Yorkshire Sculpture Park

If you know what this is please post in comments

Went to the YSP on Saturday. At lunch time I had a wander around and found this orchid which I can't identify - help please someone ... Small Copper, Common Green Grasshopper, Gatekeeper.

In the afternoon we walked up on to the ridge to the new gallery - I think Mr Goldsworthy is having a bit of a laugh .... Sheep shit snowball indeed. And hare's blood and snow - I have this vision of the hare with its back legs tethered and its throat slit, bleeding to death over the canvas; now I'm sure that didn't happen .... I usually like Andy's stuff, the photo's of the various stone dams are neat, I think they would have been fun to make and record. The chestnut leaf stems curtain is fragile and a bit of a wonder, but the cow shit window is .... Anyway there were loads of Gatekeeper on Ragwort along the ridge, there must have been 30 or so.

Such a contrast between Old Moor with its enthusiastic staff and fantastic openness, encouraging everyone to look at wildlife and all the "Keep Out" notices around the YWT reserve at the YSP - what a missed opportunity (but am I surprised?).

Old Moor

Click the pic for big

A quick visit to Old Moor today produced these Green Sands, 2 Little Egrets, a Yellow Wag, a Common Tern, Tree Sparrow, Emperor Dragonfly, Gatekeepers and various other bits and bats.

Perseid Meteor Shower

This was quite good. A few minutes in the garden just now and we must have seen 10 bright ones + plus a few smaller ones. Also clocked 6 satellites.

Roesel's Bush Cricket

I've been on my travels. The new Movie (short) is of this fairly uncommon bush cricket. I found a colony near a children's playground in East Sussex - thanks girls for insisting on going scooting. Click on the play button for it to play in the panel or elsewhere in the image and it will take you to YouTube and play there - turn the sound up on your speakers, the song is neat - like fizzing pylons.

Seawatch Kettleness this a.m.

The wind went around to the north-west so seawatching is a good bet. Not today. In 3.5 hours from 05:55 Whimbrel - a flock of 15 went east and a singleton came west and er, well that was about it really. There was a Bonxie, 12 Teal, 2 Common Scoter, about 15 Manxies mostly messing about feeding, 2 Eider and about 40 Arctic Terns. The only notable feature really was the huge increase in Kittiwakes, including many juvs (good news). At one point my sample counts indicated Kittiwake at 600 an hour (roughly equal numbers in each direction). The total for the watch was probably between 1,200 and1,500. At times there were three feeding flocks off the point of sometimes 70 - 100 birds in addition to those moving. Around and about the point best bird was a Merlin terrorising the Swallow flock; 15 Curlew, 5 Teal, about 20 Sarnies with at least 3 juvs.

Filey had a Little Gull this morning + a Minke and an adult Sabines this evening - perhaps I should have stuck it out all day .... so it goes.

So the Yangtze River Dolphin is extinct, or nearly so. That is a major extinction. Watching Arctic Terns today, one of my favourite birds, I wondered how long they have left. Another terrible breeding season is reported, so far this year I have seen a maximum of 4 or 5 juveniles amongst several hundred adults. perhaps it is still early and they will arrive but ... They are such a fragile thing, ultra long distance migrant, specialised food requirements (which humans are hoovering up for fertiliser), vulnerable nest sites ...

Darrell's quacker day

Green Withens Reservoir (West Yorkshire) has 36 Common Scoter this evening. This ties in nicely with the movement I recorded this morning. This is also the largest flock of birds ever seen at Green Withens Reservoir by some considerable margin. Nice one Darrell.

Quackers going

Juvvy Kittiwake - they seem to have done ok judging by the number of these about.

No feeding furies offshore today, but this small gathering was just off the point.

Adult Kittiwake

A duck day at Kettleness with 370 Common Scoter west in 4 hours from 6 this morning (3 anarchic ones went east). Also 2 Pintail (one using subterfuge by flying with a female Mallard); 1 Wigeon; 2 Eider and 35 Teal. The other main feature was 95 Manx Shearwater going east (with 13 west later in the morning). Interestingly a Common Scoter is in West Yorkshire this morning and there are large movements of Manx on the west coasts.

Other birds of interest 3 Arctic Skua; 26 Arctic Terns; at least 11 Whimbrel; a Peregrine (but no pesky pigeon) and a juvenile Whinchat.

Movie (main feature)

Replaced E with the wonderful Granchester Meadows (again) - well summer has returned and I'm feeling chilled.

Attempts to film something useful to do with Treepers calling failed dismally earlier today so the Movie (short) continues to be Long-eared Owl calling. Watch this space. (Memo - remember to turn on the video when you want to film, doh!)

Garden birding day

The moor pond - a favourite spot

Small Heath - best I could do

Sad end to the day - Greenfinch RIP - aged by the shape of the tail feathers as a juvenile

Two nice records today, a Treeper in the plantation and two Tree Spugs in the oak in the front garden very briefly. Both of these are second records for the garden. Also, Bullfinch x2, Herring Gull, Swallows and House Martins in very good numbers with perhaps some movement (especially a.m.) and perhaps a bit of Swift movement also. Also three Sparrowhawks, 2 chasing and playing and then a female having a go at a Kestrel. Sheep got in again via neighbours garden. Soon ushered out and they (the neighbours not the sheep) were encouraged to repair their gate.

The moor pond was good in the late afternoon with 100s of tiny frogs, Common Blue Damselfly mating, Common Darter and what was either Common or Southern Hawker, but I didn't see it well enough. Plenty of Small Heath around the pond as well, but very hard to photograph.

On the coast a visit to Sandsend for playing on the beach with the offspring - fishing for haddock with a small pink fishing net and terrorising the many promenaders with a pink and possibly lethal, 1,000 mph Frisbee. Good day, none of us drowned and no one beat us up .... Talking of drowning why do people give their kids large inflatable rings and boats to play in when there's an ebbing tide and a strong offshore wind? Don't answer that. However, the visit created another id conundrum: flock of waders way out, 27 or 28, I reckoned I could see plenty of white in the wings and tail but I have a wild imagination, I just went Blackwit, just like that. Trouble is Flamborough had no Blackwit and a fair old Whimbrel passage at about that time - moral, always take the scope.

Darrell - an apology

Now Darrell, I'm really sorry, please don't get all offended but .... I've taken the link to Green Withens Birding off my blog. See, the trouble is I've gone mainstream, sold out (if you will) and as amusing and jolly as I find your turn of phrase I know there are folk out there who might take offence. So, is it ok if I give you a plug from time to time? After all I don't want to turn my back on a patch watcher as obsessed and nutty as I ever was.

For those not easily offended by a word or two Darrell is a hero of the patch watching revolution, observing, with serious dedication, a site so unpromising that birders had only previously visited it when they got lost or were intoxicated. A place infested with offroad vehicles and other pestilences, a place where there are singularly very few birds, ever.

Parental advisory for sure to: http://greenwithens.blogspot.com/

Barn Owls again

Went out to the Barn Owl site again and took the girls who were suitably impressed. A Black-headed Gull appeared over the fields at about 9:20 and flew in a confused state around the site, at one point one of the owls chased it. The gull seemed to be considering roosting in the fields, the behaviour was interesting as it appeared close to panic. This was an adult, I presume it had got flushed from its "proper" roost or was on the move and couldn't find a suitable roost.

I've added a new link to the blog, Bracknell weather charts. These are very useful charts, nice and clear, highly recommended to seawatchers and other migrant hunters.

Sheep in the garden

A non-day, a chill out day. Then, "The sheep are in the garden again!" There they were too close to the girls flower garden for comfort. So once we'd chivvied them out I had to fix the gate.

There were two Roe Deer in the field below the house this evening. Plenty of butterflies in the garden this morning including Comma again and Small Skipper.

It seems to have been a poor year for Nightjar. I suspect lots have failed. They are now hard to find at my best site, and I failed yesterday evening. Recent visits to this site and another site have produced just brief views of single individuals feeding.

Yesterday - Good day dip, good day nonetheless

Northern Eggar (click the pic for big)

Rubbish record shot of Marsh Harrier juvenile

Yesterday morning, arrived at Scaling at 09:00 having deposited the girls at horse riding for the day. The log indicated that MAB was still somewhere about and the 6 Shoveler he'd recorded were still in front of the hide. There was some passerine activity along the shore by the Sallows, 3 Robins and then a Lesser Whitethroat gave itself up, feeding in good view.

Further scanning produced a Green Sand, I suspected a second and sure enough a minute or so later they both flew towards me and landed on the shore by the Lesser Whitethroat. The Shoveler floated across the same field of view (ok Calderdale guys this is not a fantasy, just birding where there are some birds).

Everything flushed off the edge as the Roe Buck crashed through the Sallows and splashed along the shore. MAB arrived in the hide. He'd also seen Lesser Whitethroat, a Spot Fly, a Greenshank and 2 Whimbrel had flown through. I'd missed the Greenshank by a few minutes.

We chatted about this and that, agreed that my Short-eared Owl carrying food of a few weeks earlier must almost certainly have been Long-eared (the Birdtrack record needs to be adjusted).

MAB decided to leave and after a few minutes i went to look for the Spot Fly and see if there was Emperor over the pond. Good views of the Spot Fly, no Emperor, mobile goes off. MAB, "I'm by the garage and there're Peregrine, Common Buzzard and Honey Buzzard coming your way." I shoot down to the hide and eventually locate very distant the Peregrine and the Common Buzzard but no Honey. A further phone call, the Honey was heading for the coast. In the car but a fruitless search. So it goes.

In the afternoon Louise and I went to Fryup Dale Head. This is a really interesting area and looks full of potential. Tiger beetles scattered at nearly every footstep.There were plenty of Red Grouse families and having walked the Coast to Coast path we headed down into the dale. Two Stonechat and one Whinchat families were quickly found, Willow Warblers and Blackcap were also added. Kestrels hovered. Two large orange butterflies headed up the dale but defied id. Eventually we scrabbled back up to the Coast to Coast path and found this immaculate Norther Eggar on the path. Moments later Louise said, "Is that a Kestrel?" It clearly was not a Kestrel but was a juvenile Marsh Harrier, it slowly soared up and drifted away south.

But the day was not done. A phone call took me in the evening to a not so distant location where a pair of Barn Owls and their 5 young were out and about. This was a really good example of a bit of creative management of the potential nest site and surrounding land providing a pair with a suitable site which they had very quickly occupied.

Good day.

Kettleness and the unloved

Where's a hungry Peregrine when you need one?

Mid-seawatch and on two interesting slightlybiggerthandots going west way out, when I had that feeling, that "I'm not alone" feeling. Still concentrating on the dots, as they were interesting, but this is a feeling I do not like. I knew the uninvited company was not human, it was possibly of the rodent clan and it was close. In the end I can stand it no more and look about me. A scruffy creep of an avian scavenger subsequently attempted to, perch on my shoulder, eat my boots and then walk into my rucksack - presumably in search of biscuit, not soup (problems with Thermos lid etc). It took some dissuasion and one curtain call before I slung a large chunk of Kettleness in its general direction and it took the hint.

Now, those dots, were a problem. Usually failed id is between species of divers, terns or skuas but in this case family was a bit of an issue - my first and strongest thought was that there were two different species involved, the front bird being one of the smaller grebes - Podiceps sp. The rear bird being an auk, probably a Razorbill. But the size thing doesn't work for this idea methinks as the auk should dwarf the grebe (at least in body mass), and although it looked larger, not much larger, and I think the size difference was a product of the rear bird being black (thus Razorbill). This wasn't working out. What about a quacker - Velvet Scoter perhaps seems possible. This now might add up as Velvs do often look weird (for some reason) - especilly at range in bright light. There was certainly white in the wing of the front bird, maybe in the rear one. The white in the wing maybe made the wing look very slim on the front bird (and slim enough for an auk in the second), thus exaggerating the neck length and fineness in proportion to the rest of it. The differences between the two birds being gender or age (female or juvvy at the front adult drake to the rear). So the conclusion, I guess I like the Velvet Scoter theory but I'm unsure.

All this enlivened a rather drab seawatch, especially compared to yesterday. Best were a very smart pale phase Arctic Skua that passed west; a bit of a Curlew thing going on which finally included a Barwit tacked to the tail of a distant singleton; an adult LB-bG (uncommon here). The tern thing was happening on a smaller scale with about 40 Arctics and that was that. Swallows appeared to be on the move with 8 east and out and another 40 or so buzzing around the cliffs.

A quick look at the cliff found two fluffy Fulmars with another site that might hold a third. The Herring Gull chicks are now flying (in a fashion).

Dropped in to Scaling on the way home where the Woodpigeon I have unfairly maligned; I saw several sticks taken to the nest. Most time was taken speaking to another birder (a rarity in itself for Scaling) - methinks my id here is correct and this was someone well-known - and very friendly and informative about local bits and bats.

It's Sooty time

A biggish sea and a WNW breeze, across the bay to The Old Nab at Staithes

A good morning seawatch with 3 Sooties. Picked the first one up way to the east and watched it all the way through, then remembered that there is often a second following .... sure enough a scope view or three to the east there was the second. I've noticed them do this a bit in the past, you don't see a Sooty for hours and then two come along but not flying close together. The third one was jumbled up with a couple of Manx for company. The Manx came through late(ish) - one rather brown looking one, certainly paler in appearance than the ones it was with but same shape and build and it was a Manx.

7 Arctic Skuas, 2 Bonxie, Red-throated Diver, 14 Manx, 1 Shag, 12 Common Scoter and 2 Puffin were in the accompanying cast. Lots of terns late on with at least 50 Arctic, 25 Common and 30 Sandwich. Did some sample counts of Gannets and Kittiwakes and of course I've been underestimating how many are passing.

There was 1 juvenile Arctic Tern, 3 Juvvy Common and a few Sandwich. Quite a few juvvy Kitts today, 20 - 25 at least. An interesting 1st summer went by also. Looking for Sabs amongst Kitts is a strange thing, you think you're in with a chance, you get a likely customer, you know for sure, immediately it isn't one (because they're smaller and more bouyant and do that funny stalling thing like they're on a piece of string) but those distant juvvy Kitts still get some scrutiny.

Common Gulls were moving today as well, must have missed loads because they come by so close, but an autumn trickle into the bay.

Whimbrel present again - may well be the same one.

Manchester

The weekend was spent in Manchester - could hear the Arctic Monkeys but from the garden. Nice bits and bods like lots of Gatekeepers. Also This Holly Blue, Emperor Dragonfly ovipositing and the male in flight (bit blurry and small).

Brief visits, Kettleness and Scaling

An hour and a half at Kettleness produced not much. 3 pale phase Arctic Skuas, one of which spent some time terrorising the feeding Kittiwake flocks, were the highlight. The other day all the Arctics were dark phase, today all pale phase ... Very few terns today with just 2 Commons and a handful of Sarnies (one carrying a fish). No terns out with the feeding flocks of Kitts.

Very few auks today, though the sea was rough in the SW4-5 and they were difficult to see.

At Scaling just 30 Swifts (all Common, no ChimChiminey) were of note. Moorhen broods of 1 and 2. A Woodpigeon carrying a stick, so that'll be the whole nest then.

Movie (main feature)

It's E again - Dirty girl

Quiet day - puffed out

Felt somewhat knackered today so didn't do much. Weather was loads better than expected so spent most of the day outside. Birds in the garden are quite quiet now. Chaffinch has overtaken Siskin as the commonest, but there are still plenty of Siskin with 6 in the garden at any time. Yellowhammer are still feeding young. Decided to clear up the mess under the kitchen feeder - loads of organic matter and worms etc - Stock Dove feeding there whilst I was cooking tea.

Small Skipper confirmed today with 3 or 4 around. The Comma from yesterday was still evident. Various whites are about again, the rain seems to have really hammered them. Several Large Whites about. Also Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral.

7-spot and 14-spot Ladybird today.

Maybe I'll go for the Nightjars again tonight, see if the rain holds off and the wind drops.

Evening seawatch

Kettleness this pm, from 17:30 to 20:00. First look through the scope and there's a Bonxie quickly followed by Arctic Skuas, single dark phase adults x4 over the next 40 minutes (two came out of Runswick Bay just off the end of the point), a fifth was one of the last birds seen on the seawatch and was a distant job.

About 100 Arctic Terns were fishing some way out and careful scrutiny revealed a nice adult Rosy. The terns were interesting as after about 30 mins they started to move west but then went very high east. Over the next couple of hours they slowly trickled back west with just before 8pm a flock of 49. I'm guessing these were mostly the same birds as many went back to feeding on the sea again in the area where the 100 had been originally but perhaps they were all different. No juvvy Arctics were seen. There was a steady trickle of Common Terns with about 25 altogether, like the Sarnies they were hanging about feeding, 2 juvvy Common Terns were seen and maybe only 1 juvvy Sarnie (out of about 100).

The Whimbrel was on the beach again. 2 small and unidentified waders went west.

Star quacker was a nice drake Velvet Scoter. I would have missed this but was following two slightly eccentric Grey Herons which decided the best Saturday outing was to fly low over the waves about 1Km out, the Velvet was distant, and alone just inside them. Common Scoter reached 25 and Eider 2.

Manxies were going both ways with west slightly more popular, total 9. Lots of Gannet action, Kitts, Fulmar and the usual rafts of auks on the sea with a few flying east, only one Guilly chick mind. Other juveniles were Kittiwake 1 and Common Gull 1.

So an entertaining evening excursion with nice views of skuas and terns and I didn't get wet.

Scaling Thursday pm

Went to Scaling Thursday evening. Perhaps shouldn't have bothered - but you never know. All those folk looking for the Yellow-nose' by seawatching have got it completely wrong, all the evidence to date suggests it likes small gravel pits and fishing ponds. Scaling is probably too big a bit of water but, hey, let's give it a go I thought. But I should have trusted science and statistics cos it wasn't there, neither was Wandering Alb' or Black-browed. There was a Lesser Black-back, there were some Teal and I strongly suspected rat in hide (Shut that door!) but Yellow-conk, nope.

It's seabird time ....

Click on the pic to see the Whimbrel a bit better

It seems an age since I've seen a good seabird so today's adult Pom was ace. Tail was a bit worn so the spoons were only just visible but a nice one nonetheless. Supporting cast over the 4 hours included 3 Arctic Skuas, 44 Arctic Terns, 25 Common Terns (most of these going east once the wind had swung around). There were some Manxies, Common Scoter, Teal and a couple of Whimbrel which fed on the rocks below the point once the tide fell. The single diver that passed was unided as I got onto it late (and there were a couple of Blackthroats off Marske yesterday so caution carried the day).

Of the 60 - 70 Sandwich Terns that past there was only one juvenile, hopefully more will appear in forthcoming weeks.

There was a bit of auk movement with Razorbills heading east, a few Guillemots with them. As the tide fell auks feeding on the sea drifted west and late on these included some quite large groups of Razorbills - about 100. Only 2 juv Razorbills were seen on the water. Guillemots appear to have fared little better with but 3 or 4 juvs on the water amongst the 50 or so feeding.

Nightjaring

Driving there a Teal duckling (could just fly) flew done the road just over the Tarmac for several 100m. Once at the site found at least 3 males churring, one of which gave very good views. On the drive back a bird was hunting over the moor top (near a possible breeding site which i should now check). Also, Tawny Owl gave brilliant views near the house, sat by the car for 5 minutes.

Long-eared Owl hunger call

The Movie (short) now gives a(not brilliant) recording of LEO juvvy hunger call. Might be handy for anyone surveying this species at the moment.

The Hawk and Owl Trust give as a project a survey of LEOs but there is no means of sending them data on their website .... any ideas anyone?

Scaling Dam tonight

Two personal ticks for Scaling in one field of view ... juvvy Long-eared Owl making a right racket (that's the pale blob in the bush) ... and Black-tailed Godwit, (that's the waderish blob next to the Oystercatcher). Also Goldeneye, a sub-adult male, Wigeon,2; the Teal brood of 4 chicks + the pair. Looks like the Oystercatcher chick is missing sadly.

Kettleness today

Brief seawatch at Kettleness this a.m. produced a Puffin on the sea with the Guillemots, 3 Arctic Terns and 1 Common tern along with the Sarnies and some Whimbrel (heard only on two occasions.

The roost held a bit at high tide as you can see from the pic.

First real trial for the 1.4x lens for the camera and it seems to be useful.

Yesterday around and about

The first Ringlets of the year in the garden with 10 or so and one or two Meadow Brown. Best lepidopteran was a Chimney Sweeper in the garden, indicating a bit of a success for the management regime - there is some Pignut (the food plant).

A brief family trip to Scaling was aborted when small person fell in water and mud, however, LRP still present, Viviparous Lizard was a tick there and 7, 14 spot ladybirds on Marsh Cinquefoil. Also on the Marsh Cinquefoil was this interesting looking longhorn beetle. From its colour I'd suspect that it is associated with that plant - ideas anyone I'd really like to know what this is.

Back at the moor pond the tadpoles are bigger but still without limbs, there were at least 7 newts getting chummy, the thin ones following the fat ones very closely and this Common Blue Damselfly.

One the way back from the pub late on we stopped at a likely spot I'd not checked before Nightjar immediately around the car, then rather conveniently sat and sang in the tree next to us - Louise was well impressed - also great views of Woodcock and two juvvy LEOs were hunger calling.

More ID storm petrels BB paper

Ok so they didn't use the word "typical" so apologies, the article actually says "All classic structural and plumage features of ....... are captured in this image (see text)." And I say if you can see em that well you don't need all this palaver and 10 Appendices. My favourite appendix is No 10 it explains by diagram that if you are on a big ship the angle of view of a storm petrel skittering along is rather steeper than if you were watching the little beaut from a small boat. The wonder of the diagram is that the storm petrel in the diagram is, well HUGE, like MASSIVE, it must be Cory's kind of size ... I guess this bird is the previously unknown to science Oceanites diomedea.

I'll stop it now, cos I do like BB really, honest.

ID storm petrels

This BB paper is a wonder to behold, I'm especially taken with the separation of white-bellied and black-bellied (black-bellied can have a white belly but white-bellied can't have a black belly). Effectively this means that you can know when you've got a black-bellied but not when you've got the other one because it might be the first one. This paper seems mighty learned and full of "Appendices" and is the product of enviable hours watching the little beggars in exotic climes but has it advanced my knowledge - well er other than to know those two species are identifiable sometimes and other times even with lab tests, measurements and every other concievable weapon in the scientists armoury the end result is Er dunno - not a lot. Wilson's, Stormy, Leach's and Madeiran are represented by "typical" flight photos and one plate. Look guys there is no "typical" because the sea is always different and these birds look very, very different depending whether they are on a mission, in a storm, having a snack or loafing about, is it to Hendrix or the Undertones? (Undertones - ah must be Leach's never get Swinhoes to Teenage Kicks, they're not so cool.) There is a wonderful photo of a Wilson's tail sticking above the waves showing the vital feature of the wrap-around-rump. I can't do seabirds like this except when they are in my hot and grubby - badseawatchers know em for what they are by a rapid accumulation of features and jizz and experience and ..... they're 500m off in any case. I think this paper was off on the wrong target myself, I'm a lot more interested in dark rumped petrels and problems with Leach's - the id problems are divi'd up different from this - The above mentioned four could do with a revision I suppose, they're not that tricky given a good view and very tricky given a rubbish one. Leach's and dark rumped exotics are of interest, tricky methinks. Black and white bellied are different looking beasts from the others anyway (never seen one), clearly it is useful to say what has been said but don't confuse the issue suggesting they are tricky from our other 4 guys. Rant, rant, rantitty, rant ... Forgive me posted late, feeling seawatch starved and ******ed off with these people cos they got to watch all these nice stormies and I didn't.

British Birds badseawatching edition

Woooooowwwaaah, it's a BB special - a real gift for finding obscure storm petrels and pot-bellied shearwaters. All you badseawatchers out there are encouraged to peruse the waves more diligently and pick out trough plunging House Martins and shearing browny-grey things (be creative with id is our moto). And it's even easier if you use the famous Neissa bins (adline "Believe Your Imagination").

Birding stuff

A Spotted Redshank at Scaling today whilst I was at work ...:-(

Highlights of two visits over the weekend were the Oystercatcher chick, just one but I'd thought they'd failed. There are also still two small Lapwing chicks. The Oystercatcher adult was very aggressive towards the Black-headed Gulls in particular and any of this species near the chick were chased away, Lapwings were ignored. It was easy to locate the chick, just look for the gull free zone.

Quite a number of large gulls on Sunday afternoon, at least 120 but just HG and GtBl-bG. The Teal appears to have raised one duckling to flight. There were at least 5 Tufted Duck broods.

At home the Curlew appear to have departed, their haunting calls no longer echoing through the dale. The Lapwings at the organic farm appear to have been successful. Young Siskin are now visiting the feeders. This evening 9 Mistle Thrush flew through the field next to the house and in the lower field there was a juvvy Green Woodpecker.

Field management

I'm trying to manage some of the garden, well a fair bit of it to be honest, as a meadow. Last year at this time this area was full of Greater Bird's Foot Trefoil this year the "meadow" is choked with flowering Yorkshire Fog. Last year was the first time this area had been cleared of bramble for some time and I wonder if there is just a succession going on here. Looking closely the trefoil is there alright but under the grass. I've tried topping the grass (with care) in one area today so we'll see what happens.

First Meadow Browns of the year today, with about 5 Red Admirals. Silver Y yesterday.

The Whitethroat is still singing from the garden. Chaffinch killed itself flying into a window yesterday, the first such casualty for a year I think.

Change Movie (main feature)

Ok so this has bog all to do with anything other than it is just epic. Remember Jimi and pay homage here.

Garden swamp

The lower part of the garden is littered with the small ditches we dug to get the water away from the house and debris brought down by the stream that flowed down the garden. Disaster was averted just by a rapid return home and 40 minutes digging. I returned rather muddy and bedraggled to my work evening meeting.

Whitethroat again singing from the garden briefly yesterday. Today there were 6 Lapwing and 17 Curlew in the fields below the house that have been cut.

During the rain several small frogs were found. The moles didn't seem to like all this water. A day or two earlier when there was also a lot of rain i found one dead on the lawn. The cats could have been the culprits but there was an angled hole out of the ground nearby, not the usual heap of soil. In the past moles have proved resilient to the kittens attentions and they have failed to kill them so I suspect this one either was ill or had too much water.

Butterflies return

Not much field time today as in charge of offspring. The butterflies have returned to the Valerian but they're Red Admirals - there were at least 14. This despite a fair bit of rain this pm. The ladybird is 11-spot from work yesterday and the bee is as yet unidentified - I'll sort the key out later.

Garden Moth Count weekend

It's garden moth count weekend - http://www.mothcount.brc.ac.uk/

Ladybird madness

Ladybirds all over the shop at work today. Pix taken with SE 800 phone - not the Canon.

The "nature reserve" proving to be hugely attractive but Adonis ladybird found at the side of the main car park.
Counts were 73, 7-spot (actual number easily double this I would estimate). Children were catching these all day, or having them land on them.
2, 14-spot these found mating. 1 Eyed ladybird, 1 Adonis ladybird and 1 Cream streaked ladybird. All ladybirds were released back into "the wild".

First butterfly for days in the garden at home, Red Admiral.

Garden and moor

All the finch broods have increased the number of birds at the kitchen feeder threefold, especially Chaffinch. Willow Warbler are now "heweet"ing on the moor, in the bracken mostly, indicating the young have fledged from a brood or twenty ... The Curlew have taken up residence in the silage fields that have been cut, about 15 or so in view from the garden. Lapwing seem to have disappeared.

Not a butterfly was seen all weekend, presumably killed off by the torrential rain of Friday (check the weather station data http://weather.atomwide.com/qgraphs.aspx look at the rain rate over a week in one hour on Friday there was 25mm).

There were 16 7-spot ladybird larvae on the bank by the outhouse.

Yellow-necked Mouse was feeding by the bird feeders and two were found in the sunflower seed bin (the lid was left off the other day). It looked as if one mouse had cannibalised the other as the dead one had been severely chewed. Presumably this was the only water available.

There was a newt in the moor pond which is now full again - not ided with any certainty. Most of the remaining tadpoles are small and black and undeveloped, there are a few near frogs and we found one tiny froglet. Will it be the cold that has stopped these developing? They can't be a later batch of spawn I presume.

Movie (main feature)

What's this got to do with birds? Eh, they're flying.
Definitely a Bonxie moment. The mighty E.