The first week of June was really cold and grey after returning from Cyprus the weather took some getting used to -I think I have water in my veins instead of blood! As such not a lot of birding was done this week. On the 7th June my birding mate Alf and I tried for Turtle Dove and Cuckoo in Cropton Forest but we failed miserably on both counts!! Time for a change of venue; Dalby Forest our first stop was Pexton Bank where we scored immediately with a new bird for the year Tree Pipit and a rather scarce bird for the area Willow Tit our luck was changing!! Next stop was a walk around the old visitor centre in Dalby village. Again scoring with Great Spotted Woodpecker, Dipper, beautiful male Grey Wagtail, Nuthatch and Treecreeper. On the way back to the car a Buzzard soared overhead which was immediately set on by two Carrion Crows; one crow left after a few seconds however the other one constantly mobbed the buzzard as it soared overhead. What followed next was a brilliant 5 minute ‘dogfight’ between the two birds. Eventually the Buzzard was fed up with the constant harassment from the crow and it powered into the forest leaving behind its victorious opponent.
The weather was now gorgeous and warm too!! I think this weather is now sending the local Swifts bonkers. Good numbers over the house incredibly low and so noisy…. really brilliant to see as they loop and glide over the house roofs just inches sometimes above the ridges; amazing speed and aerodynamics … just got to get a picture!!!
13th June: Putting a sighting in your notebook and referring back to it, can and does pay dividends; case in point I remembered seeing a Barn Owl back in February off one of the back roads in Pickering and as it was such a nice evening tonight I thought I would pay a return visit.Little did I know where this was to lead!! So I got set up and sure enough the Barn Owl appeared I got some pictures – but at a great distance. So instead of shooting in poor light I watched the owl to try and understand where the owl’s flight path was and the time the adult bird spent away from the nest. From the observations I made , I decided there were 3 possible routes … two were inaccessible as they went over private land and to get good shots I would have to get close to the nest site – which obviously I wanted to avoid. So I thought I would return the following evening and try my luck again from the same spot , but this time I would ‘hide’ and keep fingers crossed the owl would fly virtually parallel with me but in better light.
14th June: My Mrs and I had a drive over to Scampston Gardens today there were a few Black tailed Skimmers on the top lake.However, the bottom lake had good numbers of 4 Spotted Chasers and Emperors. Some females were ovipositing and it was quite nice to get some close shots of them as they settled on small pieces of lakeside vegetation… photographing them in flight was another story my shots were disastrous … back to the drawing board.
Sadly the pair of Mute Swans that had 7 cygnets back in May were now down to just two cygnets…..whether these losses were due to predation or weather conditions we won’t know … I’m just hoping these two youngsters survive the next few months. This evening I made another attempt to photograph the Barn Owl, unfortunately the bird chose one of the inaccessible routes back to the nest on an earlier hunt …. but unfortunately on a second hunting trip, he did fly past my concealed position but by this time the sun had gone down and the images were far too grainy!! The joys of photographing wildlife!!! Ahh well try again tomorrow.
15th June: the weather was really hot today easily approaching 80 in the back garden; lots of bee activity today! So it was a good excuse to get the macro lens out and try for some bee flight shots.Well it was an interesting exercise – but after some trial and error I found the best solution was to shoot with the camera attached to my monopod and any crazy angles were compensated for in post editing!! Out of all the flowers in the garden the bees and hoverflies loved the Canterbury Bells and Geraniums!!
This evening I tried for the Barn Owl again; I was so successful the Barn Owl actually flew over my head which was no good for photography at all: but I did manage some flanking shots as I frantically broke cover – I don’t know who was more surprised the owl or myself!! Needless to say the owl never came back this route during this evening’s session!!The next few nights were not good for photography, but I wanted to give the owl some breathing space anyway after the the other nights excitement!! 20th June was another perfect night for some evening photography, but I thought I would try another site on the southern edge of town after hearing reports of Barn Owl being seen here too. But despite a 3 hour stakeout no owls were seen, however a gorgeous Brown Hare came ambling past and sat right in front of me bathed by evening light it was brilliant to spend a few minutes with this gorgeous animal before he wandered off.
21st June:what a brilliant session with the Barn Owl tonight !! I arrived quite early as the light was so good – if the owl used this route tonight it would be perfect … an hour passed and then YESS!! The owl was flying right across the field towards me … stay low … check focus … heart beating fast … breathe… and shoot ….. and for a glorious 10 seconds it just sailed past perfectly lit…. A week’s careful stakeout had come together with some great shots !! I was elated to spend some precious minutes with such a gorgeous bird – brilliant!!!
24th June; what a day spent ‘shooting’ Common Swifts from the back garden!!! The local Swifts I think were trying to copy the Red Arrows today as we had some absolutely amazing ‘fly-bys’ in the garden today and they were screaming too – what a racket!!! Trying to keep up with them though was a different story all together, after a few hundred shots and many blurs I did manage some recognisable images … just!!!
Unfortunately the last few days of June were not good and we got quite a bit of rain; however what a great month … Lets hope July is warm and dry so we can get out and enjoy some more wildlife encounters !!
