And so it goes on and still we wait and wonder when life can return to some kind of normality. We all hope and pray that our loved ones remain well and most of all, we want a vaccine, but that's a way off and so for now, here in the UK, its pretty much as you were. I continue to exercise my right to daily walks, I've bought a bike, bit slack around the 1 hour advice but I keep my distance and keep myself to myself, I'm a gang of one and apart from missing seeing my kids, friends and missing work, quite content.
April started on a real high note for me. Once a week I pop round to drop off provisions for my mum and more often than not call in to nearby
Strensall Common for a walk and a look see. On one such occasion, quite by chance I lifted the bins to what I first thought was a crow flapping across the common near to the firing ranges - it was only a ringtail
Hen Harrier!
I literally dropped my binocs in favour of the camera and although it was always flying away managed a couple of creditable pics given that my hands were probably shaking! My second HH record for Strensall and one of only a handful of Yorkshire sightings. I followed it of course but the bird was well gone but what a great bird to have and so lucky to have been there at that exact moment.
Got this
Fox in my sights as I was trailing around looking for the HH again, no doubt enjoying the relative lack of people on the common.
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| Stonechat, Strensall Common, 16/04/20 |
Also on Strensall Common recently I've flushed
Woodlark from a couple of locations where I've not seen them before (again maybe due to lack of disturbance), at least 2 pairs of
Curlew and more
Stonechats than ever before. No
Wheatears though which has been disappointing since they've been seen at several locations around York.
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| Leys Wood & Grimston Brow, 06/04/20 |
Its been a pleasurable challenge picking out nearby destinations on the map that I've either been to before and want to revisit or have never been to.
Birdsall Brow, Grimston Brow and
Duggleby Wold in the
Yorkshire Wolds all come under the latter and all great places to escape from the madding crowd!
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| Cinqefoil Hill, Duggleby Wold, 13/04/20 |
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| Looking north towards Malton from the top of Birdsall Brow, 20/04/20 |
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| Looking north west towards Norton & Malton from Duggleby Wold high top, 13/04/20 |
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| Parched earth nr Pocklington Canal, 23/04/20 |
This time of year I'd normally be abroad in Spain and I'm missing it but what with the weather being so, well ... continental, sometimes its possible to imagine that your in a different country ...
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| Stensall Common, 21/04/20 |
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| Foggathorpe, 18/04/20 |
Dream on boyo, foreign travel the way I like to do it is out for the foreseeable!
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| Pocklington Wood, 19/04/20 |
Good job I have so many easily accessible wild places on my doorstep.
Pocklington Woods for example, a mere 10 minute cycle ride away, isn't 'foreign looking' at all, its quintessential old english woodland with as good a
Bluebell display as anywhere around here.
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| Bluebells, Pocklington Wood, 19/04/20 |
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| Wild Garlic, Pocklington Wood, 19/04/20 |
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Plenty more of the usual spring wild flowers blooming on the road side verges of course and more butterflies than usual maybe?
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| Lesser Celandines, Strensall, 16/04/20 |
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| Orange Tip, Strensall, 16/04/20 |
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| Wood Anemones, Howsham, 03/04/20 |
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| Peacock, Mowthorpe, 07/04/20 |
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| Ladies Mantle (Cuckoo flower), 10/04/20 |
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Comma, Hovingham, 08/04/20
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| Forget me nots, Birdsall, 10/04/20 |
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| Stitchwort, Howsham, 22/04/20 |
The most spectacular wild flowers I've seen recently are these
Snakes Head Fritillaries, 4 or 5 of them growing in a paddock adjacent to the
Pocklington Canal near
Bielby. Probably not that wild though - rare in the UK and a favoured garden plant, gorgeous all the same!
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| Snakes Head Fritillary, Pocklington Canal, 17/04/20 |
Speaking of gardens, you wouldn't want this many
Mares Tails in your borders, never seen so many in my life!
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| Mares Tails, Foggathorpe, 18/04/20 |
If you've scrolled down this far well done you, not sure I would have done - one fine day I'll get the hang of short snappy up to date posts, but plainly this is not that day as I've hardly mentioned birds and its Spring goddammit!
To be fair, although I've seen plenty, I haven't got that lucky with the camera apart from that magnificent
Hen Harrier. Had my first
Sand Martins, Swallows and
House Martins during the first week of April - all memorable in their own way but no pics. First
Willow Warbler on the 10th, first
Cuckoo on the 21st no pic, and so on; not that I'm complaining, these are not times to be complaining about anything in my view, no its just the way it goes sometimes. Had more luck with late winter birds -
Fieldfares were passing through and doing theire usual thing of massing in tree tops before flying north
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| Fieldfares, Jefrey Bog, 05/04/20 |
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| Fieldfares passing through and heading north, Duggleby Wold, 13/04/20 |
I had a very late one (Fieldfare) fly over me 'chagh chaghing' away in a brilliant blue sky near Howsham on the 22nd. The pic isn't worth posting but at more or less the same time one of Mr Fieldfare's close relatives, common as he is seemed to be saying 'this is how to sing my friend' ...just had to be snapped!
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| Blackbird singing from on high, Howsham, 22/04/20 |
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| Reed Bunting, Foggathorpe, 18/04/20 |
On my walk around
Foggathorpe and whilst next to one of the old fishing ponds there I was curious as to what was causing bits of Bullrush fluff to be floating about on such a still day. Turned out to be a
Reed Bunting pecking away at the mast heads and gathering the stuff - for nest building or food? I suspect the former.
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| Reed Bunting, Foggathorpe, 18/04/20 |
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| Whimbrel calling, Pocklington Canal, 23/04/20 |
For keen birders, the annual observation of
Whimbrel (for the not so keen think small Curlew) as they pass through the
Lower Derwent Valley on their way north to breed will no doubt be less observed, but here is at least one for the record. Over the
Pocklington Canal near Storwood lock..
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| Whimbrel, Pocklington Canal, 23/04/20 |
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| Boxing Hares, Thornton Ings, 10/04/20 |
Still awaiting my first
Swift of the year and fully expect it to be from my garden or around the church steeple here in Pock, till then, stay safe folks and I leave you with some boxing
Hares and a few other random pics ...
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| Boxing Hares, Thornton Ings, 10/04/20 |
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| Curlew, Melbourne, 01/04/20 |
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| Grey Wagtail, Mowthorpe, 07/04/20 |
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| Sheriff Hutton castle from Mowthorpe, 07/04/20 |
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| Melbourne arm, Pocklington Canal, 10/04/20 |
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| Norton from Birdsall Brow, 20/04/20 |
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| Exmoor Ponies on Skipwith Common, 24/04/20 |
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| Strensall Common, 21/04/20 |
April started on a real high note for me. Once a week I pop round to drop off provisions for my mum and more often than not call in to nearby Strensall Common for a walk and a look see. On one such occasion, quite by chance I lifted the bins to what I first thought was a crow flapping across the common near to the firing ranges - it was only a ringtail Hen Harrier!
I literally dropped my binocs in favour of the camera and although it was always flying away managed a couple of creditable pics given that my hands were probably shaking! My second HH record for Strensall and one of only a handful of Yorkshire sightings. I followed it of course but the bird was well gone but what a great bird to have and so lucky to have been there at that exact moment.
