In the doldrums!

First of all, after the problems with the gull at North Cave I felt there was nothing for it but to go back [27th July] and have another careful look at the silt lagoon. Reckon I struck lucky this time: yellow-legged gull. Yellow-legged Gull Yellow-legged Gull I saw a basking meadow brown with its wings nicely spread. I noticed later double white eye spots.

Meadow Brown On Friday 29th July we went to photograph Rievaulx Abbey as we had been asked for a photo for a forthcoming book on important archaeological finds in Yorkshire. Sheila took this one: I played around with it!

Rievaulx Abbey Saturday at Blacktoft was not a good idea. Only image worth including was this one of a few lapwings. Lapwings Sunday we went to Wingate Quarry to see the little owls. On arrival we immediately saw lots of orchids: fragrant orchids. Some years since I'd seen any, I got down on my hands and knees to sniff them: very scented, reminiscent of daphne bholua in our garden. Nice spikes too!

Fragrant Orchid Fragrant Orchid Fragrant Orchid The field scabious were pretty as well. Scabious

One owl seen up on the old quarry face. Little Owl There was a baby donkey by the car park. Donkey On then to Saltholme to get some peanuts for our greedy tits. Plenty of common tern action and we enjoyed the new Meadow Trail - worth a slow walk. Here's just a few tern shots.

Common Tern Common Tern Common Tern Common Tern Common Tern That's it for now. Year list ran aground at 233.