Festive season catch up - Lower Derwent Valley, Far Ings, Silton Forest and over wintering Blackcaps

To be fair, the baggins has had a lot on his plate recently and is hereby excused for not posting a single thing on here since last summer😜😜.

Seriously though, and not that this bothers me unduly, 'tis another consequence of  'getting on a bit', that inability to juggle quite so many balls in the air at the same time without falling down legs akimbo! Whatever, 😀 Mental health re frame required for reaching the age of 60 is under construction and work is progressing on schedule!

Enough of that rubbish. Here's a few of my wildlife highlights over the festive season.

Me n Mikey, Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20 (pic R. Marrs)

First off and fresh in the mind, a great day out around the LDV (Lower Derwent Valley) with good mates Mikey, Rob n Mark ...

A bright, crisp and sunny day, the kind we haven't had enough off this winter so far, and a joy to be out and about the floodplains.

Me n Mark, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20 (pic R. Marrs)

Aughton church from North Duffield, 10/01/20

Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20

Wigeon, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20

 Lots of birds around with 1000s of Wigeon, Mallard and Teal in the air along with smaller numbers of Pintail, Gadwall, Shoveler and a few Goosanders. At one point mid afternoon we reckoned on appx 7000 ducks flew over East Cottingwith into Wheldrake Ings

Wigeon, Bubwith Ings, 10/01/20

Ruff, in with Lapwing flocks, East Cottingwith, 10/01/20

Nowhere near the huge numbers of Lapwing that there used to be but comfortably 2000+ and in amongst these flocks just 2 Golden Plover (disappointing) but also 4 Ruff that I took to be Golden Plovers at the time till I zoomed in on the pic .. easy mistake to make!
















2 Marsh Harriers patrolling the reeds over by Aughton provided us with constant entertainment as we sat in the hide at North Duffield, as did a single Water Rail creeping around the scrape there, and later on at Melbourne / Thornton Ings an even better treat - a female Merlin speeding over Church bridge and heading south looked to be joined by another. Uncommon birds in the York area so a good record. Just before dusk there appx 30 Corn Buntings flew over towards their usual roosting spot nr Thornton lock.

Marsh Harrier over Aughton, 10/01/20

Silton Forest, 09/01/20

Out on my own the day before I went up to Silton Forest, a forestry commission england site near Northallerton and on the western fringe of the north yorks moors. I was after some location shots for the new website and couldn't have picked a murkier day, but got what I went for in the end, and a pleasant walk in a pleasant forest to boot.

Not a great deal spotted - Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Jay, GS Woodpecker, Willow Tit and a small flock of Siskins.

Silton Forest, 09/01/20

Closer to home, my mother's house to be exact and out the back on the pond there have been up to 17 Goosanders throughout the winter so far, plus a Kingfisher, Great Crested Grebe and in the gardens backing on to the pond Redwings, a Fieldfare, Bullfinches and best of all at least 3 different over wintering Blackcaps - 2 males together a few weeks back and a few days later a male and female together. Great garden record, even managed to spot where one of them goes into roost - a neighbours acacia tree!

 All feeding on the last few Rowan berries and the fat balls of course!

Male Blackcap, York, 14/12/19

Redwing, York, 14/12/19

Goosander (female), York,

Bullfinch (male) 11/12/19

This past year has been like no other for me, much change and lots of ups and downs, the first year for decades that I haven't traveled abroad and the year I decided to give up living on a caravan site. All coming together now, thank god, and planning to be away again to mainland Europe in the spring after a short trip up to Scotland next month. In the meantime here's a few more selected pics from Dec/ Jan.

Goldfinch drinking, Askham Bog, 01/12/19

Pintail, Wheldrake Ings, 05/12/19

Stonechat, Pocklington Canal, 05/12/19,

Whooper Swans, Great Lake, Castle Howard, 09/12/19

Far Ings & Humber Bridge, 13/12/19

Far Ings & Humber Bridge, 13/12/19

Sparrowhawk, Far Ings, 13/12/19

Redwing, York, 14/12/19

Blackcap at roosting site, York, 31/12/19

Towards Wheldrake Ings from the Pocklington Canal, 31/12/19

 Happy 2020!😃😃😃

Another road trip to Spain planned ... music en Francais & birding en Espana!

Another road trip through France and into Spain beckons and not before time; Had everything gone to plan then I would be there now (lounging about in the south of France somewhere near the Camargue), but my plans started to go pear shaped well before Xmas with an ill advised move to another campsite and then went totally tits up after the new campervan developed seriously bad and expensive engine problems!

France / Spain road trip 2017 - rough outline

Hopefully now though we're all sorted. I'm back at my old site at Fangfoss and the van is behaving quite nicely - It probably needs a long trip to let the new head gasket, water pump and timing belt to settle in and I have just the trip for the old gal!

Nothing is set in stone of course and this is just a rough idea of my likely route based on previous trips but as always I'll follow the weather and the birds, take it easy and enjoy every minute of the journey, especially after a hellish couple of months of stress and trauma in Baggins world.














Unsurprisingly I've not had many opportunities to point my camera lens at very much at all over the New Year, and when I have made the effort the light has never been good enough for decent pics, its been a dank, damp January so far this year. I hung around for 2 hrs in the company of about 50 twitchers hoping to get a glimpse of the York recording area's rarest bird to date - a nice male Pine Bunting at Dunnington (just down the road from me) - no show on that occasion but apparently its still there so I'll try again this week. Best pic to date (courtesy of Josh Jones) of this elusive mega rarity

Pine Bunting, Dunnington, nr York, 22/01/17

Only 50 other UK records of this fine looking bunting but many new records on the continent suggest that it may be on the wander and given their close allegiance to our own Yellowhammer you can be sure I'll be double checking the reasonably decent flocks of the latter I get around Fangfoss (its only 6 miles away as the bunting flies!)

Hen Harrier, undisclosed location, 13/01/17

My only other decent birds in what has been a very fallow month were a flock of 50+ Bramblings roosting on a regular basis at the campsite of hell nr Allerthorpe and a superb male Hen Harrier, again roosting, at an undisclosed location in Yorkshire.












Rarities aside, a few local common birds caught my attention on the odd day that the sun did shine, none less so than these nice Robin shots taken over the Christmas / New Year

European Robin, Fangfoss, 28/12/2016

European Robin, Allerthorpe, 30/12/2016

European Robin, Fangfoss, 28/12/2016

European Robin, Fangfoss, 28/12/2016

European Robin, Fangfoss, 28/12/2016

A team day out with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Spurn Point was bracing and good fun, short on birds but this shoreline Golden Plover was a good 'un.

Golden Plover, Spurn, 14/12/2016

 Not much to shout about on my work patch at Askham Bog with both Siskin and Redpoll numbers way down on last year but this little Goldcrest was entertaining as I shivered in the cold

Goldcrest, Askham Bog, 31/12/2016

 

Siskin, Askham Bog, 02/01/2017

Just an isolated bunch within a big flock of Skylarks flying over my local fields around Fangfoss but they made a nice shape!

Common Skylarks, Fangfoss, 29/11/2016

Male Stonechat, Strensall Common, 10/01/2017

 And lastly, a nice male Stonechat on a different part of Strensall Common than is usual - they cling on there and maybe this is a another prospective breeding site.


So its onwards to France later on this month for a long overdue catch up with these guys - my sis, partner Mark and no doubt various other musos and reprobates.

Beyond the Gap promo pic, May 2012

Crikey, nearly 5 years since that pic was taken - how time flies, but age is no barrier when it comes to music, I can still strut my stuff and looking forward to doing a bit of this while I'm over there ...

Beyond the Gap live, Fargasso (french pyrenees), 09/07/2012

  After that I'll head south into Spain for a bit of this...

Short Toed Eagle over the Straits of Gibralter, 02/03/2015

and a bit of this too ...

Miles away from it all in my old Tranny, Belchite steppes, Nov 2013

That van was ace, looked great, went anywhere and felt solid. I don't feel quite the same about my newly acquired T4 but maybe I'll feel differently if it gets me there and back in one piece and without any further serious inroads into my bank balance! Hmm .. we'll see!

Sir David Attenborough pops into Askham Bog

There's only one way to kick off my early summer round up of wildlife happenings and boy did we need something to brighten up the wettest June on record, so a visit to Askham Bog by the one and only Sir David Attenborough as part of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's 70th birthday celebrations was the most welcome of shining stars to lighten up our landscape!


Sir David Attenborough at Askham Bog, 17/06/16

Sir David was genuinely fascinated by Askham Bog's unique habitat describing it a jewel every bit as precious in conservation terms as York Minster and that local people should feel rightly proud of it. It was a good recruiting there the next day!

The great man and very special guest spoke at length and answered questions from a packed audience at York university later as part of our 70th birthday celebrations.












Follow that Baggins!

Tricky, but the obvious link has to be Askham Bog and despite the inclement weather all summer so far you can't stop a jewel from shining. Here's a few selected pics from the past month or so...

Ragged Robin, Askham Bog, 26/06/16

Brimstone butterfly, Askham Bog, 26/06/16

Ragged Robin, Askham Bog, 26/06/16

Brimstone butterfly, Askham Bog, 26/06/16



Large Skipper, Askham Bog, 19/06/16



Skullcap, Askham Bog, 19/06/16



Water Violets, Askham Bog, 30/05/16



Sir David Attenborough liking Askham Bog, 17/06/16

Wishful thinking to follow an Attenborough pic with a link to the Antarctic or perhaps Madagascar but the furthest I've been since I got back from Spain is the North Pennines... an overnighter in my tent for a bit of variety away from the flat lands of the vale of York and every bit as photogenic as Madagascar!



Grassholme Bridge, Lune Valley, Durham, 07/06/16

Grassholme reservoir, Lune Valley, Durham, 07/06/16

Grassholme reservoir, Lune Valley, Durham, 07/06/16



Bollihope burn, North Pennines, 07/06/16




Old quarry, Bollihope moor, North Pennines 07/06/16


A short trip cut even shorter by drizzle and mist the next morning but not before I'd bagged my first UK Dippers and Redstart of the year plus breeding Wheatear, Snipe, Woodcock, Common Sandpiper & Redshank, passage Spotted Flycatcher and the usual Curlew, Oystercatcher, Grey Wagtail & Meadow Pipit.



Northern Wheatear, North Pennines, 07/06/16

Common Snipe, North Pennines, 07/06/16

Meadow Pipit, North Pennines, 07/06/16

Common Snipe, North Pennines, 07/06/16



Spotted Flycatcher, North Pennines, 07/06/16



Common Whitethroat, Givendale, 03/06/16

Back down here in Yorkshire Wolds I'm not seeing anything like the number of insects on the wing you might expect in mid June and my guess is that many small birds, warblers for instance, are struggling to feed hungry mouths right now - This Common Whitethroat  seemed to be doing ok though ... a nice tasty bug was one of many I observed him taking back to a hidden nest.















Common Whitethroat, Givendale, 03/06/16

Sedge Warbler, Thornton Ings, 23/05/16

This Sedge Warbler was one of at least 4 singing birds along a short stretch of the Pocklington Canal back in late May. Not been back since so I don't know how well they've done -  I'll pop back but doubt that I'll get better pics than these classic 'Sedgie' profiles!






Sedge Warbler, Thornton Ings, 23/05/16



Sedge Warbler, Thornton Ings, 23/05/16

That's how I'd like to photograph a Moustached Warbler one of these days .. I can dream!