Langfield Edge and Gaddings Dam

Took my first walk to Gaddings and Langfield for 5 months this morning. A smashing still day with the sun shining, blue skies and a real pleasure to be out after the horrendous gales and rain of the last week. There were lots of Meadow Pipits around, enjoying all the flies and insects.

Jail Hole
Mipit - 30+
Wheatear
Sparrowhawk - 3







 

















Langfield
Mipit - 20+
Reed Bunting - 2
Stonechat
Kestrel
Flock of Goldfinches and Chaffinches - 40+ birds. Goldfinches were feeding on the grass seeds
Red Grouse - 2

Gaddings
Mipit - 100+
Skylark
Tufted Duck
BH Gull
Swallow - 43 feeding over the dam

 The sun was glinting through the rain drops on the grass so I couldn't resist putting the starburst filter on the camera!

        

 

Sparrowhawk in the garden

A young male Sparrowhawk was keeping a watch on the garden bird feeders to see if there was a tasty snack to be had:

but then it spotted me taking photos and was off empty talon'd

Over on the East coast last weekend the weather was good so a few pics were in order:

Teasels starting to flower

Wildlife photos are hard to come by at the moment as I'm sort of house bound so I've resorted to taking pics of the garden. Sad, but I'm finding several new subjects of interest. Today's subjects are seeds and bulbs that were given to me by friends.

The teasels that were planted as seeds last year (thanks Robert) are now starting to come into flower and although there are only a few florets on the flower heads at the moment, they are already attracting a fair number of insects:

Hopefully the 20 or so flower heads will self-seed and we'll have a karger crop next year, although they don't actually flower until the second year so we'll have to wait a while for any significant increase.

The Crocosmia Lucifer (thanks Allan) are bursting with colour and really brighten up the whole garden:

Mink

We have a mink. It was seen killing a Canada Goose (an adult Canada Goose!) and swimming off to the far shore with it. I don't have a problem with introduced species killing introduced species :) However there is no guarantee it won't kill other creatures, like the fish it had when I saw it -

New Chicks

The Little Grebes that I've been monitoring for the last few weeks have 4 chicks and seem to be doing OK:

Meanwhile, over at Bempton Cliffs over the weekend there were several Gannet chicks to admire:

Langfield and Gaddings Dam

Walked to Gaddings Dam via Lee Dam and Langfield Edge this morning, my first walk onto the hills for a couple of months. It was a fine but blustery morning and a shower threatened to spoil the day but it didn't last long and the sun came out shortly after.

A Grey Heron watched a family of Canada Geese go by at Lee Dam -

and the same Canada Geese were eyed up by a passing Little Grebe -

A pair of Twite at Langfield were a good find, as was a juvenile Stonechat. At Gaddings Dam Swallows and Swifts were feeding over the water and a Ringed plover and a Dunlin were at the water's edge -

While walking back I almost stepped on this beetle. Turns out it is quite an uncommon beetle called Carabus nitens  It's a beauty!

Fledglings all over the place

Following the young GSW's seen earlier in the week, there were lots of young birds around today as I went for a walk down to Hardcastle Crags with Andy. Tons of Great Tits, a few Coal Tits and many Blue Tits flapping about finding their wings -

 A family of Mallards was on Gibson Mill pond (this image doesn't stand blowing up but looks OK at this small size) -

... and best of all, a group of 5 Treecreepers were being fed by an adult. Sorry about the quality here as the lighting was challenging to say the least -

Later we came upon a singing Wood Warbler and Andy managed a good pic (mine were rubbish as usual. I just can't get a decent Wood Warbler pic for some reason) -

Another Great Spotted Woodpecker