Baggins on the Loose: Barn Owl

Don't you just love it when those bright green little leaves start appearing on the hedgerows, when the birds start to sing again and the first flowers poke their way up from the ground🌸🌼🌻 - yes we're still in lockdown but Spring is sprung and things are slowly getting better. Here's my round up for March - it was a busy month with many highlights😅

Yearsley Moor, 01/03/21

Howardian Hills. - a couple of visits to the hills, Yearsley Moor & Wass Bank on the 1st and Coulton Moor on the 9th. These hills are so picturesque, at any time of the year, and great for walking. I've pretty much done all of the well known beauty spots, especially around Castle Howard, but never really explored Coulton Moor and found a path around Yearsley I hadn't walked before, an elevated track with good views of the surrounding woodlands.

A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, both 'drumming', Marsh Tit, Barn Owl and small numbers of Siskin and Lesser Redpoll were the birding highlights here, and then a punishing walk to the top of Wass Bank was rewarded by a highly mobile flock of 18 Golden Plovers.

Coulton Moor, 09/03/21

A week or so later around Coulton Moor on an altogether brighter day I had my second Chiffchaffs of the spring, 2 of them, both subdued and I'm yet to hear one 'chiffchaffing'. Also had a nice male Brambling in with Chaffinches, a tantalising flock of big finches over the trees that were probably Crossbills, a nicely posed male Yellowhammer and continuing the 'yellow' theme a few bunches of small Daffodils that to my eye resembled the wild daffs you get around Farndale at this time of year🌻

Yellowhammer, Coulton Moor, 09/03/21

Wild Daffodils, Coulton Moor, 09/03/21

Hen Harrier, Strensall Common, 07/03/21

Strensall Common - 3 visits (7th, 12th & 26th.) Forget the 26th (all I saw of note was a flock of 80 Lesser Redpolls) but on the 7th and feeling suitably self righteous for getting up early and beating most of the dog walkers on 'Strenny' Common, I had a very productive morning. First up and literally my first scan of the common I came onto a 'grey ghost' - a male Hen Harrier gliding along the northern boundary of the reserve. That's a great record for the York area😮

Male Crossbill, Strensall Common, 07/03/21

Doubly satisfying for me as I'd dipped out on one of the same that was roosting at the same location over the new year. Minutes later and still feeling mightily pleased with myself I lifted the bins to some fluttering birds at the top of a stand of Scots Pine trees - Crossbills! Not a common bird around here and a first for me on Strensall. There were 9 in total, mostly males, and I spent a good while watching and photographing them.

To cap off a memorable morning I managed to get a decent few pics of at least 2 sing Woodlarks.

Male Crossbill, Strensall Common, 07/03/21

Singing Woodlark, Strensall Common, 07/03/21

A return visit on the 12th yielded none of the above star birds but a group of 5 Common Buzzards cruising over the common was a pleasing sight. I'm old enough to still remember when even a single Buzzard anywhere in Yorkshire was a red letter day!

Common Buzzards, Strensall Common, 12/03/21

Strensall Common, 12/03/21

Lower Derwent Valley - several visits throughout the month. 2 weeks after my Hen Harrier on Strensall I was unbelievably lucky again with another male through Melbourne Ings on the 26th. Closer and with better light I got some better pics of this fabulous bird as it flew in from the west and then disappeared over Seavy Carr (possibly following the line of the Pocklington Canal?)

Hen Harrier, Melbourne / Thornton Ings, 25/03/21

I'm not the only one to have recorded Hen Harriers in the York area recently and there's been way more records in Yorkshire as a whole - this can only be good news for this much persecuted bird😀.

Chiffchaff, Bubwith, 06/03/21

Elsewhere in the LDV this early spring I had my first returning Chiffchaff at Bubwith on the 6th, some impressive flocks of Black Tailed Godwit at Wheldrake Ings, drumming Common Snipes over Thornton Ings, a build up of other wading birds such as Oystercatchers, Redshank and Ruff, the usual Marsh Harriers (including several wing tagged birds at Wheldrake, whilst on the duck front, although steadily decreasing in numbers there remain good numbers of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Goldeneye and Pintail across the floodplains and a drake Scaup at Wheldrake on the 13th was a good find.

Pintail & Wigeon, Bubwith, 06/03/21

Shoveler, Wheldrake Ings, 02/03/21

Wing tagged Marsh Harrier, Wheldrake Ings, 02/03/21

Oystercatchers, Bank Island, 13/03/21

Drake Goldeneye, Wheldrake Ings, 13/03/21

Drake Scaup, Wheldrake Ings, 13/03/21

Drake Goldeneye, Wheldrake Ings, 20/03/21

Skylark, Wheldrake Ings, 20/03/21

Pretty obvious from the above pic that it was a fine early spring day at Wheldrake, just look at that green sheen and bright golden eye! A day to lift the spirits after a whole winter of 'lockdown' and what better than a singing Skylark to signal better times ahead!

Whilst the Skylark has been immortalised by many writers and poets, and will be forever associated with the joys of spring and new beginnings, the folklore of owls is the complete opposite in that they're often associated with death and dying💀. We're all going to die of course but on such a fine day the sight of this beautiful Barn Owl flying around Bank Island in the middle of the day certainly didn't summon any thoughts of the grim reaper - I felt glad to be alive!

Barn Owl. Bank Island, 20/03/21

Barn Owl. Bank Island, 20/03/21

Thorne Moor (4/03/21) - Met up with my pal Mark to investigate canal boats and moorings at Thorne and Rawcliffe Bridge. I'm still interested in the idea and there's plenty of boats for sale but available moorings are like rocking horse shit! Afterwards we went onto Thorne Moor and heard a Common Crane, little else about though apart from 4 Stonechat and 3 distant Marsh Harriers.

Thorne Moor, 04/03/21

Black Headed Gulls, North Cave, 14/03/21

North Cave Wetlands (14/03/21). There's something about this reserve that just gets me into counting mode. Something to do with the layout of the place I think, with each lagoon having its own hide / viewing area, or maybe I'm just a nerd😂. Either way its a very mindful thing to do but have to admit I gave up on trying to estimate Black Headed Gull numbers - there must be a breeding population of 1000+ here and boy are they noisy, entertaining too though!

North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Most wildfowl numbers had dwindled since my last visit with just c75 Wigeon, c140 Teal, c45 Mallard, c80 Gadwall, c85 Tufted Duck and c45 Shoveler, whilst 24 Pochard and 44 Shelduck were on the up. 9 Oystercatchers, c60 Lapwing, 2 Curlew and 3 Redshank accounted for the waders and I also had 5 Little Grebes, 4 Great Crested Grebes and single Marsh Harrier, Red Kite and Peregrine. The highlight though was an early Sand Martin over the main lake and a pair of highly entertaining Green Woodpeckers from out of the back of Crossland Hide.

Green Woodpecker, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

In my experience Green 'peckers have always been somewhat of a challenge to photograph, so to see a pair of them flitting to and fro from a nearby hedge, feeding on the ground and even taking a drink from the lagoon was a real thrill and with a nice steady base for the camera from the hide I filled my boots and took many shots - here's a selected few of said 'peckers and a few more bird shots from the Cave.

Green Woodpecker, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Shelduck, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Tree Sparrow, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Pochard, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Little Grebe, North Cave Wetlands, 14/03/21

Hempholme / Tophill Low (17/03/21). Yet another trip down to the canal boat moorings on the River Hull at Hempholme to enquire about moorings but nothing doing so I walked south along the river and ended up skirting the northern edge of Tophill Low nature reserve - closed of course and strictly speaking I shouldn't have been there but couldn't resist a peek over the edge of O reservoir. Some gorgeous looking Goldeneye, Teal and Tufted Ducks, a Brimstone butterfly along with several Tortoiseshells.

Teal, Tophill Low, 17/03/21

Tortoiseshel, Hempholme, 17/03/21

Pair of Goldeneye, Hempholme 17/03/21

Aire & Calder Canal, 19/03/21

Rawcliffe Bridge and Goole Marina (19/03/21) - yet another canal boat / moorings fact finding mission. I sussed out the location of Goole marina in preparation for a planned visit to view a converted tug, then walked up and down the Aire & Calder navigation from both Goole and Rawcliffe Bridge.

Along the canal tow / cycle path I had 3 Marsh Harriers, 2 Goosanders a couple of singing Cettis Warblers and 2 very distant Common Cranes on Goole Fields.

Marsh Harriers, Aire & Calder Canal, 19/03/21

Common Cranes, Goole Fields, 19/03/21

Rosedale, 22/03/21

Rosedale (22/03/21) - met up with my pal Rob to see if the Ring Ouzels were back at their breeding grounds near Blakey Ridge. We sadly drew a blank but it was a lovely sunny day and a great walk round Rosedale Head.

Birds were in short supply, plenty of Meadow Pipits though, and with the sun shining, good company, good exercise and the sound of Curlews and Lapwings in the air, what's not to like😁

Meadow Pipit, Rosedale, 22/03/21

Curlew, Rosedale, 22/03/21

Alkborough Flats (24/03/21) - a very productive morning and catch up with Mark yielded another 4 bird species to my 2021 yearlist - Bittern (heard booming), Barnacle Goose (2), Bearded Tit (6), Spoonbill (2) and Spotted Redshank (6). I got reasonably lucky with the Bearded Tits - had my eye on a handsome male flitting in and out of the reeds and though not A1 its comfortably my best shot of one.

Bearded Tit, Alkborough, 24/03/21

The Avocets were much easier!

Avocets, Alkborough, 24/03/21

Hotham Carrs (28/03/21) - having recently followed one of the public footpaths from the Carrs to the Market Weighton Canal, this was the other one (always good to join these walks up😊). A pleasant walk on a dull day across fairly low intensity farmland was quite productive with a small herd of Whooper Swans (6), Oystercatcher, 8 Curlew, Barn Owl, Grey Partridge, lots of finches and Yellowhammer, 2 Corn Buntings and I'm 99% sure I flushed a Jack Snipe out of the canal - small, pale, no zigzag flight pattern and it didn't make a noise when it flew off. I'm having it!

Corn Bunting, Hotham Carrs, 28/03/21

Askham Bog - from the end of the month I was off furlough and back to work for YWT recruiting at Askham Bog (hurray!). I'm so lucky to not only have a job to return to, but one that I actively enjoy and look forward to - a lot of folk have lost jobs and found it tough during the pandemic, so I'm always mindful of just how lucky I am.

Back recruiting, Askham Bog, 30/03/21

Askham Bog, 29/03/21

It felt so good to get back in the saddle again, the sun shining and plenty of people about to talk to; my usual place by the bridge, part of scenery again! So good I worked all of the available days in March (29th - 31st). I can walk around the reserve at the end of the day when I've packed up but to be honest, most of the best wildlife I've seen there has been from within 50 yards of that stand on the pic.

Wren, Askham Bog, 30/03/21

The days I was there I had 5 butterfly species - Comma, Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Orange Tip and Peacock, and although not seen by me there were Smooth Newts rising in the pond and I even managed to see some species of dragonfly larvae moving about in the watery depth of the main dyke. To my mind the numbers of resident birds on the bog seem to be decreasing, imperfectively to the casual visitor perhaps but when you've worked a patch on a regular basis for nine years you notice these things. Just one sighting of a Willow Tit in 3 days ain't good for a place that's supposed to be a stronghold for them. No Marsh Tits and no Great Spotted Woodpecker - not good. Plenty of Wrens still though and a pair of Long Tailed Tits have decided to build a nest less than 6 feet away from where I stand - bugger to get anything like a decent pic because of so many twigs in the way - still trying!

Common Frog, Askham Bog, 15/03/21

A couple of weeks before I returned to work I popped in for a recce and was watching a flock of 20 or so Redpolls by the pond and was suddenly aware of a faint croaking - thankfully it wasn't my last dying breath😁 .. noo, it was Frogs of course🐸. As soon as I investigated further they all scurried off and submerged but I got lucky on one and found tons of frogspawn.

Frogspawn, Askham Bog, 15/03/21

On the banked sides of the path into Askham Bog there's always a nice display of Lesser Celandines at this time of the year, one of my all time favourite flowers - to me they're the absolute embodiment of spring with their massed ranks of yellow petals all straining to catch the rays of the sun!

Lesser Celandines, Askham Bog, 30/03/21

Common Buzzard, East Cottingwith, 08/03/21

Off to Wales next month for a week or so, Ynis Hir and then Anglesey, first trip away since Northumberland last November and really looking forward to it. Not sure what I'm up to in terms of bird species for the year, somewhere northwards of 130ish I think but still on it and with new birds arriving daily and another road trip in the offing I fully expect to top 160 by the time I next post! In the meantime here's a few more pics from March.