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Wildlife Sightings - January 2015
Tue 3rd Feb, 2015
January brought the first really cold conditions of the winter. By mid-month there was snow on the Yorkshire Wolds and in the North York Moors National Park. Winds picked up at the month end with a gale force northerly battering the coast.
Mammals
This month was all about Water Voles with some great sightings made by Mark, Nick and Dan at a number of sites in North Yorkshire. January is an unreliable time to observe Water Voles owing to regular prolonged periods of inactivity associated with cold weather and fluctuating water levels, so this was an unexpected pleasure! Red Foxes were regularly observed in mating activity during daylight hours. Brown Hares were also regularly seen with some chasing just starting, a sure sign that mating and boxing will follow. Offshore, Harbour Porpoises were showing well from Marine Drive in Scarborough.
Water Vole © Dan Lombard
Birds
New Year’s Day saw hundreds of birders descending on Fraisthorpe as the Little Bustard found the previous day continued to show. That was by far the rarest bird of the month.
Corn Bunting © Richard Baines
So what do you do if you’re a snowbound Yellowhammer? Head for the coast! Specially provided arable crops for farmland birds are incredibly important at this time of year. At Buckton a large flock of hungry buntings massed, with many Reed Buntings, 175 Yellowhammers, 80 Twite, 30 Corn Buntings and six Lapland Buntings. Also in attendance were three Short-eared Owls. The best place for Snow Buntings was the trig point at Wold Newton, where 50 were seen!
Short-eared Owl © Mark Thomas
This has been a very poor winter for Waxwings but there were five sightings of one at Filey and Scarborough, two singles at Spurn and two birds at Flamborough. For anyone who still has not seen the Rough-legged Buzzard at Grindale it was still there at the end of the month, while up in the North Yorkshire Forests Goshawks were starting to display. Spurn is a great place to see Dark-bellied Brent Geese in the winter and in January 600 were noted along with a small number of Pale-bellied and a rare Black Brant all the way from Alaska! Five Tundra Bean Geese travelled the coast early in the month, increasing to 16 at Wykeham Lakes by the month end. Arctic gulls were present in small numbers with a single Glaucous Gull visiting Filey and Flamborough and an Iceland Gull at South Landing, Flamborough early in the month.
No less than 1200 Gannets were observed on one day late in the month, 600 of which were diving for food just offshore at Flamborough! This was a large number for January, when usually only a few are seen daily. The ‘toughest bird’ trophy should go to the Richard’s Pipit which continued its winter stay at Hayburn Wyke close to the Cleveland Way. Its normal winter range is India!
Reptiles and Amphibians
This is a poor month for reptiles and amphibians along the Yorkshire Coast, making any January sighting a good result. A single juvenile Common Frog mid-way through the month was the only species recorded by the YCN and Wold Ecology team but certainly a welcome addition to the year list. Adult Common Frogs typically emerge from hibernation before juveniles as they prepare to mate. In particularly warm years breeding can occur as early as February in our area.
Common Frog © Dan Lombard
Winter Moth female © Dan Lombard
Invertebrates
Insects are mostly tucked away in January, especially with the cold wet weather we have had of late. Highlights this month included several Winter Moths and hibernating Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock butterflies. Yet another Glow-worm larva in the Vale of Pickering added to the good numbers we recorded towards the end of 2014 (indicating a good breeding season!) and we noted a whole host of slugs, snails, spiders and springtails, the highlights of which are shown in our photos.
Glow-worm larva © Dan Lombard
Amaurobius fenestralis spider © Dan Lombard
Dicyrtomina saundersi springtail © Dan Lombard
Fungi
January is not a great month for fungi and despite looking hard we only turned up a small number of species. The gloriously named White Brain Fungus appeared in large numbers across a range of sites.
White Brain Jelly Fungus © Dan Lombard
For more info on wildlife sightings up and down the coast and in the nearby Yorkshire Wolds and North York Moors National Park, check out the following websites:
North York Moors National Park