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May's Wildlife Sightings

Posted: Friday 4th May 2012 by WildlifeSightings

Common lizard - Credit Karen McDiarmid

If you would like to send us your sightings please email sightings@ywt.org.uk

23rd May:

Scarborough: Sighting of 5 porpoise, seen feeding and swimming together from North Marine Drive. The first time this many have been spotted together for at least a couple of months.

Stuart Baines

21st May:

YWT Wheldrake Ings: Pool quiet but loads of singing warblers. Lovely view of sedge and garden warbler, and whitethroat.

Paul Brook

Harrogate: Before leaving for work this morning I was very lucky to see 2 baby great tits fledge from their nest box in our garden. What an amazing sight - they got lots of encouragement from their parents. Although I must admit it was a case of 'will they/wont they'.

Rachel Green

20th May:

YWT Spurn: I saw 6 firsts for me today; redpoll, skylark, cuckoo, little tern, grey plover (sp) and Brent goose!

Robert Lingard

19th May:

Moreby Wood, Naburn: A cuckoo calling.

Margaret Barthorpe - YWT Member & volunteer

16th May:

YWT Adel Dam: two very active/vocal tawny owls, a woodcock and one little grebe calling.

Graham Phillips

13th May:

Thornton Dale: Several raptors up at the same time above Thornton Dale/Ellerburn area, and in a combative mood was a big crow which tried to see off a goshawk, then a male kestrel, followed by a peregrine at height, while a second peregrine stooped at the goshawk which gave up and left the valley. There were plenty of house martins and a few swifts, and a fluffy thing in a tree by the road which turned out to be a long tailed tit chick when an adult came and fed it.

Mal Jones - YWT Member

12th May:

Malham Cove: A green woodpecker, my first sighting in five years.

Trevor Peel - YWT Member

Barmston: A honey buzzard spotted coming onshore just north of Barmston, near Bridlington.

Duggleby: A cuckoo in immature plumage, and plenty of sand martins along the earth cliffs; also one or two swifts over the rapeseed fields.

Mal Jones - YWT Member

YWT Stoneycliffe Wood: Lovely displays of bluebells and ramsons.

11th May:

Nr. Whitby: A peregrine falcon spotted at the top of Blue Bank, south of Whitby, flying along the edge of Black Brow above Eskdale.

Mal Jones - YWT Member

10th May:

YWT Pulfin Bog: Osprey been seen flying over

YWT Garbutt Wood: Tree pipit, redstart, bluebells and early purple orchids

YWT Wheldrake Ings: Hooded crow

YWT Potteric Carr: Garganey

9th May:Brook lamprey - Credit Martin Batt

Beverley: First swifts of the year, heard and saw two flying over the Tiger pub.

Annette Hunsley

YWT Snakeholme Pastures: Lots of brook lamprey (photo on the right)!

YWT Skerne Wetlands: Grass snake

8th May:

YWT Wheldrake Ings: A cuckoo calling mid morning and a wading hare and male roe deer using the cover along the track. Five curlew turned up and a couple were performing a bit of a dance. Two pairs of great crested grebes - one pair on the water and the other pair with a nest.

Mal Jones - YWT Member

YWT Strensall Common: A cuckoo in the evening around 9.20pm. Delighted to hear/see one as didn't last year.

Mark Lucas

Bagby: First sightings of swifts this year.

Mick Rodger

7th May:Bar-headed goose - Credit Trevor Peel

Yeadon Tarn: Rare sighting of a bar-headed goose today at 12 noon. This bird lives in Central Asia and winters in Northern India (photo on the right). It is likely that this is an escapee.

Trevor Peel - YWT Member

6th May:

Hornsea golf course: Heard and seen the first cuckoo of 2012!

Colin Evans

5th May:

Addingham: A hare on the edge of a disused quarry.

Shaun Radcliffe

YWT Potteric Carr: Yellow wagtail

Trevor Peel

4th May:

Boston Spa: The first two pairs of swallows arrived at our livery stables two weeks ago, there are now over 20 birds here, all trying to find space in the barns for their summer homes.

Nancy Griffiths - YWT Member

Angram: The sky is suddenly full of swallows, a welcome sight.

Serena Riley - YWT Member

3rd May:

River Hull: First reed warbler of the year.

D Gagen

Nr Harrogate: I was really surprised to spot a cuckoo on Walton Head Lane (in between the A61 and Kirby Overblow) at around 6.15pm. It was flying low down and flew in front of my car before perching in a tree where I could get a good look. First time I have ever seen a cuckoo!

Emma Pittard - YWT Member

2nd May:

YWT North Cave Wetlands: A fine sunny day at North Cave. Avocets in abundance, a sparrowhawk tested the water, two redshanks were pottering about and a bar tailed godwit was reported. I saw two flying in as I arrived but didn't spot them again. Also on the way a male cuckoo on a wire by the road, near the junction of the Pocklington to A1079 road.

Mal Jones - YWT Member

YWT Adel Dam: House martin

David Albert Johnston - YWT Member

1st May:

YWT Adel Dam: Male pied flycatcher

David Albert Johnston -YWT Member

Nr Pocklington: As we were driving down the A1079 I spotted what I think was a cuckoo on a wire.

Pauline Allenby

General sightings:

Blackcaps, willow warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroats and reed warblers have all arrived and are in abundance! Woodpeckers seen, treecreepers chasing each other with nesting material and even a nightingale singing in the woods. Water levels are high so little birds are to be seen on the water, and some great crested grebes have a clutch of four eggs.

Nathan Bellwood

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Comments

    They have some at Harewood House Bird Garden so perhaps one had gone walkbout

    Wednesday 20th June 2012
    by nancyg

    If anyone spots a Hare , dead or alive , they could also log it on the Hare Preservation Trust website 'sightings' box. The Trust does large scale population surveys and any sightings particularly at this time of year, when they are hidden by the height of grass and corn, will be particularly valuable . An OS grid reference and decription of surrounds helps. Mal Jones

    Thursday 17th May 2012
    by Mal Jones