Birds, wildlife and travel
Karen thinks that the Yorkshire Paradise is a cocktail in a Harrogate restaurant, but for me it’s the Strid on a glorious May morning. The only disappointment was the lack of Wood Warblers.
Getting up before five in the morning and still being chided for being late, followed by six or more hours of staring at the sea aren’t really the actions of a sane person.
For those of you who feel you have missed out, get up early tomorrow morning and look at these pictures over the course of a few hours.
The lambs are back in the field behind us. This one was very talkative. (Taken with my phone, so the quality’s even worse than normal.)
A moth trap last night yielded hardly anything: only eight macro moths in total.
Mind you two of them were new to the house list, Frosted Green and a very worn Oak-tree Pug, and a Mullein was the first moth we have seen, having had a larva a few years ago.
It’s not rare, even for home, but we’ve never had one running around the patio before. By the time I got to the camera it had escaped onto the lawn, before giving the pond a try out.
… but the first Swallow of the year at home is always special. As well as that, there were loads of butterflies, bumblebees, including our first Red-tailed Bumblebees of the year. Pride of place goes to the smart male Redstart, that eventually gave itself up.
Our first moth trap of the year yielded only four species, but one of them was new on the house list.
On the way down south from Harrogate, the lure of the Lincolnshire Bluethroat was too much. It kept us waiting for nearly an hour, but eventually turned up and put on a show.
A superb afternoon up in the Yorkshire Dales, starting off at Strid Woods (no summer migrants yet, but the usual Goosander, Dipper and Grey Wagtail performed well). Then further north for both Red and Black Grouse. Red performed very well indeed.
I have finally ploughed through the photos from Ecuador. When I sort out a trips folder there will be some there, but for the moment they can be found on my OneDrive.
