In between the wind and the rain, a majestic Sparrowhawk and a hint of early Spring in North Yorks


Well I think we're all a bit sick to death of the wind and the rain that has swept across our country over these past few weeks. Up here in Yorkshire we've escaped the worst of the damage this extreme weather has wreaked in the southwest and I wish them all well with the clean up .... surely some telling solutions will now be arrived at given that this kind of weather looks like becoming the norm.

My only hardship, a few fence panels down and a bit of water through my windows .. oh and the lack of opportunities to get out! Up until the last few days there's been just 2 or 3 days in as many weeks when it hasn't been either raining or blowing a gale!

Aargh, who am I to complain, me who's just taken 6 weeks off in Spain .... wanna guess how many times I've wished I was back there in the past month? Plenty of times! Still, in all the time I was there I never got as good a shot at a Sparrowhawk as this unexpected opportunity along the Pocklington Canal today .....

  

Female Sparrowhawk1_Pocklington Canal

Female Sparrowhawk2_Pocklington Canal

Female Sparrowhawk2_Pocklington Canal



 

Talk about a welcome committee! This was the first bird I saw after I got out of the van .... I'd parked nr Melbourne and there's a steeply raised bridge over the canal there (Church Bridge), and there was this majestic female Spar perched right on top of the bridge wall ... I stood stock still and somehow manoeuvred the camera with amazing agility for a man of my age and got a few good shots off. Best perched Spar pics ever in fact.

and then she was off..... clocked me at last!

 

The Lower Derwent Valley was thronging as usual with assorted wildfowl ... with hundreds of Wigeon, Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Pintail & Pochard. At Bubwith I counted at least 95 Whooper Swans (a dozen or so more than last year) and from Ellerton church there were 15 Shelduck standing on the bank - a sure sign of Spring. Also at Ellerton Churchyard I met the local grave digger who told me 2 interesting things (he was obviously a birder too)... he told me that the famous naturalist Peter Scott had once stood and marvelled at the vista of the valley from this very churchyard and that when he did (several decades ago) the Wigeon numbered about 40,000! Less than a quarter of that number now ... sobering thought.

So this was one of those 2 or 3 good weather days I was talking about earlier, a bright and breezy afternoon on Strensall Common, no bird action to speak of but just to be out under a blueish sky was good enough for me!

Strensall Common_Feb2014



Strensall Common_Feb2014





Male Bullfinch_askham bog

A rare moment of brightness on Askham Bog recently and this was one of nearly a dozen Bullfinches on the reserve.

Nuthatch_moorlands

Sunday was ok too and lets hope that's it for extreme weather for a while. I working at Moorlands, one of YWTs reserves nr York - famous for its rhododendrons and azalias, it also holds one of the few breeding Nuthatches in the area. These canny, busy little birds inhabit the same kind of places as Woodpeckers and Treecreepers .... tree trunks and branches in other words, and so busy are they that photographing is never easy. Luckily my post at Moorlands is very adjacent to a bird feeding station (which these birds love) and whilst normally avoiding anything that resembles a bag of nuts or a fatball anywhere near my lens, on this occasion I make an exception for one of these pics...

Nuthatch2_moorlands

Nuthatch3_moorlands

When food is plentiful, these birds are in the habit of secreting seeds & nuts away in the crevices on tree bark and I think this is what's going on in a couple of these pics. 







Nuthatch4_moorlands

 

Nuthatch5_moorlands

There was plenty of evidence of birds establishing territorial rights, birdsong and courtship behaviour, none less so than this Robin with an insanely red breast!

Robin_moorlands



Robin2_moorlands



Singing Wren_moorlands

...... and never bet against one of our smallest birds in a full on singing contest!

mmmhh...... think this wee Wren needed a rest after that outburst!

Wren_moorlands



Last weekend was when all the Snowdrops came up around here and what a welcome sight they were too ..... these look so fresh and new, especially with a bit of sun on their tops.

Snowdrops_moorlands

Snowdrops2_moorlands

 



Crocus in local fields

...... and just today I noticed many Crocuses (or is that Crocii!?) in the fields near my house. So delicate and I think quite exotic, we would marvel at their beautiful colours if stumbled upon on a far flung foreign holiday wouldn't we?


Crocus in local fields

Crocus in fields

Enough of the bleak midwinter already ... the days are getting longer and at last there's more than flood water to photograph - not that I've recorded any footage, but with the often over the top sensation seeking news teams out on the case with their BBC issued wellies  - I think we get the picture!!

 

 

Autumn fungi at Askham Bog, planning trips, a Mali Harp and a bit of John Mayer to make up for my lack of birds!

Been keeping my head down and not been out much for the past couple of weeks ... busy planning and making preparations for a big road trip - I'm setting off on Nov 11th and driving the camper down to Spain. Coming back just before Xmas so its a proper tour and a well earned rest from all this bumming around on nature reserves in Yorkshire!

More info later this week on what I'm aiming to do and some opportunities for you guys to interact if you want.

I reckon a fair chunk of Winter migrants have arrived on my patch lately unseen by me, I even heard there were Waxwings again in the middle of York last week, but all I've had is a few Fieldfares over my house and an increase of Siskins, Goldcrests and Thrushes at Askham Bog.... so not many photo opps recently, but a stroll around said Bog last weekend and during a bit of 'down time' revealed some great fungi in the evening sun and along with some great looking Guelder Rose berries, a few turning Oak leaves and the odd Robin this makes a nice enough little Autumn gallery ....

Fungi, Askham Bog

Fungi2, Askham Bog

Guelder Rose berries

Fungi3, Askham Bog

Turning Oak leaves

 

Robin, Askham Bog

Fungi3, Askham Bog

Guelder Rose berries2, Askham Bog

John Mayer

No way can I come up with a link between Fungi and John Mayer, and he's certainly not in the Autumn of his years just yet, unlike Mr Jools Holland upon who's show 'Later' one of my favourite guitarists was performing the other night ... check this out if you can access the BBC Iplayer - Call me the Breeze - John Mayer







Mali Harp

The whole show is worth a watch  ....  highlights were Graham Parker & The Rumour reformed (wow, never saw that coming!), Lissie (another fave act of mine) and an amazing Mali Harp player called Ballaké Sissoko ...what an instrument!!

Here's the link for the whole show .........'Later' with Jools Holland

 

 

2hrs of drama at Pond Hide, Wheldrake Ings

Ah! Wheldrake Ings, a truly awesome place that will be forever stamped in my mind as bird watching heaven! It was here, some 30+ years ago and armed with a 2nd hand pair of binoculars, that I rediscovered birding and turned away from the deviant excesses of youth and if, God forbid, I die tomorrow on the road to Spurn, I will likely haunt the place ... in a genial sort of way of course!

I've tramped around just about every square inch of the place in my time and likely as not been places I shouldn't have been, but at this time of the year there's only one place to be ... Pond Hide. I've sat in there, often alone, for hours on end sometimes and although you'll never get the numbers of birds that drop into equivalent local patches places like Blacktoft Sands or even Tophill Low, at this time of year there's always drama.

So here's an hour or 2 at Pond Hide on Sept 4th in pictures and in the good company of me old chum Mark Paine.



Black Tailed Godwit
 

Although the evening was warm, sultry even, with high cloud the light was never brilliant but ok for picking up the best of the waders ..... here's a pick n mix of waders  ...Black Tailed Godwit, Green Sandpiper, Snipe & Ruff.

Green Sandpiper





Pair of Snipes, Wheldrake Ings

Green Sandpiper2

Ruff


Not sure about the Green Sand but pretty sure that the Godwits and Ruffs bred locally and not migrants. Same thing with the Common Snipes, declining nationally as a breeding bird but doing well at Wheldrake.

Fairly typical and 'so so' selection of waders for this time of year. No sign of the Great White Egret that hung around here for a few days last week but our patience was rewarded with a bit of Wheldrake drama over the last hour before the light went.

First off, one of the Grey Herons that had been stalking around suddenly got all animated and as we focused our bins on the commotion we realised what all the fuss was about .... it was grappling with a young Pike!

Grey Heron with Pike

 



Never have I seen a Heron grapple with anything this big! 

 

 

Grey Heron and Pike2

Grey Heron with Pike in gullet!

The fish was pretty well impaled but even so I fully expected it to somehow wriggle free .... certainly didn't expect to see such a monster swallowed whole ... but I was wrong!























Shortly afterwards there was yet more commotion when Marsh Harrier flew in and took something just beyond the bank. Looked like a young female to me.


Marsh Harrier, juv female?

 

Water Rail, Wheldrake Ings

In the decidedly murky light we were then treated to better than the usual views of a reasonably common bird here ... but all too often the view is of the 'arse end disappearing into reeds' type of the elusive Water Rail

Water Rail2, Wheldrake Ings

Roe Deer, Wheldrake Ings

Just time for something calm  ... a couple of Roe Deer, one of them a young un' walking on for an evening drink.

Roe Deer, Wheldrake Ings

Sometimes sitting in the hides at Wheldrake, or anywhere, can be a bit of a drag, but if you give it time, invariably something happens!

Last pic .... the old Windmill at Pond Hide at sunset.

Windmill at Pond Hide, Wheldrake Ings

Spring catch up - Water Violets, Butterflies and Avocets in muddy ponds!

I can distinctly remember a certain weatherman saying about 3 weeks ago .. ' be patient, Spring will return!' Well I guess on the law of averages this was a pretty safe missive to put out to the long suffering British public because the warmth just has to come doesn't it? Better late than never I suppose, almost June and the longest day just weeks away but YES we have warmth in the air, and with it finally we have bees a buzzing and butterflies a fluttering in some numbers, why I even smelt a BBQ in the village this evening!

And to celebrate here's a few late Spring pics I've been meaning to post starting with some stunning Water Violets that have been pushing up through the water at Askham Bog over the past week or so

 

A true bogland speciality flower that does well at Askham and very pretty don't you think?

 

Somewhat under rated and also a flower that proliferates on the bog is Lady's Smock (sometimes known as the Cuckoo flower because it tends to bloom when these birds first arrive) .. they're also a favourite destination of Orange Tip Butterflies and I was lucky enough to capture both here.

 

 

Been stacks of other butterflies on the reserve including Speckled Woods, Brimstones, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and Commas. The Comma's often bask in the sun on the fence posts just like this one ...

  

......... but more often than not they're laid flat on in the undergrowth like this

 

 

 

Away from the bog, I had a pretty decent Adder experience on Hatfield Moor recently .... walking along the much improved tracks there I spotted this beastie and, risking a trip to Doncaster A & E, managed a half decent close up of this particularly fine looking specimen snaking towards me!

 

Maybe stupidly I tried to get closer for a head shot before beating a hasty retreat when I saw his tongue forking out, but I never felt threatened  (I'm a Yorkshireman for god's sake!) and anyway it was worth it for this shot.




Precious few bird shots of late but maybe this is evidence to the contrary, in my daughter's eyes at least, that I'm totally obsessed with our feathered friends ... hehe I AM Ruth! I can't let a post go by with at least a couple of bird pics, rubbish as they may be!


Here's one of only 2 Sedge Warblers that have returned to Askham Bog this year so far ... really disappointing but maybe this is a sign of the times.

















On a brighter note (though sadly this adjective does not apply very well to the photograph!), here's a couple of Avocets that plopped into a small pond adjacent to Fraisthorpe beach a couple of weeks ago as I was leaving .... it was very late on, about 8.30pm so the light wasn't great but awesome really as this was no more than a muddy pond in a farmer's field. Avocets are doing very well these days!