Normanby Enterprise Park

The small piece of derelict land left unbuilt upon on the Normanby Enterprise Scheme has come up trumps this spring with the following successfully breeding; 6 pairs of Lapwing producing 15 chicks, 1 pair Ringed Plover producing 4 chicks, 1 pair Little Ringed Plover breeding unconfirmed, 1 pair of Coot producing 2 chicks, at least 1 pair of Mallard with 5 chicks, 1 pair Grey Partridge, 1 pair Reed Bunting, several pairs of Linnet and 3 pairs of Oystercatchers but unfortunately despite the individual below sitting no young were seen.  It is such a shame that whilst watching this little piece of land which is surrounded by empty (brand new) high bay loading warehouses I have watched men in high visibility jackets measuring up presumably to build here yet another building to remain vacant.  On that note I shall sign off for a week whilst I have a week up in Wensleydale hopefully getting lots of images of the wonderful dales.

Alkborough Flats

A quick trip down to the Flats this evening produced 107 Black Tailed Godwits, 2 Little Gulls, 4 Knot, 1 Spotted Redshank, 36 Ringed Plover and a first for the year a Corn Bunting so a little better than of late but still not a lot!  No moth light tonight as a scorching weekend has predictably now turned into a cool east wind - I knew it was too good to last.

Normanby - Spotted Flycatchers at last & a Puss Moth

We have just had a fabulous weekend - not only did we have two very lovely visitors from Portugal(Tracey and Dave) but also from much further south 3 Spotted Flycatchers.  Last year was dire for the Flycatchers with not one record in the Park so when we found 3 yesterday we felt such relief.  I have to say the Park has had its best spring ever with 5 Ring Ouzels, 3 Whimbrel, 1 Wheatear, 1 Cuckoo(also absent last year) and now 3 Flycatchers and I also relocated the Hornet but it never landed so no pictures again.  The weekend has been hot and sunny so last night the moth light went on for an hour again something that never happened last summer as it was so cool and miserable - within minutes the trap was exploding with Cockchafers and then a few spectacular moths including this lovely Puss Moth hopefully we can have another go tonight and get a few more record shots.

Puss Moth

Cock Chafer

Normanby's Trees

I know there is an excessive amount of images here but the Park is stunningly beautiful at the moment - I think this morning was possibly the prime day of the year - you can see the light changed from blue skies and sun to complete cloud cover - I also had this morning the largest most fabulous Hornet I have ever seen but sadly no pictures as for some unexplicable reason the camera would not focus on it despite it sitting still for at least two minutes giving me the opportunity to try different focusing modes. The Nikon is very frustrating at times - the old Canon Ixus never let me down and of course it was nothing to do with the operator!  I have to say the Park staff have done a fabulous job both with letting nature take care of itself and with the formal gardens - if you haven't been then I strongly recommend a visit in the very near future before summer takes its toll.

Weeping Willow

Oak

The Avenue of Limes

Oak

Oaks

Horse Chestnut

Horse Chestnut

Tulip Tree

Copper Beech and Laburnum

Yet another Ring Ouzel in Normanby Park

A very rare evening visit to the Park tonight produced another Ring Ouzel - this is the fifth bird to visit the park this spring - again it was in the deer park down by the fishing lake - poor photo as it was flushed by a Carrion Crow high up in to the tree tops.

Female Ring Ouzel

Messingham Sand Quarries

 Spent a lovely day basking in the sun(dare I say it was too hot for me!) at Messingham yesterday but as one of lifes worriers I spent an hour peering over the reserve boundary watching a digger perilously close to a very active Sand Martin colony of around one hundred nests which you should be able to make out on the first image.  I'm assured that the company are only too well aware of the law but if the sand bank is gone on my next visit...........  anyway also bumped into the reserve warden who was doing a bit of pond clearing(dipping) and pulled no end of dragonfly larvae out - not sure what they were but Four-spotted Chasers were active in the area.

Dragonfly larvae

Water Scorpion

Crowle Moors

Today we went back to one of our old haunts Crowle Moor and had some really good stuff including this Green Tiger Beetle, we have never seen so many must easily have been 30-50. We also had loads of Large Red Damsel-Flys and 4 x Four Spotted Chasers - on the bird front we had our first Tree Pipit of the year plus 7 Hobbys, 1 Buzzard, 1 Marsh Harrier, 2 Kestrel, 2 Cuckoos, 1 stunning male Bullfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Garden Warbler and 5 Willow Warblers.

Green Tiger Beetle

Cotton Grass

Click for bigger sharper image!

Four Spotted Chaser

Bluebells and Ramsons

England is famous for its Bluebell woods and right now they are in their prime - the Aconites and Snowdrops have now given way to Bluebells and Ramsons here in Normanby Park continuing a fantastic display of spring flowers.  The first photo is a bit of a quiz - nothing to do with bluebells - can you see anything special?

Trick question - what can you see?

Wild Garlic(Ramsons)

Horse Chestnut candles

Iberian Chiffchaff at Potteric Carr

Managed to combine an hospital appointment in Sheffield with a lifer for us both in Doncaster today and for me a second lifer in three days(Pratincole)  Now despite the Chiffchaff showing extremely well (thanks to some twit who kept constantly playing a tape) I have no photos but did manage to take a few photos of the reserve which is a trainspotters delight as the main east coast line runs straight passed one of the hides!  This photo was expertly taken by my father from a hide which was no mean feat as I estimate the train was moving at over 80mph!  

Oriental Pratincole at Frampton Marsh

An unexpected twitch this afternoon!

Oriental Pratincole at Frampton Marsh - 2 short video clips

Dawn Chorus on Alkborough Flats

We were up at the unearthly hour of 4.00am this morning to lead a dawn chorus walk on the Flats.  Plenty of bird song with lots of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and a surprised showing of a Short Eared Owl hunting over the reeds.  Later in the morning we also had a group of 20 Whimbrel moving up the Humber.