24th August to 16th September 2024
I think I've been estivating again!
I suppose this quiet patch occurs every year but this year it seems to have been especially long. I've been busy at home with courgettes, French and runner beans to harvest along with greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers. The lawns have not been cut very often due to the lack of rain here in York. I'm pretty sure the rain goes round us at times as if it follows the course of the river and rains north and east of York missing our western area. So quite a while since my last post.
I'll begin at Blacktoft and North Cave on August 24th: There were a couple of curlew sandpipers present at Singleton along with spotted redshanks and black-tailed godwits.
Elsewhere on the reserve were greenshanks at First hide and avocet and yellow wagtail at Marshland.
Lapwings in flight at Blacktoft
I drove to North Cave which was quiet apart from innumerable geese. This is convolvulus arvensis or field bindweed.
I thought this information board was interesting - some new names and locations to remember!
September 5th: a trip to Saltholme and Seaton Snook. Moorhen and water rail followed by migrant hawker dragonfly.
Sedge warbler and then sandwich terns at the Snook [followed at the back by a common tern].
Samphire - cheaper than Waitrose!
September 6th: St. Aidan's, Oulton near Leeds. Focus on juvenile great crested grebes.
Also seen: another migrant hawker dragonfly and the little owl.
September 10th: Adwick Washlands: lesser yellowlegs. A personal favourite.
September 11th: Saltholme and Hartlepool Headland. Saltholme Pool where there is not much water as the levels are kept low while work continues to provide new islands. Consequently ringed plover and little stint were some way off out on the mud.
On the Headland: pied flycatcher and garden warbler.
September 12th: Blacktoft and a pectoral sandpiper. It looks a very small wader alongside the lapwing! Water rail photobombed the sequence.
September 13th: Pugney's Country Park, Durkar. Juvenile black tern.
