One of these days I will see a Redstart, but not on this visit. I did spend a while rocking from side to side trying to see a Garden Warbler that was just beyond the trees in front of me but no luck. I did get good views of a Willow Warbler though.
The header image is of a flock of Greylag Geese on Swinsty Reservoir.
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Stainburn Forest
So far, on these visits to Stainburn Forest, I have not run into, or been run into by, a cyclist. I have tried making sense of the noticeboard at the car park and as far as I can tell walking through the forest is OK. There could be a problem if someone on a bike comes down the tracks without screaming their head off in fear. Would I hear them and be able to move to the side? If I didn’t would they move to the side? I could imagine that if they did move to the side that they would be airborne for a few seconds before meeting trees or rocks. Painful. But the worst situation would be if I didn’t move out of the way and they didn’t. In that case it would be painful for me.
The Large Red Damselflies have two different colourings on the thorax and the one with the yellow thorax has diamonds within diamonds in the wingtip markings. I think the yellow thorax means it is a female.
I have now seen a couple of decent sized beetles in the forest. A large Sexton Beetle on a previous visit and this Scarab Beetle which could be a Chafer of some kind. I am safe with Scarab, apparently there are only 35,000 varieties world wide.
The wasp is a Ruby-tailed parasitic wasp. The two photos show it going into and then coming out of what is probably the nest hole made by a solitary bee. It will be looking for a host for its eggs.
Swinsty Reservoir
After the walk up and down some of the cycle tracks at Stainburn Forest I had a walk all the way round Swinsty Reservoir. The most noticeable thing about the walk was how low the water was. The anglers were a good distance in from what I would think has been the water’s edge in the past.
When I was near the anglers I heard, and then saw, a small bird flying along the water’s edge. After a while I was able to find it amongst some of the rocks. It was calling quite loudly – a Common Sandpiper. When I hid behind some bushes it quietened down, but as soon as I moved it started up again so I guessed it was telling fledged birds to keep hidden.
When I was near the YWA building I heard Sandpiper again and this time saw little fluffy fledglings run from cover to cover.
I have sent a message to YWA about the flashing missing off Fewston Reservoir House. Hopefully the roof of the bay gets covered again or the water damage will be significant.
Just round the corner from the house, and back on the path, I spotted a doll high up in a tree. What I noticed first was the fungus on the tree. My eyes then followed it up until I saw the doll. Spooky.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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