Posted: Monday 16th April 2012 by WildlifeSightings
Swallows on a wire - Credit Jono Leadley
30th April
Thorton Dale: First cuckoo heard this morning at 8am on the edge of the wood, south of village pond.
Wykeham: Three buzzards and a goshawk. Two hares a mile north of the village.
Ruston Carrs: Nine hares together.
Mal Jones - YWT Member
Dalby Forest: At 5.45pm whilst out walking my dog on the edge of Dalby Forest I saw a common lizard basking on some rocks.
Sue Inglis
26th April
East Cottingwith: We heard our first cuckoo this morning in a band of trees on farmland; we have a cuckoo here every year.
John Lucas
25th April
Bishopthorpe: It was a delight indeed to have tree sparrows on the bird feeder this morning. They were abundant when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s but are a rare sight nowadays.
Rob Stoneman - YWT Chief Executive
24th April
YWT Staveley: Otter seen swimming in front of hide around 12 noon; also newts in nearby ponds.
Blobby 123
YWT Brockadale: Plenty of bugs at Brockadale, including a weevil. No butterflies though.
Chris McLoughlin
23rd April
YWT North Cliffe Wood: Peregrine over heathland/acid grassland this evening.
Chris McGregor
21st April
YWT Flamborough Head: Grey seal seen having an afternoon snack.
Chrys Mellor
20th April
Scarborough: 3 harbour porpoise were seen from Marine Drive. This is a great place from which to observe this charismatic species with sightings almost daily.
Stuart Baines
YWT North Cave Wetlands: 3 black-necked grebes, avocet, sand martin
YWT Wheldrake Ings: 200+ black-tailed godwits
YWT Potteric Carr: Still a booming bittern and an Arctic tern
YWT Spurn: Cetti's warbler and black redstart
YWT Saltmarshe Delph: First great crested grebe
16th April
Darley: A single swallow was seen around farm buildings.
Bob Upton - YWT Member
15th April
YWT Potteric Carr: A bittern was heard booming all day on the nature reserve, a great attraction at the 'Our Woodland' event held in celebration of The Wildlife Trusts' centenary year and attended by Bill Oddie.
East Cottingwith: A cuckoo, the closest I've got yet - landed10 feet away on a willow whilst I was working on my compost heap. No call but a very healthy looking male.
Dave Griffith - YWT Member
14th April
Pickering: Two swallows seen sitting on a wire.
Malcolm Jones - YWT Member
10th April
Bedale: During the last few days, including today 10th April 2012, I have been watching a Bumblebee of a sort new to me and I think that it can only be Bombus hypnorum Tree Bumblebee. The thorax is covered with yellow hair, abdomen black with a white tail. In size, a bit smaller that either Red-tailed or Buff-tailed Bumblebees, both of which are also present. It is feeding on a rosemary bush which is in full flower and flying off with well-packed pollen baskets (unfortunately over the fence & out of sight, so, nest not found).
I see from the FSC 'Guide to bees of Britain' 2007 that it is called a 'new colonist in SE England spreading rapidly' so I think it may be right to report it from North Yorkshire this year!
Georgiana Kew - YWT Member
5th April
YWT Wheldrake Ings: A good morning birding with sightings of a buzzard, kestrel, kingfisher and a short-eared owl at about 5 yards from me. Also the usual mix of duck and geese, and seven hares boxing.
Malcolm Jones - YWT Member
1st April
Redmires Resevoir: We watched a water vole, possibly nest building, at the edge of a very small waterway. The vole was swimming a few feet one way, coming back, scrambling about a foot up the bank and then reappearing a minute or two later in a sort of downward skid through the rushes, swimming the other way and repeating. It kept this up for several minutes and was still at it when we left.
Jenny and Edmund King - YWT Members
Regular sighting
Aberford, Leeds: Everyday we are overflown by red kites, numbering between a single bird and on a hot day up to six birds circling high up. We regularly see pairs flying over our property and across the village.
David Kane and Julie Welford - YWT Members
Wilsden: We have had a song thrush nest with one young bird during early April, but they have now flown. We have had a blackbird breed one young bird, which is still in the garden feeding well. We have blue tits in the bird box but no evidence of young. We also have great tits, sparrows, chaffinch, bullfinch, collared dove, dunnock, pigeon and starling in the garden.
Tony Caunt
Read WildlifeSightings's latest blog entries.
After much searching of the area south of Ruston on the Pickering /Scarborough road and having had to content myself with a mere glimpse of a Crane and a bit of Bugling , I now hear from a passer by that she saw two birds ( which by description were Cranes ) in flight Near Yeddingham , a few miles away towards Malton . She was more than pleased to hear that they were not a common thing to see . I'm not going chasing off over there in hope of a better sighting . Tomorrows trip to Tophill Low may bear fruit or Nosterfield next week So, with any luck she and her walking partner will take bins with them on their forays and eventually graduate from Twitcher to Birder as I and my pal Mike did when, after watching a Goshawk circling for a few minutes , saw it go into a full stoop from about 150 ft to ground level. Not a lot of people know they do that ! Exciting stuff . But just as exciting were clusters of tiny , bright yellow fungi on a rotting birch branch in a damp wood yesterday . Mal Jones
Saturday 21st April 2012
by Mal Jones