A Visit to see the Duke.

It was a warm and sunny day onSaturday so off across the moors to see if we could see any Duke of Burgandy butterflies.  Little did we know how many there would be -the most we have ever seen up on the North Yorks Moors, at least 20 plus we would say.

 

 

 

 We could however find only one Green Hairstreak on a sunny bank next to the road on the way back to Osmotherly.

 A few Dingy Skippers with the Dukes though.

 We came across two broods of Curlew chicks, this one was very obliging as it didn't hide in the grass.

Housemartins are using the old kennel building at Hawnby for their nests.

North York Moors

Visited one of my favourite sots at the weekend up on the moors.

A very obliging Cuckoo.



Two flying around at one point.

 



Lots of Spotted Flycatchers around too.  A lovely bird to see.

Plenty of Redstarts too but only one Pied Flycatcher seen.



Red-Throated Pipit at Seaton Common

Another lifer for us on Sunday when an excellent Red-Throated Pipit turned up on Seaton Common although distant it was good to see.

 

 

 

 

Another Two for the Year List and a Lifer.

On Sunday we enjoyed a brilliant day at Blacktoft Sands.
The Marsh Harriers were performing well and so too were the Montague's Harriers, a bird we had never seen before even though they were at a distance.

Montague's Harriers

Marsh Harrier

Little Grebe

It was good to see the Turtle Doves back in our local area, one of my favourite birds to see especially as there seem so few of them around now.

 

We watched them from a distance whilst enjoying our picnic then on the way home heard there were Dotterel at Danby Beacon.  Too tired to go that night so went the next evening to view a male and female bird at a distance, nice to see though.

 



Pied Bill Grebe and a few more from this week.

We finally managed to locate the Pied Flycatchers on Friday evening - 1st May which is later than normal.  We saw two males and one female in the same bushes and trees by the roadside up on the North York Moors.  A male Redstart seemed to be continually harassing them and never was still long enough to get a decent shot.

 

Male Pied Flycatcher



Female Pied Flycatcher

Male Redstart

Willow Warbler

Leighton Moss was our unexpected port of call on Saturday afternoon when we decided to go to see the Pied Billed Grebe.

We did not arrive at the hide where it had been seen until 4pm but spotted it straight away along with an otter and 3 Bearded Tits and a sparrowhawk fly by.  Not bad for a couple of hours visit.

Pied Billed Grebe

 Bearded Tits

 

Otter