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…
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