26th July

The bird highlight of the week was confirmation that the Reed Warblers have nested in the Magic Garden. This represents the first confirmed breeding in the village since 1946!

The only other bird record of note was a Kingfisher on the Wiske. This shouldn’t really be news but this was only my second sighting of the year. I’m not clear what has happened But after a really strong recovery in numbers in recent years they seem to have become very scarce again.

Insects weren’t up to much either although there was a notable emergence of second-brood Peacock butterflies on the 24^th and I saw a dozen of these pristine insects along the railway footpath that evening… 

And this is (I think) a Ruby Tiger caterpillar seen the same day…

I also managed to add another couple of species to the village flower list. Bellflowers are obviously like buses, I saw my first last week and then two more turn up with both Harebell and Peach-leaved Bellflower seen this week.

And I also found this lovely Field Scabious…

I’ll finish with a brief excursion I took outside the parish to see my first Green-flowered Helleborine this afternoon. We found just a single plant, and a slightly battered one at that, in an area of old woodland but really nice to see what is a distinctly scarce flower in northern England.

20th July

I saw the first Purple Hairstreaks this week with six down the avenue of oaks along Greenhills Lane. I had 22 down here last year so I need to do another systematic count when the weather obliges.

One bonus of staring up at the top of trees is I picked up a superb Hobby passing over. This followed Hobby sightings at Thrintoft and over Ladyfield this week.

The only other bird record of note was what was only my second sighting of Red-legged Partridge this year…

One group that I keep meaning to get to know better are the hoverflies but they are a daunting prospect, these are some of the commoner and more straightforward ones…

Marmalade hoverfly, probably the commonest of them all

This is a Drone Fly, a good mimic of honeybees, and the rather distinctive one below is Long Hoverfly (imaginative!)...

I think this one is Eupeodes luniger, a common migrant...

and this is Pellucid Hoverfly, the largest British species...

My only interesting plant find this week was this Nettle-leaved Bellflower growing on a hedgebank down Warlaby Lane. A scarce plant here and the first record for the parish…

13th July

A week of mixed weather and few sightings of note but I added Small Skipper to my 2020 butterfly list…

In the same patch of grass and nettles there was this fresh Shaded Broad-bar moth...

And this slightly sinister mass of Peacock butterfly caterpillars…

In terms of dragonflies I missed yet another Broad-bodied Chaser in the village (fourth of the year) but I did see my first Southern hawkers.

Rarest find was this Wool Carder Bee (photographed by Chris Knight). A mainly southern species, this was the first record for the parish but also the first for north-west Yorkshire.

I’ll finish with this sighting outside the parish, Yorkshire (or Thistle) Broomrape. A rare plant now only known from a handful of UK sites and all of them in Yorkshire.

A really striking species which lacks leaves and chlorophyll and gains its nutrition by parasitizing thistles. With such a common host plant it seems strange that it isn’t much more widespread.

6th July

Living in an area of intensive agriculture you have to work hard for your fill of nature. In particular it has a very diminished flora so discovering  (thanks to Chris) this fantastic area of Kidney Vetch yesterday, less than a mile from home, was a real surprise (after all I’ve only lived here for thirty years!!).

A superb spot and interspersed with Zigzag Clover, Bird’s-foot Trefoil and knapweeds. 

Nearby I added a few more flowers to the parish list including Agrimony and Common Centaury…

The whole area also looked fantastic for insects so I walked there this evening in the late sun. Excellent numbers of Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells…

and the first of the new generation of Commas was on the wing but the pick of the sightings was this lovely Six-spot Burnet moth…

Not by any means a rare species (although more local in the north) but this was the first record for the village.

29th June

Another quiet week for birds although I did see a Reed Warbler collecting nesting material in the Magic Garden, potentially the first breeding in 75 years. I also watched a day flying Tawny Owl here. Elsewhere two early Green Sandpipers were on the Swale and a Red Kite was reported by an angler near Morton bridge.

Given the lack of any interesting bird photos I’ll pop in this portrait of a Chiffchaff taken near the river…  

It was insects again which provided the most interesting sightings. This tiny micro moth, Pammene regiana (which sounds like a rather upmarket cheese!) , was spotted by my wife on the garden path. A new record for the village and only the fourth sighting in north-west Yorkshire…

This smart Mullein caterpillar was, perhaps surprisingly, also a new species for the village. Appropriately enough it is feeding here on Great Mullein…

And the third new species is this poorly photographed beetle, a Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn. Until recent years this was very much a southern/eastern species but has progressed north at a significant pace…

I also added a few new flower species to the parish list with a nice patch of Common Restharrow…

Greater Knapweed…

And Tutsan, a shrubby relative of the St John’s-worts…

And I’ll finish with this…

Showing Bournemouth Beach wasn’t the only place the social distancing rules were ignored.

Ingleborough

A bit of a different post this week. It’s been very quiet in the parish but I have had a chance to visit my son who has been in lockdown.  He has recently been appointed as a warden at Ingleborough National Nature Reserve, this is his ‘office’

And this is some of his patch…

with some amazing landscapes. Limestone pavement...

and ancient almost Tolkienesque ash woods on the limestone…

and flowers with fields full of orchids including the scarce Small White…

And in the woods plants like Baneberry, Lily of the Valley, Bloody and Wood Cranesbills…

And down in the deep ‘grikes’ between the limestone slabs plants such as Herb Paris

Few birds to report other than seeing Ravens on the nest, a Barn Owl hunting the roadside, a handful of Cuckoos and this nesting Tree Pipit…

And pick of the invertebrates, because lack of sun kept the Pearl-bordered and Dark Green Fritillaries down, was this Latticed Heath moth…

I can see a few more visits coming up…

14th June

It was down to the insects to provide the best sightings again this week. On the railway yesterday a tiny butterfly proved to be a, rather nibbled, Brown Argus. This was the second new butterfly species for the parish in a week.

They are very similar to the female Common Blue although you can just make out the two dark spots on the upperwing which help to distinguish them. The more reliable distinction is in the under wing pattern of spots…  

I also saw a Cinnabar moth here yesterday, only the second I have seen in the village (although this probably reflects the lack of habitat rather than its rarity).

Today in the same area I had my first Common Blue of the year, a distinctly battered individual but still nice to see.

And there was also a significant arrival of Silver Y moths.

These are regular immigrants to Britain but occur in much higher numbers on a cyclical basis. When I was at university good Silver Y years meant a trip to the local moors as there was then a good chance of seeing Hobby hunting these moths.

Other butterflies here included my first Meadow Browns of the year, three Large Skippers, a couple of Red  Admirals and around a dozen Small Tortoiseshell. The latter in absolutely pristine condition…

Bird highlight this week was a marked arrival of Reed Warblers into the Magic Garden. I have never had more than the odd single bird in the village before but yesterday evening there were at least three singing birds and four or five more birds flying around the small reed bed here.

The only other sightings of note were a Barn Owl hunting yesterday in the bright noon sunshine by Morton Bridge and a Red Kite that Chris saw heading over Thrintoft towards Ainderby.

I will also mention one handsome flower found on the railway yesterday, Goats-beard…

This flower is also known as Jack-Go-to-Bed-at-Noon as its flowers are only open in the morning sun.

7th June

Another exceptionally quiet week for birds, Reed warbler was still singing in the Magic Garden and a Hobby was seen over the river but that was about it. Even the House Martins have abandoned our house. They even took down the partially constructed nest they had already built!

Instead it was insects that again provided the highlights. I photographed this Four-spotted Chaser in the Magic Garden…

It’s a relatively common species but only the second one recorded in the parish.

Rarer were the two species found by friends. Peter photographed this superb Broad-bodied Chaser on his garden pond in Warlaby.

This was a first record for the parish. This species used to have a uniquely southerly distribution but has been expanding northwards in recent years. I walked along to Peter’s garden when it reappeared but unfortunately missed it by a couple of minutes but did see my first Banded Demoiselle of the year and was shown one of the young garden residents…

In some ways even more unexpected was this Green Hairstreak photographed by Hazel in her garden…

Another first parish record. I have never seen Green Hairstreak locally away from the fringes of higher ground, typically spotting them on Bilberry at Sutton Bank or on the old racecourse at Richmond. So this great sighting means we have added three species of hairstreak to the parish butterfly list in the last four years.

I’ll finish with this little through-the-window clip of Bullfinch doing an impression of a hummingbird…

It spent a good half hour dropping to hover in front of the flowers, picking seeds with surprising delicacy given the size of its bill.