Skipwith to North Cave

Barry and I went off early to avoid the dog walkers [partial success only] and see wood lark on Skipwith Common [total failure]. We should have skipped Skipwith. However we did see a few kestrels and willow warblers but, all in all, it was very quiet.

Kestrel So we upped sticks and headed for North Cave Wetlands. Damselflies were everywhere again as were a number of butterflies. First comma of the year included along with ringlet, small skipper and meadow browns.

Small skipper

Small Skipper Ringlet

Ringlet Comma

Comma Comma The damselflies included blue-tailed...

Blue-tailed Damselfly ...and common blue.

Common Blue Damselfly Common Blue Damselfly This is an immature male common blue damselfly.

Immature male common blue damselfly. Some dragonflies were whirring around us so fast it was hard to track them. Ironically a helicopter came over as I was trying to photograph an emperor dragonfly.

Freezing a dragonfly in flight is hard. Simply tracking them in the viewfinder can be disheartening. Suddenly I had one. I know these aren't perfect but as difs* they are fine by me!!

*dragonflies in flight!

Dragonfly sp. This one is the nicest.

Dragonfly sp. A bordered sallow moth was found by Barry as was the ruby-tailed wasp.

Scalloped Oak Ruby-tailed Wasp (Chrysidinae) Thanks to chrisbrooks on ispot for the identification.

This flower on the south facing bank near the Turret Hide attracted me. It is Common Centaury, centaurium erythraea, a member of the gentian family as Barry rightly suggested.

Common Centaury, centaurium erythraea. N.Cave Finally the grasses growing in the sacrificial crop field made an interesting image in the strong breeze. I like this image although the only other person I have shown it to wasn't imopressed!!

Two brilliant days!

Day One: Lincolnshire

Let's be clear: they really were. I didn't get wet [Tiggy went through some terrible puddles] and the sun shone sometimes! Day One was Frampton Marsh RSPB in Lincolnshire followed by Freiston Shore RSPB also Lincolnshire but north of Boston.  The lure was a white rumped sandpiper at Frampton Marsh.

I got there early, as is my wont. Swifts were flying low screaming around me. I suspect I shall die without taking my ideal fantasy photograph of a swift. Every detail clear; everything sharp. Here's my latest effort.

Swift The sandpiper was on North Scrape - as usual at Frampton long walks are de rigueur. Time for one of my cuckoo category photos! Legions of regular readers will know this means a rubbish photo of a bird that is simply too far away. It doesn't even qualify as a record photo really!

White-rumped Sandpiper!!! The white rumped sandpiper is just contemplating a bit of mooning, flanked by a juv black-headed gull [left] and two ringed plovers [right]. Just a year tick but a top quality one. I walked on. Some swallows let me get close.

Swallows Swallows Avocet activity was clearly audible. Some had well advanced young like this one.

Avocet The adults looked quite dirty with all the mud around. Reminded me a little of american avocets.

Avocet Avocet I saw a hare watching me from across a pool. I didn't realise that as I prepared to take the photo he turned his back on me!!

Hare

Approaching the far hide [East Hide, I think] a young pied wagtail eyed me from the fence. The background shows the strange light effects that morning. It's sunshine on mud.

Pied Wagtail Another avocet made a pleasing image.

Avocet Further on a lapwing was getting very agitated. But that's a way of life for a lapwing.

Lapwing In the hide a great crested grebe came close and a redshank flew across my field of view. They both got immortalised.

Great-crested Grebe Redshank Then, after tramping through the mud on top of the sea wall I left for Freiston Shore. Here terns were very active and quite nearby. I looked for roseate tern as a pair had been dropping in but all mine were common. Here are some nice views of these lovely birds.

Common Tern Common Tern Common Tern Along the path a blackbird was sunning himself. Why do they do this? Is it overheating?

Blackbird From the hide an adult BHG was coping with two unruly young. The young a this stage seem bigger then their parents!

Black-headed Gull

Day Two: Yorkshire

Thought I'd start at North Cave in the hope of an early morning close-up of a blackcap. As usual, it was not to be. Maybe I went one better. I detected movement to my left in some dead bramble. Here he is.

Lesser Whitethroat Lesser Whitethroat I like this one! It's a lesser whitethroat. Grey legs are diagnostic.

After that I returned to Tiggy and put the macro lens on. I had already seen lots of damselflies. Nice flowers were nearby.

Borage                                                                                             Borage:  borago officinalis

Field scabious                                                                                       Field scabious:  knautia arvensis

Common mallow Malva sylvestris                                                                              Common mallow: malva sylvestris

Going back into the reserve with the macro lens on one looks for different things. This lichen was covering the bark of a birch tree. I liked the patterning.                                                                               There had clearly been a recent emergence of meadow brown butterflies.

Meadow Brown Meadow Brown Common blue damselflies were mating.

Common Blue Damselflies Or waiting for Mrs Right...

Common Blue Damselflies Common soldier beetles were in freshly polished uniforms.

Soldier Beetle ...and a small skipper butterfly just caught my eye, flew off quickly and then [bless him*] posed!

Small Skipper *The two diagonal black lines on the wings tell me it's a male.

Next stop: Wharram Quarry. Bishop Middleham and Wharram as well as both being former quarries have something magical about them. Almost like going back to Shangri-La. I assume you've been there at some point in your mind.

Common Spotted / Heath SpottedOrchid WQ This year the orchids defied belief. Hundreds of pyramidal, over sixty bee and thousands of common spotted. Plus a lifer butterfly, mating common blue butterflies. Heaven. Chiffchaff, whitethroat and blackcap heard but for once my eyes were on the ground not sky scanning whilst tripping over all manner of obstacles!

Common Spotted Orchids plus 1 pyramidal. WQ Spot the lone pyramidal orchid among the common spotteds. Towards top right, much darker red.

For the other orchid photos, see my special 2012 Orchid posting.

Small Heath There were many small heath butterflies and I tried for a long time to photograph one. All the other butterflies were easy compared to the small heath and yet they were the most numerous. So I was glad to get this unremarkable image. Incidentally it was a surprise and a thrill to meet Howard Frost and his wife - he co-ordinated the wonderful book 'The Butterflies of Yorkshire.' Thoroughly recommended!

Common blues were very active interacting with each other and often unaware of me. Three males:

Common Blue Common Blue Male and female. Note female underwings are darker than the male.

Common Blue Common Blue Females are more timid than the males.

Common Blue My first small tortoiseshell of the year...

Small Tortoiseshell ...followed by my first ever marbled whites. I saw three in the end.

Wharram Quarry: marbled white I'd never seen broomrape before either. This chlorophyll free parasitic plant feeds from pea family plants like the vetches. A bit sinister looking!

Common broomrape: orobanche minor. Wharram Q Common broomrape: orobanche minor. Wharram Q

                                                                               Common broomrape: orobanche minor

This nice dog rose wanted  to be photographed.

Dog rose rosa canina I'd grown campanula glomerata in the garden but didn't know it as a wild flower.

Campanula glomerata. WQ Thought I might squeeze this common spotted in as the insect is so nicely focussed. I wonder what it is. Try asking ispot!!

Common Spotted. WQ So it was time to move on. However if you can you must visit Wharram Quarry asap. Try to find the thyme!!

Thyme. WQ Final call at Wykeham forest raptor watchpoint. Saw turtle dove and a common buzzard. The interest was more at my feet. A common lizard entertained me.

Common Lizard Common Lizard Saw my first ringlet butterfly of the year.

Wykeham Forest: Ringlet See the little rings!

To my surprise, on the dark and gloomy path to the viewpoint I saw several common spotted orchids.

Common Spotted Orchid. Wykeham Forest raptor watchpoint That's it.

Postscript: Saturday July 14th 20112

My son lost an expensive 6 foot wingspan power assisted glider on Friday 13th, somewhere over the old airfield at Acaster Malbis. With all the clues I could muster, plus an OS map I set off Saturday early to walk the old runways. Binoculars in hand I kept scanning the fields. I climbed old mounds of soil and gravel. I walked a very, very long way. I eventually made it back to the car having covered all the area he had suggested.

Then I drove along more abandoned concrete runways to the south. In one field I saw something white sticking up. I stopped Tiggy, grabbed the bins. I had come. I had seen and I concurred. I was a hero after all!

I had found it.

Making a silk purse from a sow's ear...

The plan was quite simple. Get Barry up early and scamper to Seahouses in Northumberland to spend the day cruising the Farne islands, landing on two of the islands to take photographs. There was just one thing I hadn't allowed for. Fog. All day fog wherever we tried to go. We had to abandon the idea of going to the Farnes. We headed north for Holy Island [because the tides were perfect for access all day] but the weather deteriorated even further with the haar now combining with heavy rain.

So we turned back south. A red-backed shrike had been reported at East Chevington NWT. We soon saw the bird but very distantly and, of course, in the mist! I took some other pictures however.

Meadow Pipit This meadow pipit was unperturbed by my presence as was the clicking reed bunting behind me.

Reed Bunting The mist over north pool did reveal some arctic terns visiting from nearby Coquet Island and three mute swans passed overhead in the gloom.

Mute Swan I took photographs of many orchids that day - at 3 different sites. The orchid photos will be added to my 2012 Orchids posting but to give a flavour I'll put one picture from each site in this entry.

Common Spotted Orchid. East Chevington

Common Spotted orchid just opening - with attendant bee.

Next call was just down the road at Hauxley NWT. The reserve is part of the former Radcliffe open cast coal mine, which was landscaped to produce a lake with islands. This is potentially a very good reserve and had reliable sightings of roseate terns on the beach [again from Coquet Island]. We sat in one of the hides for a while and watched common terns in the mist. A young black-headed gull was resting in the grass.

Black-headed gull juv. High Hauxley On our walk towards the beach I snapped a rabbit and a bee on a dog rose flower.

Rabbit Incidentally I've still got the image stabilizer switched off. Also the blade of dark green grass pointing at the rabbit's eye actually passes across his face. Using Photoshop I cloned it away. I think I have learnt to do this most effectively. My hourly training fee comes in scones!!

Dog Rose, High Hauxley White-tailed bumble bee and rosa canina.

All the close-ups taken at East Chevington and Hauxley were taken with my 400mm DO lens which shows what a versatile lens it is. The only problem is the minimum focus distance - sometimes it is tricky to get the 3.8m away needed for focus to be achieved.  The viper's bugloss photo was a good case in point. I was almost falling down a ditch to get far enough away!

Viper's Bugloss echium vulgare High Hauxley Viper's bugloss or Echium vulgare. Great blue! Apparently the seeds resemble a viper's head and the word bugloss is an old word for ox tongue which the leaves resemble. So now you know!

Eventually we climbed up a small dune to reach the beach. We could hear terns distantly. This is what we could see looking along the dunes...

Hauxley NWT fog Outside the hide a pheasant was unsure whether to panic or not. Eventually we left him in peace. I can't resist a close-up of a male pheasant. Quite exotic!

Pheasant Same bird.

Pheasant On the walk back we passed a stand of teasel plants but not the normal one we see locally. This was cut-leaved teasel, dipsacus laciniatus, a european invader which in the USA has become an invasive menace, especially in Illinois. Rarer in UK, it is not even mentioned in my Collins Complete British Wild Flowers. Book therefore has wrong title!

Cut-leaved Teasel dipsacus laciniatus High Hauxley Back at the car park I photographed northern marsh orchid and a nicely obliging common blue butterfly [male].

High Hauxley: common blue

We drove into Amble to see if there were any sailings round Coquet Island [ever optimists] but not until 4pm and then the weather might scupper it. On, then, to Cresswell Pond. Good birds: common terns, adult little gulls, avocets, blackwit, dunlin. But still misty. Final call would be further south at Bishop Middleham Quarry to look for butterflies and orchids. By the time we got there we were definitely into much nicer weather.

All the pictures taken at Bishop Middleham were taken with my Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens, still with IS switched off. Bishop Middleham Quarry is a most wonderful place once you've got your eye in, as Barry says, and start to spot the good plants.

Bishop Middleham Quarry 2012 As for orchids we did wonderfully in the end but you'll have to wait until I update the orchid posting. As we entered the reserve Barry found this special plant.

Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza maculata v leucantha. BMQ I think this is Heath Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza  maculata v. leucantha, a rare but widespread form  and a new orchid for me. Plant of the day.

A part of the quarry face had holes that sand martins were using.

You can see a sand martin returning home right of centre.

In the above image you can see the bird returning but you can also see three birds poking their heads out of a hole in the rock in the far right part of the image.

Butterflies were active in the warm sunshine - such a contrast to the weather further north. Northern brown argus butterfly - note white spots on forewing. Closed wing view in the second image. A rare butterfly.

Common Blue Common Blue Perhaps this one had taken a battering in the bad weather.

Common Blue Common blue male.

Common Blue Bordered Sallow (Pyrrhia umbra) This day flying moth was on the quarry floor. It's A Bordered Sallow moth Pyrrhia umbra.

Below is a small heath butterfly, a drab and inconspicuous species usually only seen at rest with its wings closed.

Small Heath Bishop Middleham Finally two more photos of the northern brown argus. Note the white spots on the forewing and, on this occasion, when the wings are closed the black spots are absent from the little white rings. If you see what I mean.

Common Blue The butterfly hasn't moved. It's still on the same dead grass stalk.

Common Blue Barry found a five spot burnet moth resting on a common spotted orchid.

5 spot Burnet moth Arrivederci!