Sunday 28 June 2015

Immature Owls & Raptors

On Saturday morning my nephew and I led a walk down from Robert Fuller's Thixendale gallery into the valley below.  We saw one youngster from this year's brood of Tawny Owls, plus the female.  Continuing on our way we saw a brightly-coloured male Linnet singing beautifully.  Further down the hill we managed to catch sight of 2 immature Kestrel chicks before they saw us and disappeared from view.  Not far away Ben spotted a male Redstart perched in the open.  Later, we saw his mate and at least 2 well-grown chicks.
Immature Tawny Owl
 Immature Tawny Owl (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Ditto
Female Tawny Owl

Immature Kestrel
 Ditto
 Male Redstart (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Wild Horses - especially the one far right
 View near Thixendale (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
In the afternoon a different group drove to nearby Wharram Percy. We saw a different male Redstart, but the remainder of the sightings, and certainly the best photographs were of butterflies and Wild flowers.
Common Blue
 Small Heath
Bee Orchids (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Clustered Bellflower (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Pyramidal Orchid
 Common Spotted Orchid (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Ditto
 Purple Haze caused by Quaking Grass (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Looking Down from Wharram Percy car park (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth

Saturday 27 June 2015

Supermarket Closing Down Sale

Our Final Visit to the supermarket in 2015 found all the usual suspects, and a massive amount of Puffins, but no other visitors.  It was great having the cliffs to ourselves.  The young birds are now growing, and won't be here for much longer.  At first it seemed that the Peregrines had left their shelf empty, but then eagle-eyed Angela spotted that it had been put on a shelf much closer to the supermarket customers.  
Puffin
 Guillemots (c) 2015 Jeny Clarkson
 Kittiwakes (c) 2015 Jeny Clarkson
 Peregrines (c) 2015 Jeny Clarkson
 Peregrines (c) 2015 Jeny Clarkson
 North Marsh Orchid (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth

Friday 26 June 2015

Final Seashore Visit

Thursday saw our final visit to the sandy shoreline, although we did keep off the sand this year, and walked through Kilnsea Wetlands and Long Bank instead.  It was a lot hotter than Tuesday's icy visit.  On the downside we had severe attacks of hay fever on both sessions, although in the afternoon a light sea breeze, made it slightly less oppressive.  The Avocets and their chicks were still present, and this time we had some close views of some Oystercatcher fledglings.  A Kestrel flew through the Little Tern colony and was very heavily mobbed after the below photographs were taken.  At lunch time I had lunch in a quiet hide where I was joined by one of the inhabitants - a very nice close encounter!  Towards the end of the afternoon session we witnessed a fly-past by the Red Arrows!
Male Swallow - Looking out HIS hide


 Kestrel & Little Terns
 Ditto
 Ditto
 Ditto
 Peacock Butterfly Caterpillars
 Painted Lady
 Large Skipper
 Ringlet
 Ditto
 Immature Starling
 erm...
 A Few Red Arrows

Thursday 25 June 2015

In the Far North

On Wednesday we went about as far north as you can go in East Yorkshire, although it is possible we just strayed into North Yorkshire.  Here, the spring was about 3 weeks behind what it is back home.  We saw a male Redstart disappearing into the nest hole.   As the day got warmer then the insect life began to become more prevalent.  The flora was better than a fortnight ago, but it was still several weeks behind what it was last year.  Apart from the mating Orange-tips included on the blog yesterday, the highlights were probably the family of 6 baby Goldcrests.  They were almost impossible to see through binoculars, so were even harder to photograph!
Yellowhammer
 ditto
 Yellowhammer (c) 2015 Aileen Urquhart
 Goldcrest Fledgling
 Ditto
 Father Goldcrest
 Goldcrest (c) 2015 Aileen Urquhart
 Bee Orchid
 Brimstone & Red Campion
 Clustered Bellflower
 Fairy Flax
 Wood Tiger Moth
 Ditto
Common Spotted Orchid (c) 2015 Aileen Urquhart
Common Spotted Orchid (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth
 Pyramidal Orchid
 North Marsh orchid? (c) 2015 Ben Coneyworth