Yorkshire in May is one of my favourite places. There’s nothing quite like a walk in Strid Woods on a fine morning, with the fresh green of new oak leaves, and the wood filled with the song of Pied Flycatchers, Willow Warblers and Redstarts. Sadly the Wood Warblers, probably my favourite warbler, are no longer singing there. Up in Nidderdale, things are a bit bleaker up at Scar House reservoir, but the birding is still excellent, the highlights being my first Crossbill in the Dales, a drumming Snipe, and, on the way home, my first Yorkshire Osprey over Gouthwaite reservoir.
Bempton
Here’s a few more shots from our trip to Bempton. A mile or so away there were a couple of hundred Grey Seals on the beach at Flamborough.
The Black-eyed G’s
A quick visit to Yorkshire last weekend saw us visiting Bempton. To my eyes it looked like the number of Gannets was significantly down from last year, but there will be a census to confirm or deny that. There are still loads there, though. The effects of bird flu were in evidence though: black staining of the iris of Gannets’ eyes has been shown to be associated with recovery from bird flu. A small proportion of birds showed black or blackened eyes. Whether that’s because the colony had low incidence of bird flu, or the mortality is such that relatively few birds recover, I haven’t a clue. Here’s a sample of eyes.
Nightingales
After a few days of seawatching that has grudgingly yielded most of what we were after (a post-work charge down to the sea for a Pom paid off at the second attempt), we went for a proper walk, to Pulborough Brooks. It proved productive, with the hoped-for Wood Sandpiper and Ruff still there. Hobbies were everywhere, a plastic White Stork was on the north brooks and there were plenty of Nightingales. They seemed to be showy this year, one even sitting in a treetop yelling its head off. A detour looking for owls on the way home (limited success) gave us a dusk encounter with a hare as we walked through a wood. The daft thing lolloped along the track up to about 10 m from us, and even then it didn’t run, just stepped off the track and started browsing.
A very noisy Goldcrest in our front garden this morning gave some nice views.
Dirty twitchers
A couple of days’ seawatching over the weekend was slow going, but it’s always a treat to see Little Terns, and a Bonxie was a bit of a relief after the hammering they have taken from avian influenza. A lack of energy for long-distance walking meant that we hopped in the car for a change and did some twitching: to Seaford for the White-crowned Sparrow and to Pulborough for a Wood Warbler. This is getting harder to find in its alleged breeding grounds in Yorkshire, so it was good to get a passage bird, although it had stopped singing by the time we arrived. It would have been a good day to walk, as there was a Pied Flycatcher and five Wood Sandpipers there too.
At home, there’s a couple of Grass Snakes around the pond, including this whopper.
The early bird
I dashed out for a pre-work walk around the Brooks this morning, in the hope of finding some migrants. It was a bit quiet, with a few Reed Warblers in, but not the hoped for Grasshopper Warbler, which has ignored some good looking habitat for quite a few years now. Setting out for a brisk walk back to get to my desk in reasonable time, it all went wrong: there was a Gropper yelling its head off where I’d been 20 minutes earlier. Of course Karen wasn’t there, but she was able to dash over in a quarter of an hour while it was still noisy. Eventually it showed, never unobscured, but the closest and loudest Gropper we’ve ever had. I’ll admit it: I might have been a bit late to my desk.
Spot the difference
Bird migration is moving slowly, but insects provided a bit of interest today. The garden had bees, hoverflies and a Dark-edged Bee Fly, some Mining Bees nesting in the road gave us an ID challenge, and then, only a few hours after we discovered that there is another cute Bee Fly species in the area, we were surrounded by them. Looking back, my last post had a picture of a Dotted Bee Fly as well, but we didn’t spot the difference, because we’d never heard of it.
Easter
As spring advances, the birds are trickling in, with the first Swallows in from the sea being a highlight for me. The pond is livening up and the butterflies are increasing.
Multipliers
The first signs of spring include the emergence of Adders. Cissbury Ring is a great place to find them, but we’ve never done as well as this morning, when we found 10, including a couple that slithered off, but decided that I wasn’t a threat and came back for a photoshoot.
Not so grim up north
Last week a walk to No Man’s Land gave us Brambling, yet another wintering Dartford Warbler, hiding owls, a brief view of a Hen Harrier and the compulsory Kite flypast. This weekend we’re up in Yorkshire. A stop off on the way found us distant Cranes and a stonking Tawny Owl (the only owl of the four species that are there at present). A trip over to see family in Ilkley provided a bonus in the form of two Otters swimming up the Wharfe. Only my second English Otters and the first in Yorkshire.