Despite headline higher temperatures there has been a significant wind chill and must be one of the factors causing the very slow arrival of summer migrants but we did at least add a couple of new species this week. This included the first Blackcap singing by the entrance to Ainderby manor on Friday. There were also at least four Yellow Wagtails along the river yesterday…
Together with a Wheatear…
But I still haven’t seen a Swallow...
There was also a series of netting along the river bank
which looked to be designed to stop Sand Martins nesting?
Plenty of winter birds still around though with a skein of 50 pinkfeet that went over the garden on Tuesday and were picked up by Andy in Scruton four minutes later, that’s about 35 miles an hour. Plenty of Meadow Pipits too and a flock of 75 Fieldfares that went (unusually) high north-west over the house on Friday.
There has been plenty of floodwater around the village but
it hasn’t pulled in the birds I might have anticipated but I did see two pairs
of Gadwall, another Coot, a pair of Shelduck and three Tufted Duck.
There were also seven Little Egrets on the floods in the bottom fields at Ainderby, up to six Cormorants
and really high numbers of gulls, this included a large mixed flock including around 250 Common Gulls…
It’s also been a good week for Hare sightings with one seen swimming across the floods on Langlands and this group of five there as well…
.JPG)
