Every breeding bird counts! Yorkshire birds on show as they gear up for the mating game

 Well the Spring is well underway at last and despite not being on top form I seem to have done a half decent job of getting around my local sites. As is sadly becoming the norm at this time of the year, there's lots of chat amongst birders I speak to about the lack of Swallows coming back, and this year was no different with Sand Martins too noticeably absent until well into April for me, and I'm sure I'll be having similar conversations soon about returning Swifts. 

It's difficult to be optimistic sometimes, but I try to celebrate what and when I can, 'every breeding bird counts' as they say, and today I was watching reassuringly large flocks of House Martins, Sand Martins and Swallows over Wheldrake Ings this evening. 

At the same location a week or so earlier this pair of Redshank were certainly getting in the mood and I was lucky enough to get some half decent shots of the the proceedings from start to finish.

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Redshank, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

On my local patch at Fangfoss Park I get Grey Wagtail most months of the year, but rarely 2 together, so a pair the other week in one of the drains around here was encouraging indeed. And in the same location a few days later a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers  were larkin about in the nearby trees.

Grey Wagtail (female), Fangfoss Park, 13/04/2022

Grey Wagtail (male), Fangfoss Park, 13/04/2022

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Fangfoss Park, 01/05/2022

A trip up to the North Yorks Moors to see my mate Rob produced my first returning Wheatears around the slopes of Saltersgate and although more likely to be passing through than breeding, some distant views of a couple of Ring Ouzels strutting about in a sheep field. Redstarts do breed locally around there though and it was good to see a couple of those too. And Stonechats are in that select band of small birds that seem to be doing well with several sites in the York area with good populations as well as the many pairs on the moors. 

Northern Wheatear, Saltergate, 22/04/2022

Stonechat, Fen Bog, 22/04/2022

Willow Warblers have arrived in force with Common Whitethroat not far behind and I've been seeing a couple of Little Egrets, another bird that's doing well of course, hanging around the Spittal Beck nr Fangfoss - only a matter of time before they breed somewhere locally.

Little Egret, Fangfoss, 18/04/2022

Willow Warbler, South Wood, Hovingham, 22/04/2022

Common Whitethroat, Fangfoss, 03/05/2022

Garganey, scarce breeders in the UK, thankfully keep returning to the Lower Derwent Valley and always a thrill to see even if it is usually from afar!

Drake Garganey, Lower Derwent Valley, 02/05/2022

Corn Buntings have been declining as a breeding bird in the UK for years and never a common sight anywhere in Yorkshire, but again the Lower Derwent Valley is a bit of a stronghold for them, and I also regularly spot them in the fields around Holme on Spalding Moor and Everingham. Just great to hear that jangly call, like a someone rattling a bunch of keys, on a still April evening.

Corn Bunting, Lower Derwent Valley, 15/04/2022

Even scarcer these days, sadly our dwindling populations of Willow Tit look to be in real trouble. Long gone are the days when it was not uncommon to see these birds on a regular basis in suitable habitat of wet woodland / willow carrs. Askham Bog used to be an absolute banker for seeing them during the annual bird race in the York area but now you're lucky to see just the one. Not seen 2 together there for over a year and I should know, I'm there nearly every weekend recruiting for YWT. I see and hear one every now and again but not since this one in early March. I really fear for their status as a local breeder.

Willow Tit, Askham Bog, 06/03/2022

There's many that'll tell you that the diminishing number of small birds is because there's so many birds of prey about these days, in fact I've met several game keepers who swear by their breeches that this is the truth - complete bollocks of course, there's actually no credible evidence to support that barnstorming theory. Habitat loss on the other hand, both here and where our summer birds winter, is clear for all to see, just look around! 

Top of the food chain, magnificent flying machines and awesome hunters, birds of prey (or 'raptors') are thankfully doing very well in Yorkshire. I'm old enough to remember a time when any sighting of a Common Buzzard outside of the Lake District or Scotland was almost unheard of - now I probably have at least 2 pairs within a square  mile of where I live. Red Kites continue to prosper as do Peregrine Falcons, Hobbies, Kestrels seem to be holding their own up here, and Goshawks are expanding too. Most amazing to me though is the onward progress of the Marsh Harrier. Amazing because in 1971 there was just one confirmed breeding pair in the whole of the UK (at Minsmere) and none in Yorkshire until the mid 90s at Blacktoft Sands. Now there's upwards of 500 pairs in the UK with 10ish pairs at Blacktoft, they bred at North Cave Wetlands last year and probably at Wheldrake Ings and several other Yorkshire sites and have even spread as far north as Scotland. 

In the birding world these days you have to celebrate the success stories because it's all too easy to slip into total pessimism. It's not all bad; and to my mind, if the top of the food chain (ie raptors) are doing ok then it can't be all doom and gloom for our birds. So to round off this post here's a couple each of recent Red Kite & Marsh Harrier pics along with a few more local breeding birds.

Marsh Harrier, Blacktoft Sands, 04/05/2022

Marsh Harrier, Blacktoft Sands, 04/05/2022

Red Kite with a fish, Wheldrake Ings, 06/04/2022

Red Kite with a fish, Wheldrake Ings, 06/04/2022

Treecreeper, Askham Bog, 03/04/2022

Lapwing, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Barn Swallow, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Sedge Warbler, Wheldrake Ings, 21/04/2022

Skylark, Fangfoss Park, 13/04/2022

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!