22nd January 2023

A week of extremes. The start of the week was still dominated by the floods…

and waterbirds on Langlands including up to 40 Wigeon…

And still impressive numbers of Lapwing…

But then the big freeze and a virtual complete clear out of waterbirds. To be replaced by some good numbers of thrushes driven into the village itself. Our Siberian crab apple tree was a particular draw…

The peak count in our little village garden was 33 Blackbirds (32 of which were adult males), two Mistle Thrush, one Redwing and six Fieldfare…

A fantastic sight and sound. (Despite this I still haven’t seen a single Song Thrush this year).

It was probably the cold that also brought four Lesser Redpoll into Jim and Sue’s garden, they showed really well just outside the kitchen window…

The river though was the focus this weekend…

and it was quite productive. Snipe were taking advantage of the unfrozen margins and I counted a total of 24 today. Other waders included two Redshank and two Green Sandpipers and a small flock of Golden Plover. My first Little Egret and Grey Wagtails of the year too, but pick of the sightings was a group of three Goldeneye…

I have only seen this species half a dozen times in the parish and always on the river in very cold weather.

8th January 2023

It was the floods which were the focus for me this weekend. Both the Bottom Fields below the village and Langlands had reasonable expanses of water…

Nothing scarce on here but it helped to bolster my year-list. Three Mute swans were on the Bottom Fields yesterday but there were six on here this morning and then joined by this strange necked individual…

Pinkfeet were moving yesterday with one skein of 60 birds east of the village and these ten which flew in over the floods…

A single Tufted Duck was probably the best sighting as they are now less than annual visitors…

On Langlands there were 60 Mallard, two Shelduck, a nice mixed flock of 140 Teal and Wigeon and 50 Curlew…

Yesterday there were some excellent flocks of Lapwing moving over with two flocks totalling over 400 birds…

Finally I had a covey of six Grey Partridge on the edge of the floods and a new record count of ten Roe Deer…

2nd January 2023

Happy New Year! Apologies for my lack of posts recently and my new year’s resolution is to up my game! In my defence it really has been a poor year, even with the addition of three year ticks in December – Little Grebe, Nuthatch(!) and these two sparring Peregrines…

I only managed a feeble 97 bird species, one of the poorest annual totals I have had in the village. It wasn’t only the range of species either but also the numbers. Summer visitors, in particular, were depressingly scarce, no Sedge or Reed Warblers seen, only one singing Lesser Whitethroat and very low numbers of hirundines. We did add one new species to the parish list though, Great White Egret.

So hopefully better things to come in 2023…

After a dreary few days, today was glorious. To kick off my year list I headed down to the floods at Langlands.

Around 200 gulls were on here, 90% were Black-headed but I also added Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Around forty Curlew were feeding in the far meadow along with a dozen Lapwing. Other than Mallard the only ducks were two Goosander and a nice flock of 45 Teal…

Up to six Treecreeper were in the shelter belt along with Bullfinch and three Reed Buntings. Also in the fields here were three hares and no less than eight Roe Deer.

The river itself was running high and fast so held little but I did tick off a single Wigeon and Little Grebe as well as Kingfisher and all three common raptors. A nice loafing flock of Curlew was by the railway bridge…

I tallied up 182 birds before they were flushed by a dog walker…

These are almost certainly in addition to the Langlands birds so the highest combined total for a number of years.

Also here was this puffball of a Goldcrest. It was so intent on foraging that it actually landed on my boot at one point…

30th October 2022

A walk along the river this morning looked initially unpromising with high water levels and little sign of birds but a flock of around 200 Redwings, looking fresh in, were my first significant numbers of the autumn.

My first returning Fieldfares were also seen today with a number of loose flocks probably totalling around 250 birds in total.

With the river so high I was surprised to see two Green Sandpipers but they seemed to be feeding well away from the water. Two Kingfishers were also here plus a pair of Mute Swans, two Little Egret and a single Goosander.

As I walked up to the river bend by Swalefields Farm, a group of five Whooper Swans flew across west, only at tree top height but I lost them behind the rookery copse before I got chance to photograph them. Surprisingly these were my first of the year.

I had heard the odd distant call of geese as I walked along and round this river bend I picked up a large flock of Pinkfeet, a few fields back on the opposite bank. Although flyovers are annual now it is still rare to get flocks on land in the parish. It wasn’t easy to count them given the distance and rather gloomy conditions but there were certainly over 200 birds, an excellent total.

To finish off a productive couple of hours I heard a singing Corn Bunting and a flock of ten Siskin flew over, only the second record of Siskin this year.

I spent the last week in Scilly, the first time I have been with my wife since before the kids were born. It was a great week with some surprisingly good weather and a few good birds thrown in including the Blackburnian Warbler which very decently hung around until we got there. I had good views of this lovely bird but my photos were awful. I did, however, manage shots of a few other visitors…

Black Redstart

Wilson’s Snipe

Red-rumped Swallow

Ring Ouzel

Jack Snipe

28th August 2022

One of the highlights of the week has been regular sightings of Barn Owl (my first of the year) along Thrintoft Lane. This climaxed with an adult and three hissing young in one field. At one point the adult flew five feet over our head and actually tilted its head and looked down at us. That must be something like a vole’s eye view of a Barn Owl!

Along the river this week, Greenshank have been regular and it peaked today with four birds…

I also saw two Green Sandpiper, my first Golden Plover of the autumn and a new bird for the year, Common Sandpiper…

Six Kingfisher today was the highest count for some time and on a walk this week I did have the rare sight of one perched. The evening light wasn’t conducive to photography, but you can see what it is!

Other sightings today included at least six Little Egret (but no further sign of the Great White), seven Grey Partridge, another Small Heath butterfly and these two Roe Deer…

Yesterday I had six Wall butterflies and two Holly Blue and found the first village colony of the ‘infamous’ German Wasp (I think!)…

Finally, given it’s only a 45 minute drive away, it would have been rude not to go and see the lovely Greater Sand Plover which has taken up temporary residence on Redcar beach…

21st August 2022

After a very enjoyable couple of weeks in Dumfries and Galloway it was back to Ainderby and so this morning I walked along the Swale. The walk to the river was depressingly birdless but on the first bend I flushed a Little Egret and a Kingfisher. Soon after I picked up a Green Sandpiper and then a smart Greenshank.

These are less than annual visitors to the parish so always good to see. Another Kingfisher flashed by and then I spotted a second Green Sandpiper, three Cormorant and two more Little Egret…

They took off but I also glimpsed a third egret as it disappeared behind the rookery wood. It looked big but it was difficult to judge at distance so I walked on. A couple of Jays were here again and the Greenshank flew in to be joined by two more. It was turning into a good day.

As I walked back to try and photograph the ‘shanks, I decided I would retrace my steps just to see if the ‘funny’ egret had landed. As I rounded some vegetation there it was, Great White Egret! It was stood on the opposite bank but immediately took off and flew across in front of me. I should have had some excellent flight shots but completely messed up my camera settings so the following are the least worst of those I managed at distance…

GWE are one of the species which has moved rapidly north, presumably driven by climate change, so it was on my ‘possible new birds’ list for the parish but fantastic to actually tick it off.

As I walked on it appeared there had been some bird movement with a dozen Chiffchaff calling from bankside vegetation and also a smart Wheatear, only my second of the year…

The only other sighting worth mentioning is another first for the parish, a Red Underwing moth, which was under the kitchen window of our friends Jim and Sue.

11th July 2022

Bird activity over the last couple of weeks has been distinctly dull with the exception of two Red Kites seen over Ladyfield Farm and a pair of Yellow Wagtails nesting along Manor Lane. The first pair in Ainderby village for many years.

It was nice too, to see the female Goosander on the Swale had managed to preserve six of her seven young so far…

But it was insects that really dominated the sightings. Pick of these was my first parish record of Small Heath…

The visit by the Yorkshire Naturalist’s Union to the village in the 1940s described them as very common but at some point they completely disappeared from the parish, so excellent to see them back.

On the same stretch of the Swale I had really good numbers of common butterflies on the thistles..

And also around 50 Banded Demoiselles along about 500 yards of riverbank…

Yesterday I got a call from a friend that he had a Pine Hawkmoth in his garden. This would be a new species for me so Sand and I drove over. A cracking beast…

As a bonus we watched a Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the red valerian…

And then, completely unexpectedly, a White-letter Hairstreak flew in giving me my best ever views of the species…

To round off a superb lepidopteral day I found at least 17 Purple Hairstreak in the oak ‘avenue’ down Greenhills Lane.

Svalbard

A bit different posting this time as I have just returned from a fantastic trip to the Arctic. It was a visit planned some time ago but a combination of the pandemic, flight cancellations and a late Covid testing scare meant I never really believed it would happen until we actually landed in Longyearbyen.

Here is my son breaking the law as you are not allowed to pass these signs on the edge of the town without an armed guard!

The town itself gave a chance for early contact with the typical birds of the archipelago with Snow Buntings everywhere…

And Arctic Skua…

And Eider nesting right next to the paths…

Incidentally these are of the ‘borealis’ race, a rare, but probably overlooked, visitor to the UK with yellow tones in the bill and little ‘sails’ on the males back…

It was then on to our boat, the Sea Spirit, for a trip up to northern Spitsbergen. I won’t bore everyone with all the details but a fantastic combination of amazing landscapes…

Some great birds including all four skuas, groups of King Eider, both Ivory and Sabine’s Gull (none of which I managed a good photo of!!)...

Arctic Terns

Brunnich's Guillemot

'Blue' Fulmars

Glaucous Gull

Ptarmigan

Purple Sandpiper

Iconic mammals, with four Polar Bears (including a well fed mother with two cubs)...

Walrus

Bearded Seal

Svalbard Reindeer (shorter legged than the mainland form as they don't have to outrun wolves!) 

The only disappointment is that we were a little too early for whales with multiple sightings of Minke (including my son spotting a full breaching animal) the only cetacean records.

There were even a few flowers…

A great selection of Moss Campion, Whitlow Grass and saxifrages in a tiny sheltered rock cleft

Mountain Avens in Isfjorden

A genuine once in a lifetime experience…