25th June

Only time to visit the Magic Garden today. There were two Sedge Warblers singing and I saw the Little Grebe for the first time in a while. It appears to have lost its only chick…

A Grey Heron was catching frogs in the shallows of the lake but also made an opportunistic attempt to catch a Large White butterfly as it flew past

I also thought I had seen my first distant Hobby of the year yesterday but it was just a wind-blown, aerobatic Kestrel which eventually flew right over to perch in the Garden…

Given yesterday’s conditions it wasn’t entirely inappropriate that a Hurricane also flew over…

Seven species of butterfly were seen. The first Ringlet was spotted on Monday…

And yesterday I ticked off my first Meadow Browns

There was also a ‘fall’ of Red Admirals. I hadn’t seen any as I walked around the village green and down Greenhills Lane but on the way back up (half an hour later) I tallied up 14 individuals.

Other insects included this hoverfly…

Which is distinctive enough to identify as chrysotoxum bicinctum (or at least distinctive enough for my youngest son to identify!). I was also trying to photograph another fly when this wasp flew in and made short work of it…

The more you look the more you see and there were about 50 of these tiny creatures on the surface of a beech tree. Not sure what they are…

And this caterpillar which, given its host plant might have been a Valerian Pug moth…

Actually turned out to be from a Valerian Sawfly. I didn’t even know that’s what sawfly larvae looked like but you can apparently tell by the number of prolegs, six for sawflys, never more than five for moths.

Finally, the talk on Wednesday went well and more than 50 people turned up, we almost ran out of chairs!

17th June

Good news that the Sedge Warblers have bred in the Magic Garden…

This is the first confirmed breeding in the parish for quite a few years and it sounds as if there is a second pair present as well. The Reed Warbler, on the other hand, has gone quiet but perhaps on with the business of nesting?

Five singing Blackcaps are also in the Garden this year along with at least two Whitethroat (this one is carrying a ring)…

A Four-spotted Chaser was in the Garden on Wednesday but didn’t pose unlike this cracking Banded Demoiselle…

I recently purchased the new Wildguides hoverfly identification guide. You can tell it’s not going to be easy when they categorise species by whether you need magnifying glass or microscope to identify them! However, I am reasonably confident this is a Pellucid Hoverfly…

On Wednesday (21^st) I am doing a talk on The Birds of Ainderby & Morton at Morton-on-Swale village hall at 7.00pm. Entry is £4 and money will go towards my youngest son’s charity work in Moldova.   

4th June

A Reed Warbler is still settled in the reeds in the Magic Garden and singing vigorously. I finally managed to get a shot of it today. I was reasonably pleased with this given it was singing from deep in the reed bed and I could hardly pick it out even with binoculars…

Close by I saw around 15 of these cracking little Longhorn moths (Nemophora degeerella) in a strange slow- motion ‘dance’. Look at those antennae!

This is a new species for the parish and one that is not very common in this part of Yorkshire.

In my steep learning curve of insects I have also started looking at bumble bees so this is I think a Common Carder Bee…

And this a Garden Bumble Bee…

But then just to confuse things this apparent bumble bee is actually a bee-imitating hoverfly Volucella bombylans…

It has two forms, one like this that imitates White-tailed Bumblebee and another that imitates the orange tailed bees. Nature never fails to amaze!

3rd June

This morning I headed down Greenhills Lane. After trouble with my Achilles tendon this was the first time I have hobbled further than the Magic Garden for some time. Pick of the birds were at least six Lesser Whitethroat either calling or singing down here. Two were carrying food but these were the best shots I managed of very elusive birds…

Three Red-legged Partridge were also down here…

Along with the first big congregation of gulls since the late winter (around 150 mainly Lesser Black-backed) and a total of four Buzzards. I also tallied up 15 Speckled Wood along the route…

Back in the village the first Spotted Flycatcher has at last made an appearance, around two weeks later than the average arrival date. It was in the Garth and in Jim and Sue’s garden next door I had two Painted Ladies. 

31st May

Still one (or possibly two) Reed Warblers singing in the Magic Garden this evening. The last confirmed breeding in the parish was as far back as 1946 so here’s hoping. A pair of Sedge Warblers are also still here but remain stubbornly elusive for photography, but whilst waiting for them to appear I did snap this Whitethroat carrying food for its young…

The final tally of Saturday night’s mothing was an impressive 417 moths of 58 species. This included eight new ones for the parish:- Eyed Hawk Moth, Orange Footman, Brown Silver-line, Winter Groundling, Cork , Alder…

May High Flyer…

And Shears…

And talking of moths I found this impressive Drinker moth caterpillar in the Magic Garden last night, happily munching on Common Reed…

Bird Year List to End of May - 98 species (six species behind last year)

28th May

John set the moth traps in the Magic Garden last night and it was a good catch for May with over 400 moths of more than 50 species. Highlight for me was the first parish record of Eyed Hawk Moth. A superb creature…

An excellent first record of Orange Footman too. this was a new moth for John of this mainly southern species (although it has been moving northward in recent years).

Other new species included May High Flyer, Alder and Brown Silver-line. This latter species is associated with bracken so it is a long way from its natural habitat.

This is a beautiful Green Arches, one of my favourite moths..

And this is a Pale Tussock doing a very effective job of disguising itself against an egg carton…

Unlike this Poplar Hawk Moth’s feeble attempt to hide underneath a leaf!

26th May

A walk along the river today in glorious sunshine. Migration has virtually ceased but I saw four Yellow Wagtail, four singing Corn Buntings, a pair of Red-legged Partridges, a single Common Sandpiper…

20 Greylags..

And Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel…

I also saw eight species of butterfly (including my first Speckled Wood this year) and four species of damselfly with my first Banded Demoiselles…

And Azure Damsels of the year…

Plus Blue-tailed and Large Red damselfly…

21st May

This Reed Bunting which we caught in the Magic Garden last week was already carrying a ring...

John assumed it was one of his own but when he entered the details it had actually been ringed at Silt Fen Farm in Norfolk, 230 kms away. A good movement for this species. Perhaps one or two of Norfolk’s rarities can make the same journey?!

Otherwise it has been a very quiet week for birds so fortunately insects have stepped in to the breach. These included my first damselflies of the year, a single Large Red on Wednesday and around 20 of these Blue-tailed damselflies yesterday…

Three or four Common Carpet moths were in the Magic Garden today…

Along with this Red-headed Cardinal Beetle…

and this striking hoverfly Heliophilus pendulus (also known as The Footballer because of its stripy thorax)…

14th May

Over the last week the highlight has been Reed Warbler in the Magic Garden. This is the fourth year in succession there has been a singing bird here and it was still present at the time of writing. Surely breeding must be on the cards soon?

Down Potter Lane in Morton I saw seven Yellow Wagtails…

And more surprisingly a Sedge Warbler singing from a hedge here in the middle of arable fields.

Nice too to have a shot of Linnet at eye level rather than a silhouette against a bright sky..

Insect interest is rapidly growing. I thought this was a solitary wasp when I first saw it patrolling the edge of a half-dug rabbit hole but it’s actually a nomad bee, I think either a Panzer Nomad(!) or a Fork-jawed Nomad…

this is a fresh Green Carpet moth…

And this is the earliest Wall I’ve recorded in the parish (seen today)

And this was the scene over the Magic Garden lake on Tuesday evening . There was surprisingly little coming to feed on this vast feast…