July 2026

Pick of the sightings in July was my first Hobby this year, I saw it (unsuccessfully) chasing Sand Martins just downstream of Morton Bridge. It seems to have been a really good year for them down south so a bit surprising they have been particularly scarce up here this year.

The other addition was the first Reed Warbler of the year. It was a former breeding species but now only a scarce visitor. It was down in the Bottom Fields, near to where last month’s Sedge Warbler was singing.

There was also a Great Spotted Woodpecker down here whose parents should have explained not all tall, wooden things are trees…

I've mentioned before that Grey Partridge have made something of a comeback in the village so it was good to see a group of 14 chicks with a (busy!) mother in the Top Fields in Ainderby.

It's not easy to see how small these were from the photo but they were still able to fly once their mother broke cover.

The only other bird records of note were two Yellow Wagtail in a potato crop near Langlands and the first sign of return wader passage with four Curlews and 75 Lapwing near the river.

Fantastic numbers of butterflies again this year, I totalled up over 100 Meadow Browns on a short walk around the Greenhills fields and, more surprisingly, found only our second parish record of Ruddy Darter in one of the barley fields…

It's been, of course, a great year for Painted Ladies with lots of very fresh looking ones this month…

Peter had an interesting miniature one, only 44mm wingspan (about the size of an Orange Tip!). This seems to be because of heat or nutrition stress in the larvae.

But the most noticeable species was Holly Blue, I have never counted more than two in the village before but totalled up 21 last weekend.

I also had a number of sightings of Wall butterflies after missing the first generation in May….

The other lepidopteral event has been the good numbers of Hummingbird Hawk-moth with many sightings and in one case three together on a buddleia in Warlaby. I photographed this one in Jim & Sue’s garden last week…

In the moth traps, between Peter and I, we added an impressive 25 species to the parish list in July, pushing the total up to 476 species. Will we make 500 before the end of the season?

June 2026

Having breakfast on Sunday, I heard a bit of a commotion and then a fine Red Kite drifted low over the garden being half-heartedly mobbed by the village Rooks. Although kites remain scarce in this area they are well established in North Yorkshire now, so this was a not unexpected, but very welcome, addition to my garden list.

Other new species for the year in June included at least one Cuckoo heard calling by the river on 14th and then it (or other ones) were heard near Warlaby and along Greenhills Lane later in the month.  Depressingly, that’s the best showing for about the last 20 years!

The other addition to the year list was a Sedge Warbler singing in the Bottom Fields for at least the last week of June.

I’m not sure what this bird would be, a failed breeder re-establishing a new territory or an early migrant taking up temporary residence? Either way, it was nice to see a former nesting species back in the village.

Talking of former breeding species. June marked the 80^th anniversary of the Yorkshire Naturalist’s Union excursion to Ainderby. The report from that trip makes interesting, if slightly depressing, reading with a picture of a much more diverse landscape with, in particular, a really interesting flora. It also detailed at least 13 species of birds breeding in the parish then that no longer do so.

Away from birds it’s been a good year for Hummingbird Hawk-moths with two in our garden and at least a half dozen reports elsewhere in the parish.

The moth highlight for me, though, was finding around 25 Chimneysweepers in one of the Bottom Fields…

This field has had no grazing this year but I’m amazed how quickly they have moved in (and from where?) as I have never seen the species in the village before. In fact, the last record was the 1946 YNU visit mentioned above.

It’s good to have a second moth-er in the parish too with Peter now trapping regularly at Warlaby. Between us we have already added 19 species to the Parish list.

Highlights included V-moth, now a rare species in Yorkshire…

And in the same trap my first V-pug…

and perhaps surprisingly my first village White Plume..

Butterfly numbers don’t seem to be quite up to the exceptional levels of last year but Meadow Brown’s, in particular, seem to be having a very good year and there were reasonable numbers of Large Skippers along the How Beck...

The only dragonflies of note were two Broad-bodied Chasers although this Emperor dragonfly exuvia was pretty impressive!

I’ll finish with this cracking Golden-bloomed Longhorn beetle I photographed near the railway, it wouldn’t look out of place in the Amazon!

April 2026

April 2026 was another in a series of unpredictable spring months. Despite the dry and generally sunny conditions, cold winds meant migration was mainly a trickle.

The earliest Chiffchaffs had been seen in March but the first significant arrival was on 4^th with a dozen records of singing birds around the village that day…

Sand Martins were very late this year with the first seen on the 6^th April but it was almost the end of the month before they were present in any numbers.

The first Swallow was reported on 8^th and a House Martin the next day. There was a gap then before the next find, at least three Yellow Wagtails along the river on 12^th…

A Willow Warbler the next day was then followed surprisingly by an early Swift over Swalefields on the 18^th (I still haven’t seen one at the time of writing!)

Finally, a Whitethroat was scratching away on the 21^st. There were no reports of either Lesser Whitethroat or Garden Warbler by month end.

A surprising record early in the month was a flock of 129 Stock Doves, by a very wide margin the highest count for the parish. This is despite the local birds being well into breeding so it’s unclear what the source of these birds is…

It was also good to get my first garden Tree Sparrow for some time…

Away from birds, April saw the emergence of all the expected butterfly species but generally in low numbers so far. The one exception is Holly Blue with a definite upturn in April sightings compared with recent years…

I also found an Alder Leaf Beetle and got quite excited as it was only re-found as a British species in 2004. The latest list of Yorkshire beetles (published in 2020) showed no records for north-west Yorkshire (VC65). In fact, and as stark evidence of the pace of change in the natural world at the moment, it is now apparently widespread in the lowland areas of Yorkshire…

If other records are a bit sparse it’s because I missed a chunk of April as we were on holiday on Dungeness. Despite lovely sunshine each day the winds stayed relentlessly northerly, so migration was slow. It did mean some good sea-watching though, with literally hundreds of Whimbrels passing and my first Pomarine Skua for a couple of years.

Highlight on the land was my first Early Spider Orchids at Samphire Hoe, fantastic little plants…

Also, my first Grizzled Skippers after a long search in the Dungeness trapping area…

And on the way home my first Oxlips in a Cambridgeshire wood…

I’ll finish this month with a lovely backlit Hare in the Bottom Fields a couple of days ago…

March 2026

Standing water is at a premium in the parish so I always check out the odd place which occasionally holds on to surface or floodwater. One of these is down School Lane, in the middle of an oilseed rape field, and this March it proved irresistible for Little Egrets. Six were there on 28^th February and numbers continued to build until a peak of 14 birds! Numbers then fluctuated with the final one seen on 24th.

Given the counts varied it’s quite possible it involved more than 14 birds in total. It was also good that it was on School Lane as some children and parents were able to enjoy the sight. This pool also attracted small numbers of Teal and a single Green Sandpiper.

Green Sandpipers were also seen on a tiny pool by the waterworks and on the flood pool on the Thrintoft path. This latter water also pulled in six Gadwall, up to ten Teal and, a village rarity, three Coot. Two of these latter birds were present through to the month end.

The other species of particular note in June were Whooper Swans. Sandra had a group of 30 birds fly low over Morton on Swale on 7th and then another similar sized skein over Ainderby on 18th. She rang me but I didn’t catch up with them. Ten minutes later Sue sent me a video she’d taken of another group of 23 flying high over the village! Fortunately walking back over the top fields I heard a distant call and a magnificent skein of 61 birds flew right over me…

Interestingly, a couple of days later, a radio-tagged bird that had originated from Welney was tracked flying over the village in the late evening, no-one picked this group up.

In terms of summer migrants the first Chiffchaff was heard singing on 7^th and there was a marked influx on 14^th with a number of freshly arrived birds feeding in the hedges on Langlands. But that was it then with not even Sand Martin recorded by the month end.

There was a Red-legged Partridge on the Thrintoft path on the 8^th March, an increasingly scarce species in the parish.

Grey Partridge on the other hand seem to be relatively thriving with an estimated 11 pairs so far (including one pair right on the edge of the village). On the other hand I have had only one singing Corn Bunting so far. They can be late songsters but it is mildly concerning.

Other sightings of note included both a Redpoll and a pair of Siskin in our garden…

A flock of 28 Golden Plover and a group of 12 Oystercatchers were seen by the river on 7^th, with a presumably different flock of 12 Oystercatchers seen here on the 28^th.

Away from birds the first butterfly of the year was a Peacock. Unsurprisingly, as with migrant birds, the cold temperatures meant only Red Admiral had been added by the month end.

Moths on the other hand proved interesting with a trap on the 31^st turning up only 22 moths but four of these were new for the village, Diurnea fagella, Mottled Grey, Streamer…

And Double-striped Pug…

These aren’t particularly uncommon but more reflect the fact so little trapping has been carried out at this time of year.

Peter added a fifth new parish species with a Tufted Tortrix in Warlaby.

Finally, another highlight of March was a great Starling murmuration just up the road…

Parish bird list to end of March: 81 species 

February 2026

Bird of the month was undoubtedly the first village record of Raven. They have been steadily recolonising the Yorkshire Dales and are seen regularly on the North York Moors but they remain a generally scarce bird in the Vale of Mowbray.

This is an even worse photo but does show the size against the Rooks escorting it out of the area…

Floods in the early part of the month…

These attracted some wildfowl with an excellent count of 108 Teal on the 1^st, the highest village count to date

Together with six Shelduck and the first Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler and Oystercatcher of the year.

Up to 200 Black-headed and 30 Common Gulls were feeding on the edge of the floods as well as 32 Curlew and around 150 Lapwing…

Other additions to the village year list in February included Stock Dove, Coot (with three on the little Ladyfield flood pool - a village rarity!), Barn Owl, Grey Wagtail, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. The latter birds were feeding on the flood debris on the Swale.

The first Corn Bunting was also singing but I have only found one bird so far…

I did run the moth trap a couple of times during the month with generally very small catches, but I did get March Moth, a new village record…

January 2026

Full of hope as ever for the new year… Our (small) garden proved surprisingly attractive for birds in the cold weather mid-month. Our son had heavily pruned our Siberian Crab-apple over Christmas and the fallen fruit proved irresistible particularly for thrushes with all five regular species seen...

and particularly good numbers of Blackbirds with a maximum count of (genuinely!) four-and-twenty (but no pies).

Lots of finches too including a lovely pair of Bullfinch who rejected the crabs for the seeds of aquilegia which they extracted whilst clumsily ‘hovering’.

The crab-apple was also the main attraction for both male and female Blackcap on the 13^th with the female present on and off right through to the month end…

Away from here other sightings included both Green Sandpiper and Redshank on the river and at least two skeins of Pink-footed Geese over the village. A large Linnet flock along Myer’s Lane held an estimated 370 birds and 150 Golden Plover flew over the river on 1^st January. Tracey found a Red Kite along Greenhills Lane, still a rare bird for the village.

Unsurprisingly the constant wet weather produced some flooding…

As the waters drained there were good numbers of Lapwings seen (c140) and 32 Curlew were feeding on Langlands. Around 400 Greylags were in the flooded fields at the far end of Langlands…

But apart from Mallard, Teal were the only duck seen…

The slightly milder weather on the 17^th meant I optimistically tried the moth trap in the garden. Six moths, which is six more than I expected, included a Dark Chestnut and five Pale Brindled Beautys (new for the village). Only one of the PBB was in the trap with three on the side of the house…

Village Bird list to end of January - 59 species.