MartinWW
@swaledalebirds
Birds, moths, flowers and everything else to do with the natural world. Records on iNaturalist as ‘martinww’ Land manager living in a “world of wounds”. VC65 Partner in renaturing project heggscastlecluster.org Waldgenga. Nephophile. Absurdist.
More balsam bashing the other day (last day as there a poppin’). Came across this Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar. Quite the beast!
Whilst balsam bashing t’other day, saw this odd growth on brambles on the riverbank. Anyone any idea?
Great sky yesterday in Swaledale after the first proper rain since June (it was heavy and very brief tho). Looking towards Gunnerside from Whitaside.
Noticed this in some Elm recently. I’ve tried to key it out for a moth leaf miner, but failed. Any ideas?
FAIL! First one was a v tall Broad leaved, and I couldn’t find the second🤣🤣🤣🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
A few pix from North Gare Yesterday. Lovely n cloudy and not red hot thankfully made for a cracking ‘wander’. Third pic is a layer of Horsetail, followed by Red Clover, Yellow Rattle and Red Clover again.
Essex Skipper anyone? Thought it was at the time but sadly only had phone with me. Windy too, hence rubbish pix.
Five species of Ragwort in the last couple of days. Common plus Hoary, Narrow-leaved, Oxford and Marsh (if I have my ID’s correct). Cinnabar caterpillars only seen on common tho. Anyone know if they use any other ragworts?
Never got there. Went to N Gare to look at pretty flowers. Spent hours interrupted by ⬇️ Not the worst day!😂 Chippy was recommended. The Almighty Cod… 8.5/10. On a par with Verrils. #priorities
Some on our SSSI yesterday. A few on the verges on the Stang too (nae pix tho).
Yesterday was Buzzard ringing day. Only one in the nest this year (usually 3, once 4).
😍 I did four meadows this afternoon. Three are positive, one negative
Also it’s species present, not abundance in yr 2m radius. So ten harebell still only scores 2. I generated a map of our fields so I can do the same path every year and know roughly the distance between each ‘stop’.
Do the survey at peak flowering time before the cut. Decide on a route through the field and do 10 stops along it. Note plants and record within a couple of meter radius of you. When back home u can total the pos/negs and get a ‘score’. Doing it yearly gives you a clue as to how it’s doing. Not…
The big patch is on this verge near this Rock-rose. The Restharrow does seem to be spreading. Be interesting to see if it spreads enough to affect the Rock-rose as that also seems to be increasing in size.
Excellent. Just found this from early 80’s. Think I sent u it ages ago?
Arkengarthdale Northern Marsh Orchids* from last week. *They measure up correctly and look the part, but I’m well aware of Orchid ID pit-falls so any corrections welcome.
A rather fine display of Common Rock-Rose near Fremington. I don’t think I’ve seen so many flowers on that colony before.
Have I ever shown you my Musk Thistle? The older I get, the more thistles fascinate me🤪
Help! Really struggling with this one. On the sandy banks (oft flooded) of an upland stream, but downstream from a village (I’m wondering wether it’s an escape)🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️ @bsbibotany.bsky.social @lawylwv.bsky.social
A few recent sightings in Swaledale… Dark-edged Bee fly, Birch Shield bug, Veined cup fungus and a False Puffball.
We flushed a Woodcock yesterday as we were planning some work today with vols. Anyway she was back on the nest today and here she is. We were working not too close by for an hour (min 30m away) and she never moved. Taken at 720mm 35mm equivalent on my old Panasonic compact.
It was a leaf-minery sort of dog walk yesterday. Two of the common Stigmella aurella (Golden Dot/Golden Pygmy) seen on Bramble leaves (underside pix reversed in case you were wondering).
Woodcock seen & heard ‘roding’ last evening in Fremington. I ran Merlin whilst out. It ‘heard’ Common Sand, which I didn’t, but the amplified recording sounds like one, but it failed to pick up the ‘booming bittern’ I kept hearing. I suppose it could have been wind over the top of the bottle? 😂
Amazing shot of some of the c10 raven seen ‘messing’ near Stang House earlier.😂