Pre Spring mish mash ... various Yorkshire trips out and about in Feb / March

At long last I've decided to move back into the property market, nothing too grand (beggars can't be choosers!) but my oh my its taken over the first 2 and a half months of this year. Maybe its my age but all of the deliberations, decisions and 'u turns' involved in what should be a relatively straightforward process has distracted me massively and left me frazzled!

Almost Spring now - so enough is enough, its time to take the plunge! No worries, this post will not  in any way resemble an episode of 'location location' but it is a bit of mish mash of late winter / early spring around my way.

I spent a much needed break with gud fellah No1, Mr Mark around his patch on Hatfield Moor last month and got some great landscapes on a still and clear day....


Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

Stonechat (female), Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16

as well as a rather nice pair of Stonechats that were flitting about and looking to set up a territory .. more and more of these birds are being recorded on Hatfield as the habitat develops and matures.





Stonechat (male), Hatfield Moor, 24/02/16



 

 

 

Its been the Duck season of course and I've popped out to the Lower Derwent Valley a few times and seen lots, and I mean 1000's .. Teal, Wigeon, Pochard, Tufties and the like but there's nothing more appealing I think, than a few of these mainly overwintering wildfowl pairing up and getting into breeding mode!

 

 





Shoveller pair, North Cave Wetlands, 16/02/16

This pair of Shoveller for instance look as if they're going places! Not in the Derwent as it happens but during a visit to North Cave Wetlands.

 .... and here's some Gadwall action...of all our ducks these seem to me act the craziest at this time of year with little groupings of boys chasing boys chasing girls (there might be a song in there somewhere?!)

Gadwall action, North Cave, 16/02/16

 

At the same location I spotted my first ever Green Winged Teal (it had been there a while) but it never came close enough to photograph. Interesting though and though at first glance this American version of our own Common Teal looks almost the same, that vertical chest stripe really is quite distinctive!



Green Winged Teal (pic courtesy of Ian Davies)

So, what else have I had recently? Well as the winter tails off without much of cold blast this year, I've seen many of our northern birdies depart of late ... Fieldfares and Redwings gathering in the tops of trees have been a common sight and many flocks have passed over north along with small flocks of Starlings. I had a couple of big flocks of Pink Footed Geese heading in the same direction over Fangfoss late Feb, one of which flew over early morning as I was heading out for a shower and prompted one of my mates to 'tut tut' me for not having my camera to hand! Best of all though was a big flock of calling Whooper Swans (I estimated c140) heading north over the Wolds last week (10/03) too distant and misty to get a shot but great to see and hear .. another flock passed over my caravan earlier in the morning (heard them but couldn't see 'em) so I guess there must have been a major passage that day.

 

Barn Owl, nr Sutton Forest, 5/03/16

Seen a fair few day flying Barn Owls of late too with regular sightings in the Lower Derwent Valley, the Wolds and around Fangfoss. This individual I came across nr Sutton on Forest after a good day's recruiting at Moorlands ... both reasonable captures but rather marred by interfering twigs and telegraph wires!



Barn Owl, nr Sutton Forest, 5/03/16



Redpoll, fangfoss, 02/03/16

On my local patch at Fangfoss  I'm still getting the odd Redpoll in with bigger flocks of Yellowhammer, Chaffinch & Tree Sparrow. Thought at first this one looked a bit pale and maybe a 'Meally' race but on closer inspection turned out to be just a Lesser.

Redpoll, fangfoss, 02/03/16



A few weeks ago in mid Feb during a mild spell everyone was marvelling at early Daffodils and the birds were showing breeding intent like this impressive looking cock Yellowhammer and a nest prospecting little Wren at Askham Bog.

Yellowhammer, Fangfoss, 11/02/16



Wren, Askham Bog, 14/02/16

Snow on the Wolds, 02/03/16

As is often the case though, a remarkably early promise of Spring was halted in its tracks by a cold spell, the daffodils retreated and there was snow covering the ground for a few days up on the Yorkshire Wolds.

Starkness and a bitter chill for the first couple of weeks of March put pay to any hopes of an early singing Chiff Chaff and here we are in the middle of said month with hardly any early migrants to speak of, the fields are bare though not without some degree of photographic appeal ...

Bare corn field, Fangfoss, Feb '16



Goldeneye, Tophill Low, 14/03/16

...and even a tramp around Tophill Low, a regular spot for early Sand Martins produced little other than winter ducks. This nice male Goldeneye was displaying but the female of the species looked like they were saying 'no'! 




Goldeneye, Tophill Low, 14/03/16

A house hunting trip to Hull combined with a couple of hours at Spurn Point produced a Long Eared Owl flushed from the roadside (nr Sammy's Point) and a nice Merlin fly by nr the Blue Bell cafe, but no spring migrants. Jolly nice skeins of Brent Geese though and here are just a few of appx 1100 on the reserve ....

Brent Geese, Spurn, 18/03/16



Brent Geese, Spurn, 18/03/16

 ...and some reassuring numbers of our old calling friends the Curlew with upwards of 500 on and around the estuary .. here's a nice one that flew past quite close


Curlew, Spurn, 18/03/16

 Chiff Chaffs, Blackcaps and Sand Martins have now been spotted in Yorkshire at various locations over the past week or so of course, but not by me! There's always next week!





St Aidans, Swilington Ings, Fairburn .. wildlife and industrial history, HS2 and dog walkers!

I can't remember the last time I visited Swillington Ings in the Lower Airedale Valley, but it was well over 20 years ago and at that time the adjacent open cast mining operation was in full swing and obviously 'out of bounds'. It's potential was evident even then with Avocets moving in after a major flood inundated the open cast in 1988. Mining operations ceased around the turn of the century and now the whole area has been transformed, similar in nature to nearby Fairburn Ings, with lakes, lagoons and reed beds replacing the coal seams. Swillington Ings remains of course but the expanded reclaimed area has now been renamed St Aidan's and although there are a number of ongoing land management and access issues, the RSPB has been involved in the management of this site for some time now and with good reason - its a haven for wildlife within a highly urbanised area.

You can get a good overview of the area from this aerial pic lifted from The Swillington Ings Bird Group site which also provides all of the history and sightings from this highly interesting site.

St Aidans, aerial view

What struck me the most was the surprising size of the place ... one minute you're dodging school run traffic in the heart of West Yorkshire, the next minute you hop over a bank and you're into this sort of thing...

St Aidans, 05/02/16

St Aidans, 05/02/16

St Aidans, 05/02/16

Lots of tracks and cycle paths - I think it's destined to become a country park, and why not, but for the sake of the wildlife I do hope some common sense prevails and some restrictions are put on dog walkers. Whilst we were there I witnessed at least 10 dogs off leads and heading into reedbeds! I'm not sure how much dog owners understand or care about the impact dogs 'off leads' have on wildlife but its massive, especially in sensitive areas such as this. Don't get me wrong, I like dogs, I've been a dog owner, but with so many now in the UK they've become a major threat to many ground nesting birds. Common sense dictates that all dogs on places like this should be kept on leads.



Dayglow cyclists, St Aidans

Having said that, I wonder what would scare a bird more - a rampaging dog or the shock of this sort of glare....!!

Hey, tongue firmly in cheek, these old geezers were doing no harm (except to our eyes!)















Ok, my socio/political rant over, here's some 'non predated' birds at St Aidan's for you to enjoy


Curlew, St Aidans, 5/02/16

Nuthatch singing, St Aidans, 05/02/16

Goosander (male), St Aidans, 05/02/16

Goosanders (pair), St Aidans, 05/02/16

Common Kestrel, St Aidans, 05/02/16

Wigeon (pair) + Teal (male), St Aidans, 05/02/16

Lots of wildfowl here of course with many Tufted Ducks, Pochard, Wigeon, Teal and Mallard present along with 20 or so Goldeneye. A Greenland White Fronted Goose evaded us but there were plenty of Greylags and a couple of skein of Pinkfeet passed over during the day. Not much of a chance to get close but here's a couple of Wigeon and a male Teal caught in a shaft of sunlight ..

Male Pochard, St Aidans, 05/02/16

 

 

Small birds were in short supply - speaking to some of the locals, the recent floods saw a mass exodus of many birds because the food supply was suddenly underwater! Bearded Tits and Cettis Warblers were 2 of the most lamented but I think they'll be back. Stonechats were still there however and quite confiding they were too ..



Stonechat, StAidans, 05/02/16

 

Short Eared Owls are a speciality bird here but again recently departed because all the voles presumably perished in the floods. We did see a single Marsh Harrier though plus Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. Other notable species seen included a single Oystercatcher, Red Kite, c200 Golden Plover and a probable over wintering Chiffcaff

 

'Oddball', the dragline at St Aidans

Any visitor to St Aidans cannot fail to be struck by the imposing 'dragline' sited at the entrance to the place. Basically this is a huge piece of kit, commonly used in open cast mining operations to drag or remove surface material away from the coal seam. Some totally immense examples in the US but this one is pretty impressive to any Tonka toy lovin boy or gal! I like this pic of the one at St Aidan's (affectionally penned 'Oddball')

 

 

 

 .....and my own pics of the same beast

'Oddball', the dragline at St Aidans

'Oddball', the dragline at St Aidans

 Awesome piece of kit!! If you're a devotee of our industrial heritage 'Oddball' is open to the public twice a year (see here for details - Dragline open days )



River Aire deposited rubbish following the 2015/16 floods

Not so awesome, in fact downright unsightly is the amount of rubbish (plastic mainly) that has been deposited on the banks of the River Aire after the floods. If Leeds city council is at all bothered about conservation tourism (and it should be) then some effort, and I know it will be major undertaking, is surely in order








We popped into Fairburn Ings afterwards - added Little Egret, Little Grebe and Linnet to the species day list and since we're on the subject of industrial heritage here's a couple of pics I took of the old Victorian railway bridge over the River Aire.



Victorian railway bridge at Fairburn, 05/02/16

Victorian railway bridge at Fairburn, 05/02/16

To some folk its just a wasteland but, like many others of my generation, I see something else; and as others like me gaze at these strangely evocative relics of industrial glory and the wildlife that has taken it over, I wonder what effect a big new engineering enterprise like HS2 will have on the this landscape. Hopefully minimal, but realistically it'll do for many areas of natural beauty and their attendant wildlife. Have a look at the proposed route here and anticipated impact on biodiversity.
HS2 Potential impact on biodiversity

Yorkshire floods, early singers and bloomers, uplifting landscapes and aerial manouvers over the LDV

Up until this last w/e, as far as I can recall, up here in the north, we've had precisely 5 decent weather days since early November - someone might be bothered to check that and hey my memory ain't great, but suffice to say its bin reet gloomy up ere!



Gloomy and wet! This flood alert map for the UK was a typical scenario for any given day in the 2nd half of December and just about says it all!




A few choice flood pics later but with a stack of images around re the chaos and havoc reeked in some of our northern towns and cities, including around my home city of York, there's not a lot more I want to add.






So here we are well in January and at last a few bright days and opportunities to get out and about.
The planets are aligned (worth checking out by the way) and so too the off duties of a couple of my good mates and a day tramping around the Lower Derwent Valley brought some pleasing results ...

We met at the old Church Bridge at Melbourne to be greeted by a singing Song Thrush giving it plenty. Its been so mild of late that many birds have been tricked into thinking that it's nearly spring. I've been hearing Great Tits singing for a while now and there's many reports of Daffodils in full bloom. Skip to my footnote for an even earlier bloomer!

Anyway, back to Winter and the LDV. First off were 3 White Fronted Geese in amongst Greylags at Thornton Ings. We never get many of these relatively scarce geese around here but a few turn up every year so always good to track down.


White Fronted Geese, Thornton Ings, 23/01/16

Several Pintails flying around (prob 30ish) in amongst several hundred Wigeon  but you've gotta like Pintails! So graceful and different looking.

Pintails (male and female), Thornton Ings, 23/01/16

Pintails (2 males and female), Thornton Ings, 23/01/16

and check this out ... not the best of pics and I wouldn't normally include this one, but here's the same small flock of Pintail plus attendant Lapwings apparently stopped in their tracks by an approaching Sparrowhawk that none of us spotted at the time.

Pintail spooked by a Sparrowhawk (top left), Thornton Ings, 23/01/16

I guess that's the value of taking lots and lots of pics of flocks of birds - you never know what you might later pick out! Here's another - mainly Lapwings but if you look closer, several other smaller waders in amongst. In this case we reckoned Dunlin and all told maybe 60 in total. You can never rule out the odd Ruff or even Knot in amongst such flocks but I've scoured this pic and pretty sure they're all Dunlin.

Dunlin in with Lapwings, Ellerton, 23/01/16

A few Golden Plover flocks around too, no pics but maybe 150 or so.



Peregrine Falcon (male), Ellerton, 23/01/16

Here's a very distant pic of the culprit in the above mass take off of waders around Ellerton church, a male Peregrine Falcon that had earlier had a go at a careless but on this occasion lucky Lapwing.



















At the same location there were many many Wigeon (1000+) but not as many as on previous occasions I've been down here, but with so much flood water, Peregrines around and Saturday morning boy shooters taking pot shots at tame Pheasants (come on guys, that's such poor sport!) everything gets so dispersed. These Whooper Swans for instance had been pushed right up to the edge of the churchyard by all the shooting (they're usually way over on the far bank).

Whooper Swans (2 adults & 3 juvs), Ellerton, 23/01/16

At North Duffield we had a single male Scaup in with about 100 Pochard and 20 or so Tufted Ducks - too distant for a pic but its my first Scaup of the Winter and good to get a nice male.

Yet another great day out around the LDV!

Ok, as promised a pic or 2 of the recent floods. My home city of York plus nearby Selby and Tadcaster were all drenched with much havoc, media coverage and ...well .. wetness.! All gone now and most Yorkshire folk I speak to just don't talk about it anymore.. "Aye, its 'appened a fore, n reet as rain it'll 'appen again!"

Floods in York, Dec 2015

Askham Bog flooded, 27/12/15

Askham Bog flooded, 27/12/15




Cawood (nr Selby), 28/12/15

..and to round  things off, a few pics from the odd occasions that the sun shone over the New Year period and I managed to get out. Here's a couple of great Redwing images - I've decided that they're far easier to photograph in flight than on the ground or perched when they're sooo skittish!

Redwing, Fangfoss, 24/12/15

Redwing, Fangfoss, 24/12/15

Cot Nabb and nearby Givendale in the Yorkshire Wolds is one of my favourite places to visit and walk around when I want to just get away from it all and clear out my head, you barely see a soul out there and on this particular morning earlier this month all my relatively minor issues in the grand world scale of things were put firmly into perspective!

Cot Nab, Yorkshire Wolds, 11/01/16

Cot Nab, Yorkshire Wolds, 11/01/16

Cot Nab, Yorkshire Wolds, 11/01/16



Red Kite, Givendale, Yorkshire Wolds, 11/01/16

I know they're becoming a little ubiquitous in some parts of Yorkshire (they're all over Harrogate / Leeds area), and I know some folk (well, just gamekeepers really) have little time for them, but there's a reason why they're one of the most photographed of British birds .....


Red Kite, Givendale, Yorkshire Wolds, 11/01/16

Just as uplifting, here's the Mausoleum at Castle Howard viewed from the back way into the estate







The Mausoleum, Castle Howard, 20/01/16

  

 



Footnote
I was out on YWT duty today at Askham Bog, really mild it was and on my way out at sunset I spotted a flowering Lesser Celandine. Yes its an early flowering plant but traditionally it appears late Feb/ early March - this January 24th!

Lesser Celandine, Askham Bog, 24/01/2016