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.

Scaling Dam

50 species (of bird) at Scaling this morning (excluding the zoo collection - Fulvous Whistling Duck x2 and Swan Goose x2 :-(

Short-eared owl carrying food, a pair of Whinchat, an extra Whitethroat, 5 male Reed Buntings, LRP with chicks and various tufted duck broods amongst the highlights. A Brown Rat in the hide was disconcerting, memo - close the door on entry.

The lovely field at the back was full of Chimney Sweepers (day flying chocolate coloured moth) but i couldn't get close enough to them for a pic. However a confiding Common Bue Damselfly made up for such shyness (this pic repays a click as it's uncropped).

At home Chaffinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Yellowhammer and Goldfinch all have fledged juvs (rubbish pic of Goldfinch brood through kitchen window). The Siskin hoards continue to deplete the Nyger at an alarming (financially) rate and another 14-spot ladybird was in the garden.

Close to the Edge

I've changed both movies. The "short" gives Yellowhammer hunger/juvenile contact call. The main feature is another bit of bird song sampling this time by the wonderful Yes from the stunning Close to the Edge. The piece is too long for one movie so follow the link to YouTube for pt2. It's a rubbish recording that doesn't do the musicianship justice and a bit of an acquired taste to boot - search out the album for a bit of perfection. Common with the Floyd piece is a Nightingale sample and river references.

What's this?

This looks like a ladybird larva but it doesn't match with any on my larvae id chart, any ideas anyone?

The Yellowhammer below was uncropped so click on the image for full value.

Another lazy day

Yesterday's Whitethroat reappeared and sang early a.m. and at midday from the middle of the back garden - I failed to get a pic though. The first Yellowhammers have fledged and one spent the afternoon in the backgarden - new movie -. Blackcap was singing across the road.

There were a stack of Painted Lady again, up to 20 at one time, Red Admiral, Brimstone, Wall, Small Tortoiseshell (2) and the usual whites. Small Copper up on the moor again but not around the garden. 7-spot ladybirds around, 5 or so adults and this larva (above) (click on the image for big).

At the dale head lateish afternoon not much was in evidence except a bunch of juvvy Stonechats, only 1 Whinchat and a single Tree Pipit.

Insects and birds

Whitethroat singing from the garden this morning and two Redpoll sp flew over and into the plantation. The Blue Tits are fledged, Great Tits still feeding young in the box. Coal Tit behaviour still suggests they're feeding young in the nest. Fog early a.m. + musical entertainment and beer last night has led to a decidedly slothful day. Grey Heron in the field below the house. Silage is being cut so Bl-h Gulls are more in evidence - feeding on insects in the cut fields or following the tractors.

Painted Lady appeared the day before yesterday and there were 8 yesterday evening, 18 at lunchtime today - there appears to be movement of insects from the north on the wind. Small Heath in the garden today. Yet again Dingy Skipper eludes me, another possible winged through at high speed earlier on.

The before and after pictures of the roadside verge show how the herbicide has clobbered the Cow Parsley. Leaflets arrived as promised from the park authority today. They are ok but despite the leaflets and the bit on the park website I'm not convinced the park authority sees this issue as very important. Looks like I'm going to have to go along to the parish council if I want to get the current mowing timings changed.

Guardian of our countryside in action

The roadside verges here are lovely at the moment (except where NYCC Highways dept have mown them flat). However, this farmer didn't like the one opposite my house much.

He's spraying using Thistlex which does for the dicots as far as I can see - three days after spraying the Cow parsley is looking very unwell. His excuse was he wants to keep thistles and nettles out of his fields. I can't understand why he won't just spray his side of the wall. The national park don't seem very interested in this activity, I have had a reply to my email but it isn't very wildlife friendly. I was rather hoping they might have quite a strong position on this kind of environmental destruction.

Anyone out there seen much evidence of farmers behaving like this? - I can't recall when I last saw a farmer do this and have seen little evidence of it elsewhere locally.

Nice insect guide

This is a good guide to garden insects.

Must rush want to see the ISS go by

Oops ladybird id wonky

Reidentified the ladybird below and corrected the blog it's 14 spot not 16; correct id Propylea 14-punctata. Rubbish reference I'll blame ....

I've put a link to the Ladybird survey id sheet. But their home page is handy too.

http://www.ladybird-survey.org/default.htm

Why not contribute to the survey? There's some useful maps on the website.

Stroppy Curlew

New Movie (trailer) Curlew agitation display "Bog off, I've got chicks".

Late arrivals

A cycle around the dale brought my first Red Admirals of the year. Pterostichus cupreus (medium/large ground beetle bright green/metallic) is everywhere, in my dry traps mating and running along the road as we cycled.

The girls found Propylea 14-punctata (14-spot Ladybird) on me.

Redstarts were singing where there were none a fortnight ago - three different sites. And an extra Tree Pipit was singing at one of these sites. I always think of Redstart as quite an early arrival so it is interesting that they are continuing to arrive in breeding territory as late as mid/late May. The female Whinchats mentioned yesterday appear to have arrived over the last week, unless they were cunningly hiding of course. A Lapwing was making "I've got chicks" noises by one of the farms, but the chicks were most likely hiding in the Juncus as I couldn't see them.

Breeding birds

Several sessions hunting out breeding birds for BirdTrack sites. Thursday, at the head of the dale brought even more Whinchats with 5 pairs - plenty of females now in. Tree Pipit, Redstart and Stonechat also in evidence.

Scaling Dam yesterday morning found Tufted with 3 chicks and Teal with 5 chicks. Also Spotted Flycacher, Whinchat, Cuckoo and a bundle of waders including possibly breeding Common Sandpiper and Oystercatcher. The Roe buck wandered down the hill.

Last night a third go for Nightjar was finally successful with at least two birds present, one singing. It was cold though and they weren't exactly performing brilliantly. Also 2 Woodcock. The wildlife spectacle I'd promised Louise was rather a disappointment.

A return to the Nightjar area was interesting this morning with lots of waders and Teal on the moor. Heard Merlin (and at one point I was certain I heard Hoopoe !!!) Redstart, Stonechat, Tree Pipit. Lots of Field Tiger Beetle - probably saw 250+.

The fields around the ruined house were beautiful but I always find these places eerie. Something about life's labours come to nought.

In the garden yesterday's suicidal Swallow is still contemplating nesting in the house (Louise took it off one of the cats yesterday after it had flown into the kitchen), Brimstone - first for the year. Pterostichus cupreus in the live traps and a 2 spot ladybird found by Ellen.

Nikon brilliant product support

The rain guard had broken on my 8x32 HG bins. PG suggested some time ago I phone Nikon UK which I did on Wednesday. A new rainguard arrived Thursday morning, no charge. That is excellent product support on an old model (I've had these 5 years I reckon). Manfrotto and Focalpoint please note this is how it should be done.

I strongly advise readers to never purchase Manfrotto tripods because spare parts seem to be unavailable - I've made this mistake twice now, never again. My 190 will be on ebay soon if anyone is interested - maybe you need the spares? I've also got a lot of bits of a very expensive carbon fibre model - offers? I reckon the Slik (Bill's favourite tripod) looks good - any comments?

Other folk claim to have had good service from Focalpoint, they very badly let me down over a (Manfrotto) tripod that was still within one year of purchase. I will not use this company again and suggest some caution.

Pete, thanks for the tip. Nikon, thanks for the brilliant service, reckon my next bins will be Nikon too.