Yorkshire Wolds & Tophill Low

I thought I would try somewhere different this weekend so I headed out to the Yorkshire Wolds with the aim of photographing some brown hares.I thought I would head out to Thixendale first then just drift round the minor roads using the car as a hide.
The first thing that struck me was how narrow the roads were and how much repair work needs to be done! I was ok with this though because the poor quality of the roads meant less traffic-and so it proved I must only have seen half a dozen cars all day.
The second thing that struck me was the amount of pheasants and red legged partridges that were around-in stark contrast to the complete lack of any grey partridges.
At first the hares were a little difficult to find, eventually though I did manage to see a few and a couple were close encounters.
No real sign of any 'boxing' however there were a couple of minor skirmishes.
I also managed most of the obligatory Wold bird species including red kite, buzzard, yellowhammer, marsh tit, lapwing and green woodpecker.
I had a drive down to Allerthorpe Woods in the hope of an adder but the cool breeze and fleeting sunshine did not make for ideal conditions.I retraced my steps on the way home but most of the wildlife had gone to ground in the afternoon.
On Sunday I headed for Tophill Low in the hope of an otter, so was up early and I did get distracted by more hares on the way but they remained distant although the early morning light made for good photographic opportunities.
Unfortunately the otters did not make a show (I began to regret not going for adders) but did have some compensation in the form of a very vocal and confiding chiff-chaff.In the warm early morning sunshine and amongst the willow buds the male chuff-chaff was proclaiming his newly claimed territory, this was early Spring epitomized for for a few fleeting minutes all was good in the world.

Starling Murmuration

Just browsing through some photos from earlier this winter-this murmuration at Brough was quite dramatic until the floods came....

North and East Yorkshire

I had a trip up to North Yorkshire yesterday, initially I hoped to photograph waders at dawn but the fog scuppered that idea.A very brief visit to the car park at Holbeck yielded the usual mediterranean gull and a visit to the harbour only resulted in a single turnstone.

On then to Forge Valley and the usual and very co-operative selection of common woodland birds did not let me down although fog again was an issue for most of the morning.

I was very pleased with a close encounter with a treecreeper as well as great spotted woodpecker-two species whereby a photograph is not always guaranteed here.

I really wanted a nice shot of a marsh tit but unfortunately they were not so co-operative.

I then popped for an hour to the raptor watchpoint at Wykeham. There were a few distant buzzards, bullfinch and a large hawk that may or may not have been a goshawk but on the whole it was a bit quiet.

Last port of call was Tophill Low. I headed for the North Marsh Hide with the hope of a view of an otter. Unfortunately there were none, but I did see roe deer, grey squirrel and rabbit.I did get a very fleeting glimpse of a kingfisher and heard very vocal tawny owls in the nearby wood.

I don't know if its been an exceptional year for snowdrops (usually I don't really notice) but they seem to have been around for ages.

With an hour of light left I headed for the EA hide at Watton, nice light made for nice conditions, here there was plenty of common wildfowl-the highlight being a single pintail.

All in all avery long and very enjoyable early Spring day.

Red Squirrels

Its been a while since I last posted some photos but a reduction in workload, change in circumstances and a renewed enthusiasm has given me the kick up the backside I needed to continue posting photos and stories of wildlife in Yorkshire.
I have widened my horizons from birds to a more extended view of the natural world.
With that in mind I finally got myself up to Hawes today and the excellent red squirrel viewing site managed by Sarah and Simon Phillpott.
I had read and heard about it but when I got there it was even better than I was expecting, the set up there is fantastic, the squirrels are most obliging and the constant servicing of the feeders and general attendance by Simon to maximize the experience was first class.
As for the squirrels, there must have been at least a dozen with some of the bold individuals actually coming into the hide.
I took literally hundreds of photos and the dramatic weather only added to the day.
I would recommend a visit by anyone remotely interested in wildlife, this is a truly special place.
Simon can be contacted at Wild Dales Photography.Some of the many images below.

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