Rose-coloured Invasion

Whilst in Kent, visited the iconic Dungeness NNR hoping for a few late migrants on 29th May. It was a dry, yet dreary morning, quite unlike the glorious weather we'd had over the weekend. I wondered north from the lighthouse, overwhelmed by the lack of migrants.

The lighthouse and nuclear power station at Dungeness, in the gloom.

Always nice to see, a fine Yellow Shell (moth) brightened up my stroll.

Things livened up on the way back when I bumped into a guy who said he'd seen yesterday's Rosy Starling (I still call them Rose-coloured Starlings!) briefly in the tops of the trees. I wandered round for a bit and for once got lucky, as the dapper pink and black chap appeared in front of me. After a couple of record shots, it dropped back into the scrub and vanished. I called over some other birders who seemed to be looking for it, and after a tense wait, it popped up again and we all got nice views. This bird is part of an influx into Britain, with over a hundred birds having turned up at the time of writing (mid-June). This is a regular, irruptive occurrence, linked to lack of food in the southeast of Europe, causing birds to move northwest.

 

Gorgeous bird, poor phonescoped pics.

Later on, we bobbed into Kent Wildlife Trust's Romney Marsh visitor centre. Found ourselves a Marsh Frog, having heard lots chuckling away each night in the ditch near the campsite. A few odonates present including this fine male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Marsh Frog and male Broad-bodied Chaser.

Jarring and Owling

Out locally looking for Nightjars revealed one briefly heard, with a Corncrake a short drive away for good measure. A couple of nights later, tried another local site, where Long-eared Owls showed well (hunting adults and at least two fledged young), with Cuckoo, followed by three churring 'Jars as dusk fell.

The owlets were incredibly cute but incessantly noisy. Talk about pester-power, they must drive the parents crazy!

 

Long-eared Owls phonescoped in the dusk gloom.

Moth Season: Bond and the Elephant

With the arrival of June, mothing is through the roof, with much larger numbers in the trap. Every morning is like Christmas morning, not knowing what is going to be waiting to be discovered. A perennial favourite, Elephant Hawkmoth, is regularly caught in our little suburban garden, though rarely seen during the day. It is an amazing creature, combining jet fighter aerodynamics, with stunningly audacious colours. Always a joy!

But my favourite group of moths are the prominents. I don't catch many, but each one is a real treat. So far this year, I have trapped one Lesser Swallow Prominent and two Iron Prominents. Iron Prominent is class, sophisticated and handsome, like James Bond perhaps.

Kentish Orchid Beano #1

Spent a few days camping with the family down in Kent at the end of May, primarily so we could check out a few new orchids and hope for late spring migrants overshooting the near continent.

Our first trip was to the picturesque Kent Wildlife Trust's Park Gate Down nature reserve, near Ashford, where we hoped to find Monkey Orchid. Arriving early, on a gloriously sunny Sunday morning, we had the site to ourselves for a good half an hour or so, before other orchid hunters arrived.

The Monkey Orchids were introduced here in the late 1950s, from seed collected from a population in Faversham, and are flourishing. Our first Monkey was spotted through my bins from the layby where we parked on the road that bisects the valley! They really are distinctive, with a swirling mix of magenta pink and white combined with a distinctive troll-hair fluffy shape, meaning they are identifiable at quite a distance. Only up close do you see the monkey 'tail' hanging between the legs of the individual florets. Monkey Orchids were found at Spurn back in the 1980s until the colony was sadly washed away by the sea.

One monkey meets another...my lad, Sol enjoying his first Monkey Orchid.

The calcareous grassland here was incredibly diverse, with hundreds of Common Twayblades flowering, alongside Chalk Fragrant and Common Spotted Orchids just coming into flower.

Chalk Fragrant Orchid

More excitement was to come as we walked through into the second field, where in the midst of the grass, a rocket of a Lady Orchid, another new species for us, towered above the surrounding vegetation. Spectacular stuff!

 

An unexpected Lady Orchid

Further along, we came across a small stand of Greater Butterfly Orchids, just coming into flower. The widely-separated pollinia that were slightly arched confirmed the species. Nearby, a scattering of Fly Orchids was another surprise! What a place!

 

 

Greater Butterfly Orchid, above, and Fly Orchid, below. All at Park Gate Down.

 

 

So, not a bad start to our trip with eight species of orchid recorded: Common Twayblade, Greater Butterfly Orchid, Chalk Fragrant Orchid, Common Spotted Orchid, Early Purple Orchid, Lady Orchid, Monkey Orchid and Fly Orchid. Man Orchid may have been here too, but we didn't spot any.

Burnt Orchids; third time lucky!

I first saw Burnt (Burnt-tip) Orchids at Knocking Hoe NNR in Bedfordshire about 15 years ago. I was stoked to hear that they grow at a small number of sites in Wensleydale in North Yorkshire, including Leyburn Old Glebe YWT, a nature reserve I am now responsible for. I have tried the last two years to find them without success, whilst colleagues and members of the public have been more successful. This year, I headed up with some colleagues in order to locate the remaining plants and GPS them, so we can monitor their progress.

Leyburn Old Glebe is simply stunning in late May, with a carpet of Salad Burnet, Cowslips, Fairy Flax, Milkwort and several hundred Green-winged orchids. Most of the Green-wings are standard colour, but at least three were pure white, and two a light pink. Really lovely.

Green-winged Orchids.

Among the Green-wings there were lots of Common Twayblades and the spotty leaves of Common Spotted Orchids, which will flower in profusion next month.

After a bit of searching, I found a cluster of three exquisite Burnt Orchids on the eastern side of the meadow - third time lucky I guess! With my colleagues help, we found a further four plants. Rabbit grazing is a major problem here, so we decided to protect the cluster of three with a cage. The other four were nestled among longer grass and so appeared to be less vulnerable. It is unclear why this beautiful plant is declining here whilst other species are doing well. This is something we will investigate to see if we can tweak the management to improve its fortunes. It could be management of the grassland, it could be that the fly that pollinates the orchid has declined or that the fungus the orchid relies upon in the soil is dwindling. Alternatively, it could be the pesky rabbits, or worse still, people stealing the flowers, which has happened here apparently.

Burnt Orchids. Really gorgeous.


Mid-morning, I looked up and was surprised to see an Osprey flying over! A bit late perhaps for a migrant, so maybe lingering in the area. A male Redstart was singing away from the big Ash in the hedgerow too. 

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The previous evening, this Honeybee swarm appeared on a neighbour's hedge. Cool! They had gone by the morning.

Land Rail, Fizzy Warbler but no Turtle Doves

Out at stupid o'clock to do my first visit to my Turtle Dove survey square, north of Brandsby. Sadly, as I feared, it wasn't very suitable for them and I drew a blank. As I was up in the north of the York area I decided to go and see if last month's Wood Warbler was still around. Walking up through the woods, a fine male Redstart sang from the top-most twig of a tree in the dull morning light.

A little further on, the fizzing cascade of the Wood Warbler was audible, and I headed over to the spot. He was singing non-stop, mixing up the trill with a regular series of fluting notes, and parachuting around the slope. I sat on a tree stump and watched the bird for the next hour, pretty much mesmerised, as he floated around me, singing his head off and perching  within a few metres of me, seemingly unconcerned. Corking!

 

 

 

 

Wood Warbler. A simply stunning bird.

Other birds present included Garden Warbler, Marsh Tit, Nuthatch and Grey Wagtail.

Headed back south to do some jobs and then on to North Duffield Carrs to have a listen for the Corncrake, which failed to perform for me on Thursday night. To my relief, this morning it was belting out its scratchy croak from the bank of Willowherb just to the right of the pool in front of the Geoff Smith Hide. It seemed to be within a dense patch of Willowherb, so it would be difficult to see......Within five minutes, one of the birders suddenly announced they could see it on the edge of the pool! Surely not! But yes, there it was, having a bath. Unbelievable scenes! After it finished bathing, it ran up the bank into the dense vegetation, disappearing without so much as a movement of a single plant. It resumed calling.

Seven Black-tailed Godwits were out on the ings, the water now receding rapidly. I continued my vigil while the other birders left and more arrived. Two West Yorkshire lads came in who were upset that they'd missed the performance, having been looking for it earlier without success. To their relief, I picked it up after a bit in the Willowherb and then we managed to follow it as it stealthily broke cover into the long grass, where it spent ten minutes just sitting and surveying the scene. Save to say there was a few choice West Yorkshire words aired, suggesting the lads were quite pleased!

 

Land Rail, hiding in the grass.

To see a video comp, check it out on Youtube

Not a bad morning in the York area!

Anyone for a Sandwich?

It has been a gloriously hot and sunny May Bank Holiday weekend! Two early morning birding sessions in the LDV have been incredibly enjoyable, with some quality birds, but sadly lacking that big York bird...until today!

Blue skies over the refuge at Wheldrake Ings.

The highlights were: the Great White Egret at Wheldrake which continued to show well, either in front of Tower Hide or on the Low Grounds; several Garganey around, most of which are males as it appears the ducks have become a little more 'secretive', Whimbrel at Ellerton Landing, four Ruff at Aughton Ings, three Cuckoos (Hagg Bridge, East Cottingwith and the Low Grounds), stacks of common warblers in the valley, including the first Gardens of the year, Swifts, hordes of Little Egrets and several Common Terns.

 GWE

 Little Egret

 Whooper Swan - lingering at NDC.

Skylark, Ellerton Landing. I don't think I've ever before managed a pic of one of these beautiful songsters who's effervescent songs have been the soundtrack to the weekend.

Today, I was up and out by 06.15, having emptied the moth trap of these two beauts:

 Waved Umber

Lesser Swallow Prominent

Both new for the garden I think. 

I did my usual LDV circuit, bumping into Adam F at the Low Grounds. Good birding, but the clear blue skies meant by 10.30 it was getting hot and clearly nothing was moving. Well, so I thought! I decided to head home.

No sooner I had arrived home, than I checked Twitter to find to my disbelief, a photo of a Sandwich Tern at Wheldrake Ings!!! Panic stations!!! And then I calmed down, realising this photo had probably been taken hours ago and the tern would be long gone. After all, they never linger in the York area, which is why they are so very hard to see and why they have not made it on to my York list. So, to the shower, followed by a slice of toast and a cuppa. However, when finder of the bird Ed Tooth messaged me to say the bird was still there 25 minutes ago, I put down my tea, grabbed my bins and shot back out of the door! All brownie points received from being home early, quickly evaporated as I retraced my journey back along the A64....

I prepared myself for a dip, although attempting to see it and failing, felt much less excruciating than not trying and the bird still being there! We were due at some friends for a BBQ this afternoon, so I needed to crack on....very soon I was piling down the familiar lane to the Ings car park. I bumped into a birder in the car park - Ed Tooth! - who told me there was a chance it would be visible from Tower Hide, if it hadn't flown off. I thanked him for his help and ran off. Despite my sandals, telescope, bins and the scorching midday heat enveloping me like an electric blanket, I managed to run virtually all the way to Tower Hide without dying; I knew all that training would come in handy one day (although to be fair, I don't tend to train with a full set of optics swinging round my neck, or in sandals). I leapt up the steps to the top floor and to my surprise the hide was empty. I got my scope set up. My phone rang, Craig, who to my delight said it was still here and that I should see it from Tower. But where was it?! I could see two Common Terns flying around, but no big white Sarnie. Nerves! Stress!

Craig rang again to say it had dropped on to a post by the 'Cormorant trees'. There! just a glimpse of Sandwich Tern-white through the bright green leaves of a Willow bush. Not the best of views, but this was my first York Sandwich Tern - Kaboom!!! Cue massive adrenalin rush! I sprinted back out of the hide and further down the track. Setting up my scope, and there it was, in all it's glory. An absolute monster tern, complete with yellow-tipped black beak and punk-tastic crest!

This was the last thing I had expected on a glorious blue-sky day. Why was it here? with a bit of height it could probably see the sea shimmering to the east, or at least the Humber. Even the local geese thought it was a bit out of place and swam over for a closer look. It was flushed shortly, and gave a lovely fly past, with big black wedges on lovely white wings. It dropped on to a post again in the middle of the marsh. Corking! Craig rolled up in his landy, I was proper gushing! He kindly gave me a lift back to the bridge which meant I was back home in less than an hour. Classic local twitching scenes!
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I tried to explain all this at the BBQ this afternoon. My friends seemed pleased for me, but I suspect they probably thought I was a bit mad. But I think they already thought that!