozen Greylags. There were reasonable numbers of gulls on the floods with around 200 Black-heads but only half a dozen Herrings and a single Common Gull. There was also a nice, if mobile, flock of Lapwings.

The only other bird of note was a Grey Wagtail on Langlands…

The apple trees by the waterworks have now been virtually stripped of fruit but were still attracting  Fieldfares up to a couple of days ago…

The floods had receded significantly this morning…

But a walk in the Magic Garden turned up Kingfisher, Siskin, my first Treecreepers (two) since last summer…

And half a dozen Goldcrests in a large tit flock…

Boxing Day

The first chance this Christmas to get out – on a lovely bright but mild day. A walk along Greenhills Lane was depressingly birdless with a small flock of Long-tailed Tits, Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk the only birds of note.

I later went down to the apple trees near the waterworks where my wife had seen some thrushes feeding. Around twenty Fieldfares were here…

Interesting watching the different feeding strategies, the Fieldfares were in first.
Once the apples had been opened up the Starlings would move in…

And then later the smaller passerines including tits, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Robins and more surprisingly this…

That means this White-eye has survived the cold for at least a fortnight.

A number of Blackbirds were also here but they fed exclusively on fruit on the ground whilst the Jackdaws only went for fruit small enough to be carried away.

10th December

The cold weather pushed lots of birds  into the garden this morning. My wife mentioned glimpsing a strange one and I had a few heart-stopping glimpses of it with thoughts of exotic rarities until this hopped into clear view….

A poor picture in bad light but obviously some species of White-eye, undoubtedly an escapee from someone’s aviary. Oh well…  It came back a couple more times through the day but a Robin acted very aggressively towards it each time and drove it off.

In addition to the usual sparrows, finches and tits other birds in the garden included Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, four Jackdaws and at least six Greenfinches. The most I have seen for many months.

Yesterday I spent some time in the churchyard. There are four mature Yews in there and I had thoughts of finding Hawfinch. No luck but lots of bird activity including a handful of Bullfinches…

…A flock of 30 Long-tailed tits with a couple of Goldcrests tagging along, two Nuthatches, a Sparrowhawk, five Cormorants and buzzard over and lots of Starlings and thrushes feeding…

  

26th November

Yesterday I walked along the river hoping the cold had driven birds off the local lakes. This pool to the north of Morton Bridge looked promising and might hold water for a few days…

It already attracted a Little Egret, Snipe, a handful of Lapwing, five Teal and four species of gull plus  a total of around 60 Curlews…

Along the river there were two more Snipe, two Goosander, another two Little Egrets, a pair of Little Grebe, a further four Teal and a Kingfisher…

Walking back along Potter Lane one stubble field held at least 50 Skylarks, 13 (very distant) Golden Plover were near Swalefields…

And a Grey Wagtail joined the Pieds on the good old muck heap...

Today was another very cold but beautiful morning. I popped into the Magic Garden, there were quite a few winter thrushes, mostly Redwings, along the ditch.

On the Bottom Fields the flood water was mainly frozen but as the sun melted it, large numbers of corvids, Starlings and wagtails moved in to feed,  following the shadow line westwards. There were a couple of Meadow Pipits with them and as I crept closer (to check for Water Pipits) I flushed a Woodcock. Quickly followed by two more that had all come out of a tiny area of damp willows. A Sparrowhawk and Jay were the only other birds of note.

A very quick look down Potter Lane this afternoon saw large numbers of Fieldfares near the river, 500+ in tight, nervous flocks which quickly dispersed and flew towards the village. On the farther bank six Wigeon had dropped on to the remnant floodwater.

During the last week Tracey Palmer spotted a Barn Owl hunting along Greenhills Lane. The first parish sighting for some months.