October 2026

Given my absence for a sizeable chunk of this month (see later) it was perhaps surprising that I managed to add three new bird species to the village year list this month. The first was a flyover Brambling, with little woodland in the parish this is a distinctly scarce visitor here and was my first ‘garden’ record for about twenty years!

The second, and perhaps more predictable, was a Barn Owl near the Christmas trees. There have been a number of sightings in the village this year, but this was the first one I have managed to catch up with.

The third was a fine pair of Mandarin on the river today…

Despite a significant increase in Yorkshire records, it remains a rare visitor here (and on the Swale in general) so a very welcome sight.

Whilst I was waiting for these two to drift past me, yet another Great White Egret flew in and landed near the bank. I also had 11 Wigeon on the river itself which is unusual, but it was on a particularly foggy morning so possibly disorientated?

Add three Green Sandpipers, Grey Wagtail, my first Fieldfares of the autumn and nice views of this impressive Otter and it was a good morning’s walk…

Mentioning Fieldfares, both winter thrushes have been really scarce so far this autumn (despite a massive overnight movement of Redwings on the 8^th) but Blackbirds in contrast have been present in very large numbers.

The only other sightings of note in October were up to 100 Curlew feeding in the fields around Morton Bridge and a skein of 124 Pinkfeet which made a fine sight, and sound, over the village on the evening of the 6^th.

As mentioned earlier I have been away for part of October. The first few days we were down in Sussex. Fortuitously, it turned out that Rob, the owner of the AirBnB where we were staying, was a moth-er so I got to see a few moths that are absent, or very scarce, in North Yorkshire including…

Euchromius ocella

The Delicate

Flame Brocade

He had lived in the property for a little over two years and his garden list was already on 769 species! We are still limping towards 500 up here…

The second trip was a Trump-delayed holiday to Jordan with my eldest son. A truly amazing place, our focus was on the astonishing archaeological and historical sites but inevitably I bumped into the odd bird…

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Blackstart 

Mourning Wheatear