North Yorkshire, Sunday 23rd June 2024.

A full day to ourselves today before attending a Richard Ashcroft concert in Dalby Forest, saw us firstly travelling over to Filey and later Thornton-le-Dale.

A walk down the brigg after arriving at Filey saw few notable birds being seen apart from a single immature drake Eider, but plenty of action was enjoyed watching the local breeding seabirds.

A small number of Puffins were seen, along with larger numbers of Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills and also a few Gannets passed by offshore.

After enjoying our visit to Filey we travelled 30 miles inland to the chocolate box village of Thornton-le-Dale after enjoying some lovely food at the Grapes pub in Lebberston.

We walked our usual route around this picturesque little village taking in the iconic Beck Isle cottage and the lovely scenery around this cracking village.

The following are my favourite photos from our lovely day, all taken with my phone.

Filey Brigg.

Guillemots.

Razorbill.

Fulmars.

Beck Isle Cottage, Thornton-le-Dale.

Messingham Sand Quarries LWTR.......Sunday 16th June 2024.

After an abandoned trip to Chambers Wood due to the rubbish early morning weather, i decided to travel over to Messingham Sand Quarries and meet up with Dave there.

A chance meeting with Colin, saw the three of us covering the reserve together and finding a brilliant selection of insects, considering the weather conditions at times during the day.

I managed to find 2 confirmed new species for myself and Colin found me 1 also. They were Common Awl Robberfly, Stripe-legged Robberfly and the tiny Soldier Fly species Oplodontha viridulum or Common-green Colonel as it is also known.

Some cracking Hoverflies were also seen, with the best being some lovely examples of Chrysotoxum festivum, both Volucella Bombylans and pelluscens, Parhelophilus fruitetorum/versicolor, Anasimyia contracta and several Cheilosia illustrata.

Very few Butterflies were recorded on the visit, but i managed to find quite a few Brimstone Caterpillars which was encouraging and also a smart Vapourer Moth Caterpillar showed nicely.

Other assorted insects which i managed to take some nice photos of included Beetles, Golden-bloomed grey Longhorn, Garden Chafer, the beautifully metallic Swollen-thighed Beetle and Burying Beetle species Nicrophorus vespillo.

Fly encounters included the lovely Black Snipe Flies and a superb Figwort Sawfly.

Birds were a little thin on the ground on today's visit, but it was great to hear a Cuckoo singing away.

The following are my favourite photos from the day.

Brimstone Butterfly Caterpillar.

Vapourer Moth Caterpillar.

Hoverfly Sp. Volucella Bombylans Or Bumblebee Plumehorn

Hoverfly Sp. Anasimyia contracta Or Waisted Swamp Fly

Snail Killing Fly - Coremacera marginata

Golden-bloomed grey Longhorn Beetle.

The Stunning Figwort Sawfly.

Burying Beetle - Nicrophorus vespillo

What A Stunning Hoverfly, Chrysotoxum festivum Or Hook-banded Meadow Fly

The Diminutive Oplodontha viridulum Or Common-green Colonel, A New Species For Me.

The Stunningly Metallic Swollen-thighed Beetle - Oedemera nobilis.

Hoverfly Parhelophilus fruitetorum/versicolor

Garden Chafer.

Hoverfly Sp. Cheilosia illustrata Or Bumblebee Blacklet

Fourteen Spot Ladybird

Stripe-legged Robberfly, Another New Species For Myself.

Common Awl Robberfly, Another New Species!

Female Black Snipe Fly.

Male Black Snipe Fly

Burnsall To Grassington, 'The Dales Way', Sunday 9th June 2024.

Today saw us heading to the lovely Dales village of Burnsall after our overnight stay in Leeds to see the fantastic James in concert.

The weather forecast wasn't that great to be fair, but we stuck at it and arrived at a cloudy Burnsall and parked beside the lovely River Wharfe.

After packing the rucksack with our kit, we set off along this wonderful section of this famous river.

It soon became apparent that we were not the only people out today, with several groups of walkers heading in both directions to and from Grassington.

This walk really has some great features from the dramatic Loupe Scar were the River Wharfe has carved a gorge through the landscape, to the superb bridge at Hebden and the fantastic rapids and waterfalls at Linton. It soon becomes a realisation why this walk is so popular and  this coupled with some great wildlife and birds makes it a no brainer for us and is one of our most favourite walks.

Today's highlights along the river bird wise included only a single Dipper at Linton, along with a female Goosander with a whopping brood of 10 ducklings, a couple of Spotted Flycatcher, Garden Warbler, Green Woodpecker, Red Kite and a new species for me along here, a Little-ringed Plover.

On the same flash as the LRP at Linton it was really great to see a newly fledged Redshank with its parents.

A stop at Grassington for some well earned lunch before the return leg in slightly warmer conditions, saw us again completing this brilliant walk.

The following are my favourite photos from our day along this beautiful part of the Dales.

Burnsall Bridge

Grassington Bridge

Linton Falls

Loupe Scar

Hebden.