Some family time

Useless weather forecasters, they say rain all weekend and sure enough, not a drop. I was all ready to make other plans but decided to risk it.

Not a lot to report birdwise, unsurprisingly for June, a distant Marsh Harrier near Kelk Beck was the best of the bunch - a year tick for me (#100) though one was seen near Great Kelk just after my last visit. Other highlights; the 8 Mute Swan cygnets are all still alive, a male Pochard at Brigham is seasonally unusual, as was 2 Curlew flying east (see also Apr/May), and c150 Sand Martin is the highest count in recent years.

Saturday 6th June

Morning...

Kelk Lake - dead apart from 2 Little Grebe, 4 Coot, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Blackcap and a Lesser Whitethroat.

Around Harpham/Lowthorpe - 1 Red-legged Partridge, 1 Little Grebe, 4 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel - including a smart male seen catching a rodent, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Grey Wagtail - first June record for New Road, 3 Blackcap, 2 family parties of Long-tailed Tits and 1 Bullfinch.

Little Kelk - single flock of 120 Woodpigeon, 1 Whitethroat, and 1 Fox lazing in among the cows!

Late afternoon...

Around Gembling - 1 Buzzard soaring over the wood to the south, and a Whitethroat. It's pretty quiet without the floods to draw in the birds. Still, it's a lovely area so I'll try to persevere.

Brigham Quarry - 1 male Pochard, 5 Tufted Duck, 4 Little Grebe, Cormorant flying SW, Grey Heron flying W, 12 Coot, 2 Oystercatcher, Lesser Whitethroat (singing by Cruckley Farm), 1 Whitethroat.

Gransmoor Lane / Barf Hill area - 44 Greylag Goose (several broods), 15 Canada Goose (2 broods of 11 young), 3 Gadwall, 1 Buzzard and 1 Meadow Pipit.

Sunday 7th June

Late morning...

Kelk Beck - the 8 cygnets first seen in May are all still alive and growing up fast. c150 Sand Martin were using the beck to feed along in the strong breeze, small groups each hawking up and down a 10-20 metre stretch. This represents a very large count for the area, and the highest in the last few years. Also seen - 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Coot, 2 Curlew flying east (very scarce in summer), at least 4 but probably 5 Yellow Wagtails (3 feeding together with 2 Pied Wagtail), 3 Whitethroat, a flock of 130 Rook, and 1 Tree Sparrow.

The finest sighting was a Water Vole in the beck - it allowed us to watch it for a while it had lunch before it swam away into the bankside vegetation. My third of the year, all in different locations.

Cattleholmes - 2 Canada Goose, 2 Gadwall, 20+ Mallard, 6 Tufted Duck, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Coot, 4 Lapwing, 2 male Reed Bunting.

On the way home there were a family party of Tree Sparrows near Gransmoor Lane end, and a Marsh Harrier was seen distantly being mobbed by crows somewhere over Kelk Beck. It was waay too distant to determine age/sex.

Late afternoon...

The only time for birding was a quick hours dash on the bike around Harpham where there was a Buzzard over Lingholmes, 6 Lapwing on Harpham Moor, c70 Swift in several small groups feeding near trees, and 45 House Martins over Lingholmes.

Over the course of the weekend the only gulls were - 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying N or NE, and 10 Herring Gulls heading in various directions. As with April/May not a single small gull.

So my yearlist is now 100 with a further two recorded by others in the area.

Butterflys were clearly not liking the windy/cloudy weather with only a few 'whites' on the wing, probably Green-veined. However, the recent Painted Lady national invasion was still in effect with about 50-60 seen during the weekend. Butterfly list goes up 1 to 9.