9th July 2023

Bird news this week is unsurprisingly limited, although we did have the first returning wader with a Green Sandpiper on the river last Saturday. Otherwise, it has been insects that have provided most of the interest. The most prominent of these were Banded Demoiselles with unprecedented numbers in the village. In one area of Himalayan Balsam by the river I got to 120 before I stopped counting…

They have also been turning up well away from water with, for example, regular sightings in our garden.

I also saw my first Southern Hawker of the year yesterday (down Vicarage Lane) and my first Four-spotted Chaser…

The chaser was seen in the Magic Garden. Since they have taken out most of the phragmites the wildlife interest of the garden has dropped significantly but I also had at least three Emperor dragonflies there…

Including one ovipositing…

Butterfly numbers have also been good with Meadow Browns being particularly numerous but I also picked up my first Small Skipper of the year…

And this (very small) Small Tortoiseshell…

It doesn’t show in the photo but it was only around 3/4s the size of normal ones. Second generation are smaller perhaps?

The most encouraging news is that Chris did a count of White-letter Hairstreak near Thrintoft this morning and tallied up at least 45 butterflies.

Continuing the lepidoptera theme, Cinnabar Moth is very scarce in the village, in fact I have only ever seen one individual, but I counted 32 Cinnabar caterpillars on a small area of Ragwort this morning…

Finally, I found this striking little fly…

Which I think is Psychocephala rufipes. The distribution maps show this as very much a southern species but like so many other insects it has been moving relentlessly north and is now apparently quite widespread in Yorkshire.

25th June 2023

The undoubted birding highlight this week (but depressing that it is) was a ‘singing’ Cuckoo by the river at Morton. This is the first ‘cuckooing’ bird I have heard in the village in at least the last five years.

Best sighting though were outstanding views of two Stoats in Morton. They were almost oblivious to my presence and I got some great photos…

 

The only other sightings of note were an Emperor dragonfly on the river and my first Large Skippers of the year…  

The French Pyrenees

A bit different this time having just come back from a week in the French Pyrenees. It was my first visit there and what a superb place! Stunning landscapes, great range of plants, butterflies and birds, lovely food and a really nice ‘vibe’ to the way of life…

Cirque de Gavarnie (1400ft high waterfall!)

Ossoue Valley

Col de Tentes

Birds included daily sightings of Lammergeier, Golden Eagle and both Choughs. We saw three species of vulture, Short-toed Eagle and Honey Buzzard from our bedroom window.

Snow finch

Water pipit

Rock Thrush

I also tallied up over 40 species of butterfly (despite the late spring)

Swallowtail

Southern White Admiral

False Heath Fritillary

Large Wall

And a handful of day flying months including this striking alpine species Psodos quadrifaria…

As well as other insects including the superb Sulphur Owlfly…

Marmots of course…

And a few reptiles…

Western Green Lizard

Apart from the mountain peaks perhaps the most striking features of the landscape were traditionally managed meadows and road verges brimming with wild flowers

Horned Pansy

Vanilla Orchid

As well as Pyrenean and high mountain specialities...

Pyrenean Saxifrage

Ramonda

 Alpine Gentians

Alpine Snowbells

Alpine Buttercups

All in all an amazing week.

4th June 2023

This blog mainly reflects the pleasure of being interested in nature, but when you care about something then you feel it when it’s damaged. This spring has been the worst I can remember.

I went for a six mile walk around the village last week, in good weather, and I managed a total of two bumblebees and two hoverflies. Bird numbers are hugely down too with hardly any swifts and very low numbers of hirundines (I have so far only found a single House Martin nest!). Resident birds too don’t seem to be faring well with, for example, only three singing Corn Buntings (against a typical count of 7-8)…

It’s an intensively farmed area so I don’t expect Amazonian levels of biodiversity but genuinely in 30 years of nature watching in the parish I have never known it like this. The optimistic half of me says it might just be a blip because of poor early spring weather etc. but the pessimistic (realistic?) side says this is the inevitable outcome of a constant year on year decline, particularly in insect numbers.

Anyway, on to more positive things because despite it all I did have a couple of additions to my village list. Pick of these was this superb Broad-bodied Chaser…

This is a species that has been increasing significantly in the north and there have been a couple of recent records in the parish but this was my first village sighting.

The other was a chance find on the garden wall, Small Dusty Wave…

These following three are relatively common species but I haven’t consciously recorded them (or at least photographed them) before…

Splayed deerfly – a fearsome looking beast!

Bumblebee hoverfly

Narcissus Bulb Fly

And talking of keeping positive, it’s important to remember there are some good news stories like the resurgence of the Common Buzzard. I can still remember the buzz of seeing my first village flyover and now there are between 5 and 6 territories in the parish. I photographed this one near the river last week…

28th May 2023

Interesting bird sightings were very scarce this week but I did get a new (sort of) ‘tick’ for the parish with a Bar-headed Goose flying over with a skein of Canadas…

More depressingly the Lapwing I saw today was my first in the village since March. Although I haven’t yet covered all the potential breeding sites I haven’t yet found any evidence of nesting in the parish this year.

Insects too seem to be in exceptional short supply, certainly the cold damp weather hasn’t helped but even the last two days of sun have not revealed anything like usual numbers. Nevertheless, it was nice to see my first Wall butterfly of the year…

And I also picked up my first Painted Lady this year…

Looking through the excellent Yorkshire butterflies and moth report which arrived this week,

it’s interesting to see how Gatekeeper has rapidly spread in Yorkshire. There was one record just the other side of the Wiske last year so hopefully It may not be too long until we add this species to the parish list.

Incidentally the strange male/female Orange Tip I found a couple of weeks ago…

is just that, a gynandromorph. A word I confess I had not heard of until this month. My insect is a mosaic gynandromorph, where the female and male characteristics are mixed together, but you can also get bilateral types where one half is female and one male!! The butterfly recorder described this as the best find in Yorkshire this year (mind you its only May!!)

Another striking insect sighting this week was this Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn beetle.

They used to be mainly confined to the midlands and east of England but this is another one that seems to be progressing north with climate change.

Yesterday I went on a ‘twitch’ with Frank to try and see a couple of new species for me. The first was the Sword-leaved Helleborine at one of its few northern sites, Talkin Tarn. This was surprisingly easy to find and what a beautiful orchid it is… 

The second target, Marsh Fritillary butterflies at Finglandrigg Wood, were not so compliant. Despite apparent reports of them earlier this week there were none to be found. Nice spot though and good to see the memorial to the great Derek Ratcliffe…