On a bright sunny morning, at the invitation of Simon and Nicky Johnson, 15 members gathered at High Mires, Hartoft. The focus of the meeting was to be birds but we would look to record other taxa along the way.
Two loops were planned for the day. First, a morning walk across grazing pasture, through birch scrub, along a conifer woodland edge and crossing Hartoft Beck. This produced a good variety of farmland and woodland birds, including Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher.
After a picnic lunch back at High Mires the afternoon loop headed up on to
the open moor where we saw Stonechat and Wheatear, but the highlight was a Red
Kite circling overhead.
On both walks Green Hairstreak butterflies were noted wherever we found
Bilberry. The sunny sheltered conifer plantation edge produced a number of
other butterflies.
Many thanks to Simon and Nicola for leading us round and refreshing our thirst back at their farmhouse.
[Ed.] We found over 160 plant species on the day, and I'm sure we would have missed some, and seen others at different times of the year.
Note you can scroll down the list . I have made this as a spreadsheet so we can add Hartoft species to it later.
Meadow Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Cuckoo
Willow Warbler
Chiffchaff
Blackcap
Garden Warbler
Goldcrest
Redstart
Spotted Flycatcher
Skylark
Reed Bunting
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Goldfinch
Siskin
Linnet
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Marsh Tit
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Nuthatch
Wren
Blackbird
Mistle Thrush
Robin
Stonechat
Wheatear
Starling
Jay
Carrion Crow
Collared Dove
Stock Dove
Wood Pigeon
Red Grouse
Pheasant
Red-legged Partridge
Herring Gull
Black-headed Gull
Lapwing
Curlew
Golden Plover
Oystercatcher
Snipe
Barn Swallow
Red Kite
Buzzard
Sparrow Hawk
Kestrel
House Martin
Jackdaw
Barn Owl
Butterflies:
Green Hairstreak
Green-veined White
Orange-tip
Peacock
Small Copper
Small Tortoiseshell
Small White
Speckled Wood
Moths:
Brown Silver-lines
Common Heath
Latticed Heath
Roe deer
| © Ryedale Natural History Society 2019, Photos © Gill Smith and Keith Gittens 2019 |