Can't remember such a personally 'low key' summer as this for many a year and although I've never felt much 'get up and go' when it comes around to July & August (too much cricket on the radio for one thing!), this year my get up and go just got up and went! Not helped at all by the fact that my passport to midweek breaks away in the UK - the camper I bought last year, turned into a right money pit and certified vehicle from hell!👹...Completely lost faith in the old thing in the end and sold her for a song. Its a
Hymer for me next methinks, a bit pricey but completely reliable I'm told and that's what we want.
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| Giant Bellflower, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
Anyway, net result is that I haven't been out of
Yorkshire since
Mull in the spring so not a great deal to crow about (hence the lack of blog posts recently), so just local bits and bobs. A lot of wild flowers and butterfly pics that I've only just got around to sorting (how slack am I?!😞)....Ah but we keep on snapping away, so as the first autumn storms begin to blow in, here's a little reminder of sunnier, warmer days....
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| Clustered Bellflower, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
2
Bellflower species at one site, both new to me and had to get the id book out for both and then on the way out of the reserve and kind of growing by the roadside I see this strange plant which at the time I took for some kind of hybrid
Sunflower / garden escape. Turns out to be
Elecampane and it is indeed a member of the Sunflower family, and a well known remedial herb. Quite unusual for the
Yorkshire Wolds I think.
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| Elecampane, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Selfheal, Bolton Percy Station, 30/06/17 |
Another medicinal plant and another reserve I hadn't visited, the rather more common
Selfheal at
Bolton Percy Station, along with
Musk Mallow and then a few other pretty blooms that caught my eye in the summer that's now well on the way out ...
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| Musk Mallow, Bolton Percy Station, 30/06/17 |
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| Yellow Loosestrife, Askham Bog, 25/06/17 |
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Bethany, Newton Dale, NY Moors, 18/07/17
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| Pyramidal Orchid, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Marjoram, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Common Cranesbill, Fangfoss Park, 07/07/17 |
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| Bloody Cranesbill, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Marbled White, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
Gorgeous colour on that
Bloody Cranesbill at
Rifle Butts Quarry, a great little
YWT reserve that I hadn't been to before. At the same reserve and at nearby
Kiplingcoates Chalk Quarry I was treated to some delightful views of
Marbled White butterflies, most I've ever seen in one day with 15- 20 all told. Some pics here along with a few other choice butterflies..
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| Kiplingcoates chalk quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Marbled White, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Marbled White, Kiplingcoates, 05/07/17 |
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| Ringlet on Field Scabious, Askham Bog, 25/06/17 |
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| Large Skipper on Bloody Cranesbill, Rifle Butts Quarry, 05/07/17 |
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| Small Skipper, 03/07/17, Fangfoss Park |
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| Red Admiral, Askham Bog, 20/08/17 |
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| Gatekeeper, Askham Bog, 16/07/17 |
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| Brimstone on Purple Loosestrife, Askham Bog, 13/08/17 |
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| Brimstone, Askham Bog, 13/08/17 |
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| Campsite, Sutton Bank, 01/06/17 |
Back in June I went overnight camping with a couple of mates nr
Sutton Bank. This has become an annual event for me - a spot of wild camping, wildlife watching and midnight music, this year we took in one of the few places in the north of England where you can still see
Duke of Burgandy butterflies. All pics courtesy of
Jez Ballantyne....
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| Wood collecting! |
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| Duke of Burgandy, Hawnby, 01/06/17 |
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| Duke of Burgandy, Hawnby, 01/06/17 |
A 'lifer' butterfly for me and I want to see some more so lets hope this little
North Yorks stronghold continues to thrive.... oh and the tea room at nearby
Hawnby is a little slice of heaven to die for on a sunny afternoon in the
NY Moors!
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| Corn Bunting, Fangfoss Pk, 26/06/17 |
Very local to me here at
Fangfoss I was very pleased to add bird species number
92 to my patch list, a single
Corn Bunting perched on telegraph wires just outside the campsite.
Granted they're not the world's most attractive bird but they get scarcer every year and along with
Turtle Doves and
Yellow Wagtails they seem to be the least able to cope with modern day intensive farming methods.
Not so my local
Common Buzzard population, loads of them around here and its rare for me to lift the lens to them anymore but this one was carrying a big
Brown Rat back to the nest!
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| Common Buzzard with Brown Rat, Fangfoss Pk, 21/06/17 |
Not a heap load of other decent bird records / pics over the summer but with our resident and summer visitors all preoccupied with breeding, feeding and raising young there's always something going on!
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| Redstart (male) feeding young, Newtondale, 13/06/17 |
I volunteer to do a
Turtle Dove survey every year in the
NY Moors and although we drew a complete 'nil point' in our section we did record a successful breeding pair of
Redstarts. Rubbish pic, shady light and felt shady intruding in there, but here's the male who was continuously bringing grubs back to a couple of
Redstart fledglings.
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| Spotted Flycatcher, Strensall Common, 23/08/7 |
5
Spotted Flycatchers all together in one little feeding group on
Strensall Common was a non too shabby record, wasn't sure if these were early passage or local 'young 'uns' spreading their wings ...nice to see either way.
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| Spotted Flycatcher, Strensall Common, 23/08/17 |
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| Juv Common Whitethroat, Newtondale, 18/07/17 |
And here's a few more young birds from earlier in the year that happened to find themselves unwittingly photographed!
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| Juv Grey Wag being fed by parent, Thornton le Dale, 12/06/17 |
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| Same juv G.Wag having a fight with a feather ..aw bless! |
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| Juv Reed Bunting, Thornton Ings, 25/06/17 |
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| Juv male Common Kestrel, Fangfoss Park, 18/08/17 |
This young male
Common Kestrel terrorized the living daylights out of the fledgling
Barn Swallows that were hopping about in the trees next to my caravan, as well as every other living thing in the field opposite .. here he is on a hay bail after catching a mole.
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| Juv male Common Kestrel, Fangfoss Park, 18/08/17 |
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| Common Swift heading south, Fangfoss Park, 23/08/17 |
No idea to be honest if this is a youngster or not but a later than normal departure of
Common Swifts seems to have been a theme within local birding circles this year. This one was late Aug but I had odd ones up until Sept 7th and other birders around here are still seeing them. Climate change .. blah blah blah!
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| Greenish Warbler, Bempton, 01/09/17 |
All set now for Autumn migration on the east coast; it's already underway after a slow start with a good smattering of good birds turning up on the Yorkshire coast -
Red Necked Phalarope, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long Billed Dowitcher, Icterine Warbler, White Winged Black Tern, Wryneck &
Rose Coloured Starling at
Spurn and
Greenish Warbler, Great Shearwater, Barred Warbler and an early
Lapland Bunting on the headlands around
Flamborough and
RSPB Bempton. I made an effort for the
Greenish Warbler as I'd never seen one and got a 'so so' pic
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