26th April

Bird of the week was undoubtedly the Hobby which I first saw as an interesting, but unidentified, blob in one of the huge arable fields down Greenhills Lane. It eventually took off and gave some good views although you would never guess from the single photo I managed!!

This is the earliest I have had in the parish. Other migration has been generally slow with the village swallows only really back in any numbers this week. An early Lesser Whitethroat was on Langlands on 19th and I had four birds singing down Greenhills Lane yesterday. My first Common Whitethroat was on 23rd but again they were widespread by my walk this morning…   

No Swifts yet although they have been seen over Scruton and I thought I had one over Morton this morning, in fact it was a distant Hobby, presumably the bird from yesterday.

Other things from my morning walk today…

A socially-isolating Grey Heron…

Two pairs of Buzzards which are common now but are still a thrill to see, particularly when they are performing their display flight.

And this smart little insect with, in flight, a brilliant yellow abdomen. I think it’s one of the nomad bees but it's hard to distinguish the species…

The only other birds added to my village year list this week have been a single Snipe and Red-legged Partridge (a species I didn't see at all last year)…

18th April

Despite the sunny weather the winds have been distinctly chilly and this probably accounts for the relatively low numbers of summer visitors so far. I have had half a dozen Swallows through the village but all have fed and departed and ‘our’ breeding birds haven’t arrived so far.

What was a nice find was a group of four Yellow Wagtails which dropped onto a remnant puddle of floodwater down Greenhills Lane…

They are one of my favourite summer visitors and I spotted other Yellows near Langlands and on the potato fields to the north of Ainderby.

These fields also attracted rarer visitors in the form of two White Wagtails. These are the continental form of our familiar Pied Wagtail and very smart birds with a pale grey back and clean white flanks and underparts. It’s likely these birds are en-route to Iceland.

These represented the first confirmed sightings for the village

This Skylark was also photographed there, not a rare bird but it’s unusual to get a good view of these birds on the ground…

I mentioned last week about the temporary local wader habitat. Unfortunately as predicted it looks as though  dehydration is going to outstrip migration but I did have one nice find, this Ringed Plover on the pool near Langlands. 

This bird dropped in on Tuesday evening for ten minutes before climbing high and away to the south and it was pure luck that we were in the right place at the right time. It does make you wonder how much must pass through unseen each week…

Other sightings over the last few days included two Wheatear in fields down Greenhills Lane and two Red Kite near Thrintoft both spotted by Jim and Sue. Hazel watched a Kestrel trying to rob a Barn Owl of its prey near Morton bridge and I had a flock of 120 Golden Plover in a field down Potter Lane.  Most were in their striking breeding plumage but unfortunately too distant to get anything other than a blurry record shot…

12th April

It has been ages since I posted anything (a combination of inertia, work but mainly lack of birds!) but in these strange times connection with nature seems more important than ever. A couple of regular readers have also prodded me into action so I will try and get back to a regular pattern again.

What has been noticeable is the number of people now walking around the village, for example I have quite literally seen more people on Langlands in the last three weeks than in the previous thirty years combined. Perhaps we might see more people taking an interest in the wildlife of the parish in the future?  

In terms of birds it has been pretty quiet but we have seen the first summer migrants over the last few days. The earliest was Chiffchaff with singing birds from 20th March. The first Sand Martins were on the river from 25^th March, a Blackcap was singing behind our house on 7^th April and I heard a Willow Warbler the following day. Jim and Sue had two Swallows over the Garth in Ainderby on 7^th and a bird was hawking over our garden on the 8th but I have not heard of any sightings since.

Migration generally has been poor with, despite sunny weather, the cold winds possibly being the cause. This is evidenced by regular sightings still of Meadow Pipits which are always an indicator of slowed migration. This included a tight little flock of 35+ in one of the meadows on Langlands…

Pick of the birds though was a cracking cock Redstart seen on the evening of the 10^th (a nice birthday present!). This was one of only a handful of sightings in the parish and only the second adult male. Unfortunately this terrible picture in the evening light does not do the bird justice!

My early morning walk yesterday was disappointing with around 30 Sand Martins, ten Chiffchaffs and three Willow Warblers the only summer migrants seen. What was positive though was to see a singing Corn Bunting on the edge of Ainderby itself, this is the first for four or five years. Altogether on my walk I had an encouraging nine singing males of this species which has seen such a dramatic decline in numbers.

Two of these were singing from oil seed rape and it will be interesting to see if they adapt to this crop as Reed Buntings seem to have done…

Last weekend there was an unusual movement of Jays over the parish. I picked up 10 going over Greenhills Lane and Chris Knight had another group of five over Thrintoft at the same time. So it’s interesting to speculate on the total numbers involved.

For once we have some interesting looking areas of wader habitat in the parish, remnants of the winter flooding...

but they are drying fast and it is going to be a tight race between wader migration getting in full swing and these sites retaining water. The pickings have been slim so far with a single Redshank on the Langlands pool…

And a Green Sandpiper on the pool between Ainderby and Thrintoft. This latter site also attracted thirty Teal, Shelduck, a pair of Goosander and (a real Ainderby rarity!) a pair of Coot.  

One of the pleasures of my daily lockdown stroll has been the regular sightings of Hares with up to fourteen seen on a single walk.

These have included one Rumble in the Jungle boxing match where they were really going at it,whilst this pair today were aggressively chasing off Carrion Crows (by charging at them with their ears bent forward) so I suspect they have some leverets secreted somewhere in the field…

19th January

My first walk of the year along the river. Despite the frost it was very quiet with no waders and only four Goosander, Grey Wagtail and a distant flying flock of 70 Golden Plover to add to the year list.

In the fields there have been good numbers of Fieldfares in recent days, they seem to move to ground feeding after Christmas even if there are good numbers of berries still in the hedgerows.

At Sedgefield the geese are still present in good numbers but the Barnacle was the only non-Greylag present but they were joined now by groups of Curlew. Eventually these all flew off and coalesced into a single group in the Bottom Fields, I tallied up a decent count of 106 birds…

12th January

I managed to get a couple of (poor) photos of the Bean Geese this week and can see they are actually Tundra Beans. They are the more likely in Yorkshire but really looked large and long-necked in the field. Still a great Ainderby find…

A large flock of Greylags was in the same field again today…

Searching through I didn’t see any Beans but did find a single Canada (must be a genuinely wild bird!) and only the second record of Barnacle goose for the parish…  

5th January

It’s been a shamefully long time since I last posted but it has been a reflection of an incredibly quiet winter so far. Hence only a feeble year total of 97 species for 2019, the lowest since I started keeping a record of the birds seen in the parish. Amongst the ‘lowlights’, no Red-legged Partridge, no Wheatear or Siskin, only a single Little Owl etc. etc. Here’s to a more productive 2020!

Today was the first chance to properly get out. The main target was a large flock of Greylags which have taken up temporary residence in the fields below Sedgefield House. They aren’t easy to view but I tallied up over 400 birds. As I scanned them I spotted a couple of different looking birds, Taiga Bean Geese! A new species for the parish. A brilliant start to the new year…

Elsewhere it was fairly quiet but I did see two Jays, around 50 Lapwing, a Great Black-backed Gull (a species I missed last year) and good numbers of Fieldfare….

10th November

Friday evening saw the first big numbers of Fieldfares arriving with 200 birds around the entrance to Langlands farm. Always a fantastic sight and sound. This morning there were another 100 plus birds in the Magic Garden. Very jumpy, and obviously new in, many were drinking from the field ditch or even roadside puddles but within ten minutes had moved on…

The torrential rain has led to some flooding in the Bottom Fields...

and along with the usual Mallard and flock of Black-headed Gulls there was a Grey Wagtail, Little Egret, a single Teal and a distant pair of Gadwall, only my second sighting of the year…

A mobile flock of around 65 Curlew was also present. I caught up with them briefly in the evening gloom but they all flew except this long-billed individual…

Other sightings included a flock of 40 Lapwing over the village and a covey of 21 Grey Partridge, the largest flock for many years. This may not be unrelated to the fact that there have been no releases of Red-legged Partridge this year.

13th October

Another quiet week but the first Redwings dropped in on Tuesday…

and overlapped with the last Swallows which were seen up until at least Thursday. Chiffchaffs, including a couple of singing birds, were also still present all week. 

The large Jay movement on the continent (e.g. 30,000 counted passing over one German site in a single morning) was probably responsible for the appearance of half a dozen birds in the parish this week.

Heavy rain had led to flooding in the Bottom Fields in Ainderby but despite some nice looking habitat bird pickings were pretty slim. Around 100 Black-headed Gulls were joined by a dozen Herring Gulls, Mallard numbers peaked at 46 but a single Little Grebe and three Teal were the only other waterfowl…

Waders were represented by a single Snipe, a flock of 20 Golden Plover and 22 Lapwing. A larger flock of Lapwings, around 200, were on wet fields near the river…

I am also continuing my slow progress on trying to identify fungi with this large Puffball down Potter’s Lane…

And what I think are Golden Scaly Cap (Pholiota aurivella) near the Christmas Tree plantation...

  

And as I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks I also ought to mention the other recent flying visitors to the village, the UCI World Cycling Championships with the Men's Elite Time Trial passing through the parish...

22nd September

I think Ainderby has had a nature bypass in recent days, exceptionally quiet for the time of year. A walk down the river today saw some good areas of mud exposed but only a single Green Sandpiper and Snipe to show for it. A Yellow Wagtail, a dozen Swallows, three singing Chiffchaff and a pair of Mute Swans were the only other birds of note.

Yesterday walking to the north of the village I saw two Sparrowhawks, a group of seven Grey Partridge (still haven’t recorded Red-legged yet this year) and heard Golden Plover calling. I eventually found the goldies tucked into the middle of a beet field with a flock of Lapwing…

When a dog walker flushed them there was a surprising total of 90 Lapwings and 12 Golden plover hidden in here.    

In the Magic Garden the only sightings were a very fresh looking Comma butterfly, this bee species…

And at least half a dozen Migrant Hawkers around the reedbed…

15th September

Another exceptionally quiet week for birds. The one highlight was my first Peregrine of the year, it was perched in a field along Potter’s Lane on Friday evening. Unfortunately it saw me before I saw it so the tiny dots in my photos aren’t even worth posting. As it flew away it did a half-stoop at a flushed Woodpigeon and knocked it to the ground but didn’t stop to take advantage and the lucky pigeon lived to fight another day.

Also along the river were the first returning Meadow Pipits, a Yellow Wagtail, 20+ Swallows, at least three (singing) Chiffchaffs, Little Egret, a pair of Mute Swan and a single Goosander. Not a single wader seen or heard and, although Pinkfeet are now starting to move through Yorkshire I had to make do with a skein of Greylags…

A relatively quiet week for butterflies too although there were still Painted Ladies around and I also spotted a Small Copper along Greenhills Lane, quite a common butterfly but surprisingly scarce in the parish. This is only my third sighting in the last ten years…

The start of the real fungi season too with this striking one seen in the Magic Garden. It’s one of the Ganoderma species, possibly G. australe (The Southern Bracket)...