Thanks to the efforts of local moth enthusiasts data is being collected from #ForgeValleyWoods NNR this spring, with a successful trapping night this week resulting in 198 moths of 21 species, inc. 73 Common Quaker, 33 Water Carpet, 8 Oak Beauty, 6 Satellite & a noteworthy Red Sword-grass 🦋
Thanks to your fantastic support and the sales, this money will help the Friends of the #LDV to deliver more for birds (and other wildlife) that use the reserve. If you're yet to purchase a copy but would still like one, please contact Lucy.Murgatroyd@naturalengland.org.uk 📖 @yorkbirding.bsky.social
On Tuesday the rest of the team visited Applefields School in York to help plant over 400 saplings to improve the school grounds and help with our wider '#naturerecovery...we can’ project in the local parishes - huge thanks to our incredible team who are simply invaluable 🤩
Great day on Tuesday with our team working at #SkipwithCommon NNR to help the estates team from Escrick Park tidy up Sands Lane car park area and carry out the annual clean up of the cattle grids. Many thanks as always to our fantastic team for their efforts 👏👏👏👏
A Shelduck colour-ringed by our team (from a cannon-net catch at Bank Island on the 26th January this year) was photographed at Braunschweig, Germany last week – an interesting rapid easterly movement in contrast to most of our other resightings @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Recently we welcomed the Natural England leadership teams from the north of England to our NNR Base, which provided a great opportunity to showcase our work in the #LDV NNR and surrounding area, as well as looking at how our new Community Hub will further enable #NatureRecovery in the wider area 🐦
New sighting of a colour-ringed #LDV Shelduck just in – a first year male (ringed at Bank Island in March 2023) has moved north-west and has been seen at Grimsargh Wetland, Lancashire - yet another movement across to Lancashire and the west @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Whooper Swan spring passage continues through the #LDV with another large movement on Monday evening and Tuesday morning (a total of 1,200+ birds have now been recorded moving through the site since the 1st March) with flocks of Pink-feet also on the move north-west @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Incredibly, the 1993 influx peaked on the 5th March (just a day later), so it may be that birds are concentrating together before departing back to the continent. Numbers in 1993 quickly declined after the peak, with the last 27 remaining on the 15th. Interesting to see what happens next... 👀
Amazing movement or concentration of White-fronted Geese in the #LDV yesterday afternoon, with 1,310 in or over the East Cottingwith area (840 on the deck and 470 over) at 17:00, whilst 500+ (a conservative count) were present at the same time at North Duffield Carrs @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Our team also enjoyed a visit from Jean today and were fortunate to get a glimpse of an orphaned badger cub who is presently in rehab with Jean, until it is weaned, when it will then move to a specialist badger centre, before being released back into the wild later in the year 🦡🤩
The first two Avocets of the year were present at North Duffield Carrs on Tuesday, bringing the total number of bird species recorded around the #LDV to a rather impressive 141 since the turn of the year - thank you as always to everyone who sends in records and counts 🐦 @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Incredible numbers of Whooper Swans present in the #LDV today with 527 recorded this morning + the two Bewick’s Swans lingering from yesterday. Still 500+ White-fronted Geese and 24+ Tundra Beans also present (best looked for from the viewing platform in Thorganby) 🪶 @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Great to be able to get back on to Wheldrake Ings now that water levels have dropped. Absolute wader fest, with 60 Black-tailed Godwits, 200 Dunlin, 9 Ruff, 500 Lapwings and 100 Golden Plovers. A male Merlin zipped through, Chiffchaff singing and two Coot back on the ings. @yorkbirding.bsky.social
This week new signs have been installed around the #LDV by our Responsible Recreation Officer, & with large numbers of wintering birds present & many breeding birds returning, keeping to the Public Rights of Way, controlling dogs & respecting sensitive areas is very important 🦆
Fantastic day on Tuesday with our team of volunteers who were hard at work in the #LDV putting the finishing touches to our new Corncrake pens - huge thank you to our incredible team for all the effort put in to this task, & all the others - helping to make the site as good as it is 👏
We're pleased to say that our new #LDV NNR Volunteer, Community & Nature Recovery Science Hub is coming along nicely now, ahead of completion (June all being well), & the view from the new viewing area on the roof is simply fantastic (& includes a wet weather covered area 😎) @yorkbirding.bsky.social
This week our volunteer team have also been busy removing some of the boardwalk around the NNR Base Garden as we upgrade the access to a new surfaced path (ahead of the new access path opening from the car park to the new NNR Base) - apologies for any short-term disruption 🪚🔨🪛
Treecreepers have been showing well around the hedgerows at North Duffield Carrs (between the hides and around the car park area) recently, and whilst the wintering waterfowl will always be the key attraction, it's also nice to enjoy the antics of this species and others from the bird hides 📸
It's also been a good winter for both Siskin and Redpoll in the local area, especially the lowland heath and birch woodland of #SkipwithCommon NNR and the canal side alders along the Pocklington Canal. Thanks to Andrew Woodcock for these lovely images taken last week in his Wheldrake garden 📸
Interesting to hear several overwintering Blackcaps are still present around the #LDV and surrounding area, but these will no doubt be moving off soon as we get ready to see the first returning summer migrants arrive next month. Thanks to @stuartmash.bsky.social for the fantastic image 📸
Over the last couple of days we’ve seen the start of the annual spring return migration of Whoopers Swans commence in the #LDV - no doubt in response to the milder temperatures, with three herds (totalling 127 birds) passing over the NNR Base on Tuesday @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Spring is on the way... exciting to get a record from one of our volunteers of the first male Brimstone on the wing at #SkipwithCommon NNR on Monday morning (six days earlier than last year) with a White-tailed Bumblebee also seen there 🐝
Following a record of a Brimstone on Monday, the first Adder for the year was recorded by our team on #SkipwithCommon NNR on Tuesday (one of our earliest sightings) - great news given an apparent decline at this site over recent years 🐍
Thanks to @ollie333.bsky.social for his help in organising this demonstration, with the evening then finishing with catching and colour-ringing two Dunlin at Bubwith Bridge. Great to also hear the first four chipping Snipe of the year and the first drumming individual @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Nice to host a group of Bishop Burton students yesterday afternoon/into the evening – looking at our ringing and tracking projects to help understand and inform site management and functionally linked land, and which delivery tools to use where in helping #NatureRecovery 🐦
Great WeBS_UK count at the weekend throughout the #LDV with 25,500 wildfowl and 12,000 waders recorded, inc. incredible numbers of geese (6,423 Pink-feet, 679 White-fronts, 42 Tundra Beans and 11 Barnacles) + 208 Whooper Swans @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Quieter for ducks on our WeBS_UK count at the weekend (due to a large reduction in Teal to just 5,000), with 10,000 Wigeon, 140 Pochard and 700 Pintail all noteworthy, & it was nice to see the long-staying drake Scaup lingering (present at Aughton during the count) @yorkbirding.bsky.social
It's been a great winter for Lapwing throughout the #LDV (10,024 present at the weekend during our WeBS_UK count), & whilst a Turnstone was a bit of a surprise, 595 Black-tailed Godwits follows the recent trend for rapidly expanding numbers in early spring @yorkbirding.bsky.social
Whilst the #LDV remains extensively flooded, we're pleased to report water levels are now starting to recede (dropped over a foot in the last week), with Wheldrake Ings to Tower Hide almost passable in wellies, and access to Bank Island is likely to be possible later in the week 🥾🥾
