Showing posts with label Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Show all posts

Monday 4 July 2016

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!








Sunday 24 January 2016

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