17th March 2024

It’s always good when the first summer migrants arrive and yesterday saw the first Chiffchaffs singing their name in the village. I had five on my shortish walk and friends in the two neighbouring villages also reported their first arrivals yesterday so it was obviously an arrival en masse. I could only manage this poor shot though…

As these birds arrive others are on their way out but Fieldfares and Redwings have been decidedly scarce this side of the new year. There were, though, around 250 birds in the large ploughed field down School Lane yesterday, around 80% were Fieldfares…

The same field held five Little Egrets today on a small pool of floodwater.

Little else to report although it was good to have at least three Corn Buntings singing down Potter Lane yesterday…

Another scarce farmland bird, the Tree Sparrow, seems to have had a sudden, and unexplained, dip in fortunes in this area after encouraging signs of recovery. This has been noted by other local birders too so it’s always nice when you come across a flock…

3rd March 2024

After a wash out yesterday I did manage to get a walk out today. Starting off along Potter Lane I spotted a small bird hopping on and off the fence posts. It was a smart female Stonechat…

Although they are a generally common bird they are very rare in the parish with this being only the fourth modern record. A very nice addition to the year list. Further along the Linnet flock in the cover crop was down to around 100 birds now but I also flushed a Grey Partridge here, almost from under my feet.

Earlier that morning I had put out on the parish wildlife WhatsApp group to keep a look out for Whooper Swans as they were starting to move north. Almost on cue I picked up their fantastic call and a skein of 13 birds swept over me…

I got a text from a friend a few minutes later as the same birds passed over Bolton-on-Swale which is just under eight miles as the swan flies. Taking the timings of the two that would put them averaging about 52 miles per hour. Not a bad lick considering there was no following wind (and helps to explain why my photo was only of them retreating rapidly into the distance!)

The river levels were very high so there was little to see, but a Grey Wagtail flew over and I saw my first Lesser Redpoll of the year.

There were two pairs of Oystercatchers along here too. I have never been sure whether these early birds are just passing through or are our local birds. The answer came with the appearance of a wandering single bird. In both cases the pairs acted very aggressively towards the interloper, driving him off. So they are clearly paired and holding territory…