3rd November 2024

A good weekend’s birding in the village. It started with signs of the first sustained passage of Fieldfares, around 120 birds flew high over with a further fifty noisily occupying the trees on Langlands. Plenty of Redwings and Blackbirds too and, more surprisingly, a marked influx of Song Thrushes with 20+ jumpy birds in a small area of hedgerow…

Waterfowl moving too with two skeins of Pinkfeet north over the village totalling 157 birds…

A single Whooper Swan, the first Teal (seven) of the Autumn and, surprisingly, my first Little Grebes of the year with two on the river…

But undoubtedly the best bird, and a complete surprise, was a female/immature Red-breasted Merganser! I almost didn’t give it any scrutiny assuming it to be one of the regular Goosanders. Unsurprisingly, this was a new bird for the village but arrived as part of a small local influx with five more birds seen at Nosterfield.

As I headed up past Swalefields Farm there were even more Redwings around the trees here. I thought I heard a Hawfinch but couldn’t find it. Fortunately, I photographed a large flock of Redwing as they lifted from a tree. Downloading the photo at home there was the Hawfinch (it’s the left hand bird - honest!)…

This is yet another new village bird for me!

To finish off today I went to see a couple of long-staying Short-eared Owls at Thornborough…

Excellent views and joined by a cracking Barn Owl.

8th September 2024

Pick of sightings this week was at least one Long-eared Owl I found in willow scrub by the river. Although there have been a couple of previous records (including a farmer who inadvertently flushed seven owls from a large conifer when he felled it for the church Christmas tree!) this is my first sighting in the village. 

In the same area there were signs of an influx of Chiffchaffs including this unusual one…

The time of year, the yellowish undertail etc. probably means it isn’t a ‘Siberian’ chiffchaff but a very interesting bird nonetheless. If anyone has any thoughts I would be interested to hear them…

Since my last post we have had a fortnight in one of our favourite places, Shetland.

Although the winds never quite swung to the east to drop birds in we still picked up a superb Lesser Grey Shrike...

And Barred Warbler…

And this Reed Warbler got the heart racing before I got a proper view of it…

We also found Marsh Harrier, a rarity in Shetland, before it got heavily mobbed by gulls...

As well as the usual high quality ‘common’ birds of Shetland including all three divers and a nice selection of seabirds…

We also did well for cetaceans with sightings of Risso’s dolphins (including unfortunately this dead one)

Harbour Porpoise, a number of Minke whales and we were also some of the only people to see Orca with two bulls and a female watched as they passed Sumburgh Head.

We also had regular sightings of Otter, including on the beach below our holiday cottage.

A magical place!

11th August 2024

Pick of the recent sightings were at least three Ruddy Darters in the Magic Garden yesterday. Surprisingly this is a new species for the parish but they do have a rather patchy distribution in this part of Yorkshire…

I also saw my first Brown Hawker and Emperor dragonflies today too…

It’s been a really poor summer for butterflies so it was a pleasant surprise to see 13 species in the village today, this included my first Small Copper of the year, Brimstone, two Walls…

And a pair of Holly Blues

Earlier in the week I made my usual summer visit to the Greenhill avenue of oaks to look for Purple Hairstreak, they weren’t ideal conditions but I counted at least eight individuals. As usual they stayed near the top of the trees, so this rather poor effort was the best photo I managed…

On the bird front it has been pretty quiet, the only addition to the year list was a single Common Sandpiper on the river. Presumably an autumn migrant as they don’t breed on ‘my’ stretch of the Swale. Other waders included Green Sandpiper, a small build up of Curlews and a nice pair of Greenshank near Swalefields…

I’ll finish with the other find in the Magic Garden today…

21st July 2024

It’s been a while since I last posted so a quick run down of the rather meagre  ‘highlights’. On the bird front another (?) pair of Avocets turned up on the field pool in mid June...

Unfortunately, despite some apparent excellent habitat, these have been the only passage waders on here apart from regular gatherings of Lapwing with a peak count of 29 birds

Although there was the first Green Sandpiper of the autumn on the river this morning.

The one addition to the year list has been Quail, with two calling birds in the fields at the end of Greenhills Lane yesterday. It’s more than a decade since I last recorded Quail in the village.

In terms of breeding birds there have been at least six singing Corn Buntings…

And up to six pairs of Yellow Wagtail…

Normally at this time of year I would be looking for non-avian interest but It’s been an awful summer for butterflies and I didn’t see my first Comma until today, the only species' around in any numbers are Large White and Meadow Brown and I had more than 20 of the latter in a patch of teasels and thistles yesterday…

Dragonflies too have been more notable by their absence with the exception of Banded Demoiselles with more than 50 today in a patch of Himalayan Balsam.

I’ll finish with a cracking patch of Marsh Woundwort photographed on the river…

and a rather obliging, if wet, fox snapped last month...

9th June 2024

Bird highlight this week was undoubtedly the two Avocets I found on the small floodwater pool near Langlands. This is my first sighting in the parish.

I have trudged the couple of miles to this pool right through April and May and have basically seen nothing so I nearly didn’t bother yesterday.

A couple of years ago I drew up a list of target species I would like to see in the village, with these birds it’s now only White-fronted Goose and Ring Ouzel outstanding.

This was a short local week as I have just come back from a great trip to the Carpathian mountains in Romania. As well as superb landscapes and interesting history/culture I saw some cracking wildlife…

Wallcreeper (yay!!)

Map butterfly

Tau Emperor moth

Bird's Nest Orchid

Black Redstart

Yellow Wagtail (Dombrowskii)

Fire Salamander

Bee-eater

Sand Lizard

 

6th May 2024

A strange spring continues with weather more reminiscent of late autumn than spring. As if to underline it I haven’t seen any Swallows in their usual village nesting sites yet but I had a group of up to 26 (plus a single Sand Martin) huddling together on wires the other evening as though it was October...

This weekend though did finally see more significant arrivals with Whitethroats in particular suddenly appearing in very good numbers and in sites that I haven’t recorded them for the last couple of years…

I also saw my first Garden Warbler of the year yesterday…

Together with the first House Martins over Morton-on-Swale. So, except for Swift, I have recorded all of the common species I might have hoped to have seen by now albeit in generally very low numbers.

Normally, wader habitat in the parish is non-existent but because of the extensive rains we have held on to two really nice pools this spring. Only one problem – no waders. The pools have attracted a handful of Gadwall and some very aggressive Shelduck…

But not so much as a Lapwing in the wader line. It has been a massive disappointment, but I did at least tick off Greenshank with one calling over the house last week. It was also good to see at least two pairs of displaying Curlews in the village, a vanishingly rare sight in the lowlands these days…

Butterflies have been impacted by the cold weather too with only very low numbers, pick of these have been Holly Blue in the garden and, yesterday around a dozen Orange Tips…