Bishop Middleham, yesterday afternoon/evening.
Stoneybeck Lake (roadside pool)
2 female
Shoveller, one with brood of 8 about a week old
Redshank pair with 2 small chicks less than a week old.
7
Little Ringed Plover including one juvenile bird.
Lapwings with young of all sizes including 2 fully winged.
8
Yellow Wagtails 4 males collecting food, 2 females & 2 juveniles.
10
Pied Wagtails.
3 Coots incubating including one nest (stranded after water levels dropped) balanced on a section of post & rail fence 1' above water.
No
Ruddy Duck, No
Geese, no
Shelduck.
3 broods of
Mallards with 3, 8 & 10 young. 38 adults.
18 adult
Gadwall
a dozen or so
Tree Sparrow including juvs.
5
Corn Bunting including 3 singing.
20
Linnet.
2
Stock Dove 1 drinking & bathing, 30 Wood Pigeon on wires.
Min of 4
Hares.
1 sleepy Pablo Hugelist.
Castle Lake (Swg Wks pool)
a juvenile
Black headed Gull, (non-breeding site) - very dark brown individual & initially threw me watching at long range as it probed about in mud...thought it was a phalarope !
Whitburnmark said:
......plus the first juvenile Black-headed Gull of the summer.
An adult
White Wagtail was a surprise at the swg wks, of 2 juvs nearby one was a very pale individual.
pair of
LBBGull & 1 ad
HGull. 1ad 2juv
Grey Heron
Stunning flock of 5 full summer plumaged
Black tailed Godwits circling lake attempting to land several times before gaining height & speeding off high to the south west. Single
Little Ringed PLover only.
Later on, just before the rain a
Greenshank came in calling from the east, it circled the whole area going over the lake, Allans pool, railway line pools before dropping onto A1M fashes.
No
Ruddy Duck, no
Geese, no
Shelduck.
8
Dabchick, 98 adult
Coot including 4 incubating.
6 broods of
Mallards with 3 and 8 well grown & 5,6,8 & 10 young.
A brood of 10 tiny
Gadwall & another of 7 a week or so old.
Went down looking for
Hobby, so gave the
Swifts & hirundines a good check over:- 100 or so
Sand Martins mid afternoon, many on barb wire, (vast majority were juvs) but later in rain there were 350+ in total.
only a handfull of
House Martins <10.
Swallows were widespread, not restricted to lake even during rain so hard to count , probably 50+.
Swifts on the wing as far as i could see, probably 400 from top of ruins, with 300 over lake when weather changed. No Hobbies though but 2
Sparrowhawk & 3
Kestrel.
3 male
Corn Buntings singing adjacent to lake (1 singing from top of large Ash tree in Barley field, the other from low field boundary Elderberry adjacent to Wheat crop & 1 on swg wks fence)
Several singles of
Tree Sparrow including one returning to land in centre of wheat field at regular intervals.
10+
Yellow Wagtails only 2 females seen, 6-8 males carrying food, all heading off into cereal crops.
2
Hares.
Allans Pool
Quiet here with Ad
Mute Swan with 6 cygnets, 1 adult
Heron, 1 pr Lapwing & 5
Mallard.
Sedge Warbler &
Willow Warbler sang briefly. Best though were 3
Kingfishers together which flashed along the beck nearby.
Old Rail Line
The railway line pool was bone dry with a
Pied Wagtail picking amongst the Sheep & an adult
Little Owl hunted from wooden posts on the Moto-x track.
Blackcap &
Common Whitethroats still active singing & one of the latter in display flight.
Longtailed &
Blue Tit families at the edge of Carr Wood with a
GSW contact calling.
Various orchid species along the line to Fishburn Lake including a couple of Bee Orchids.
Fishburn Lake
Quiet due to youths fishing but 1
Dabchick,
Mallard with brood of 5, 1male
Gadwall, single singing
Chiffchaff &
Garden Warbler.
Doubled back along line to scope Moto-x track where the pair of
Little Owls were finding easy pickings on the bike track, a young bird was begging from usual Ash tree but not visible. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled briefly, but no other owl species despite loads of rough grassland in area.
R.Skerne / Sluice / A1M Flashes
2
Kingfisher 1 calling downstream of sluice with another on waterside posts on Skerne. Family of 5
Lapwing & pair of
Little Ringed Plover feeding on flashes. Unlike last year no
Shelduck.
Time was getting on now with very little activity from the smaller perching birds other than 2
Mistle Thrush & a
Treecreeper.
Mallard with broods of 7 large on Skerne & of 5 on quiet marshy pool south of the scrubby embankment. This hidden pool had 3
Oystercatcher, 3
Heron, 16
Tufted Duck & surprisingly 2male1female
Teal. A young
Fox sitting on the track. Watched another 2 young Foxes hunting nearby in freshly cut hay, diving time after time with no success. Scoped the Badger set for 10 mins but no activity, a
Tawny called & final bird was another
Little Owl.
74 species.
SE.
