Monthly Archives: May 2023

Todays plan was to head down to Old Moor to catch up on some Dragonfly action, Old Moor seemed to be having a good start. An early start it was with a stop off around Langsett Reservoir, a local site within the HBW recording area, arrived at about 6am to the sound of Blackbirds, Robin, Blackcaps, and Song Thrush. Out of the car park and on down to the dam wall, picking up on Canada Goose and Mallards on route. Along the dam wall I found, a couple of Pied Wagtails and four Common Sandpipers, a photo stop off, a few Black headed Gulls were about and a distant call of a Cuckoo on the moors.

Down at my first site, Chaffinch were noisy, along with a couple of Chiffchaff, took a while to find a Spotted Flycatcher, Blue Tits were the ones using the various nest boxes, not the birds i was looking for. Great Tits were seen, Oystercatcher at this point was a heard only, and a Roe Deer was a nice encounter.

On the way back to the car Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush were looking for food in one of the fields, a nice opportunity to see them together. Back along the dam wall, Common Sandpipers were still about along with the Pied Wagtails, nearer to the car park Dunnock and Greenfinch were in the surrounding tress, with a Collard Dove flying around and a Wren bursting out its song in a nearby bush, a Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker in the car park. A three hour visit, it was time for breakfast at the nearby Bank View café, before my journey down to Old Moor, to chase the Dragons.

It was 10am when I arrived at Old Moor. It was still a bit chilly, I was hoping for it to get a bit warmer for me to be able to find the quarry I’d come for today.

It took a while to find what I was looking for, but eventually, I found a few Damselflies near the Bittern Shelter. Common Blue, Azure, Blue tailed and Large Red Damselflies, all in one area. Around the pools, there was no action at all, so I came around and down to the Bittern hide, finding a pair of Azure Damselfly on the approach path, photo stop. There was a small area of teed just off the path , here, there were a couple of Four spotted Chasers , doing what Chasers do, a photo opportunity, they were close in, around here there was also an obliging male Holly Blue Butterfly.

I had another look around the pools, I drew a blank. I then decided to move on down to Wath Ings to see the Black winged Stilts. On my way down, I stopped off at the Toyota platform to look for Red eyed Damselfly. They were easy to find, resting on the nearby lily pads.

I moved on, then took in the new pathway down to Wath Ings, hoping for Hairy Dragonfly on route. Sadly, no Dragonfly about, I did find a Garden Warbler.

Plenty of birds from the Wath Ings hide, including the pair of Black winged Stilts, but at a distance.

After Wath Ings, I was soon back on the pools looking for dragonflies again. I found somemore Four Spotted Chasers on a different pool, along with very brief views of Hairy Dragonfly and a female Broad Bodied Chaser.

A successful day with my Dragonfly targets meet, let down early morning with the target bird species

Langsett List : Blackbird, Blackcap, Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Canada Goose , Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collard Dove, Common Sandpiper, Cuckoo, Curlew, Dunnock, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Long tailed Tit, Mallard, Mistle Thrush, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Song Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Treecreeper, Willow Warbler, Woodpigeon, Wren

Old Moor Bird List :- Avocet, Bittern, Blackbird, Black winged Stilt, Canada Goose, Crow, Cettis Warbler, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Dunnock, Gadwall, Garden Warbler, Goldfinch, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Jay, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black backed Gull, Little Grebe, Mallard, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pied Wagtail, Pochard, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Robin, Shelduck, Shoveler, Starling, Tufted Duck, Woodpigen

Butterflies :- Brimstone, Common Blue, Dingy Skipper, Holly Blue, Small Heath, Speckled Wood

Dragonflies :- Azure Damselfly, Blue tailed Damselfly, Broad bodied Chaser, Common Blue Damselfly, Hairy Dragonfly, Large Red Damselfly, Red eyed Damselfly

The end of May usually sees me starting to have a visit out to Bullcliffe nature reserve to find various butterfly species, a good place for Dingy Skipper.

My first impression was how overthrown things had become, and was nothing near the reserve I remember so many years back, I know nobody sends to take responsibility for this tiny reserve anymore, think it used to be Wakefield Council at one time

I headed up to the favourite spot for butterflies and was soon onto my first Dingy Skipper and soon picked up a few more too, numbers looked good. No other butterflies were seen in this spot, but I did pick up a single Small Heath near the old car parking spot.

Other highlights were a single Common Blue Damselfly, something I hadn’t seen here for a number of years. The pond area was well overgrown.

Well, it was good to find good numbers of Dingy Skipper. I’m looking forward to my next visit.

Another fine day, so I another visit to the local ponds, hopefully to get some shots of Four Spotted Chaser.

Plenty of Large Red and Azure Damselfly on the first two ponds I visited, but no larger Dragonfly on the favourite second pond. So I tried the third pond where there isn’t usually any action, but it was cleared last year of ingrowing vegetation. A single Four Spotted Chaser was patrolling the pond and landing, and I was able to take a good selection of photos. Here also was a single Blue tailed Damselfly.

Other wildlife of note was very little. Birds noted were Willow Warbler, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Green Woodpecker, and Common Whitethroat

Back out to the local ponds, and I could see at the first pond encountered that there was now a good showing of Azure Damselfly about, with these were a few Large Red Damselfly.

I was hoping now that I could find some larger Dragonfly about, so I moved on to the larger ponds, and as I was making my way thru the brambles, I inadvertently put up a Four Spotted Chaser, as it took flight I watched were it came down, and of course, it became inaccessible, and to far for the camera.

So I moved into the larger of the ponds, and here I found more Azure and Large Red Damselfly, no action over the water, so I looked in the surrounding vegetation, finally picking up a couple of Four Spotted Chaser, out of reach and in bad positions for the camera, but the season was underway.

Bird highlights included a Green Woodpecker, Whitethroat, Swallow, Blackcap, Long tailed Tit, and hearing Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.

Butterfly highlights were Holly Blue and the first Small Heath of the year.

Other highlights included Hairy Shieldbugs and a few Helophilus pendulus hoverfly

A family holiday to Seahouses up on the Northumberland coast, 4 nights 5 days,  a chance to go around the Farne islands, but no landing this year, due to the bird flu.

Seahouses Harbour holds a good-sized flock of Eider at high tide, giving great photo opportunities, coming in really close.

Around the headland at Seahouses breeding Fulmar, Kittiwakes and Sand Martins could be seen, with plenty of Swallows, Starling, House Sparrow, and Herring Gull. On the rocky areas, I found a male and female Wheatear on one occasion, my first of the year. On another day, I found a small flock of Ringed Plover and a single Whimbrel as it took flick, giving off its distinctive whistle call as it flew overhead.

Sandwich Terns, Oystercatcher, Shag, Swifts, House Martins, Pied Wagtails, we’re just a few species I found around the Seahouses Harbour.

We had a boat trip around the Farne islands on one afternoon, an hour and a half in total, no landing, to see the usual seabirds and seals. Guillemots, Razorbill, Shag, Puffin, Arctic Terns, Kittiwakes, and seals were all easily seen from the boat.

Bird List:- Arctic Tern, Blackbird, Black headed Gull, Blue Tit, Canada Goose, Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Collard Dove, Common Gull, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar, Gannet, Goldfinch, Goosander, Great Black backed Gull, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Guillemot, Herring Gull, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Kittiwake, Lesser Black backed Gull, Linnet, Magpie, Mallard, Meadow Pipit, Mute Swan, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Puffin, Razorbill, Red legged Partridge, Redshank, Ringed Plover, Robin, Rock Dove/Feral Pigeon, Rook, Sand Martin, Sandwich Tern, Shag, Skylark, Starling, Stock Dove, Swallow, Swift, Turnstone, Wheatear, Whimbrel, Whitethroat, Woodpigeon (57)

Another visit out to my local ponds, hopefully to get the Dragonfly season off to a start.

Birds of note today were Common Whitethroat, new in, Willow Warbler, a few House Martins going thru, with Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

A couple of butterfly species now with Holly Blue and Orange tip, alas no small health.

No large dragonflies about yet, and it took me a while to find my first Large Red Damselflies, now the season begins.