Windy spring day at Allerthorpe

A windy day, the tail of storm Freya, but mostly sunny and mild. I head to Allerthorpe Common. Walking through the bridleway Siskins call and upon reaching the broad area where the pylons run a cheerful chipping call alerts me to a large flock of Crossbills, more than 25. They move to a group of tall scots pines, but I manage some shots of them feeding. I came across them several times, once them sitting on birches, with males singing.

Female Crossbill.

Male Crossbill.

Singing male with female. Part of the flock, that kept together moving around.

Male Crossbill.

Although not focused, I love the contrast of the red rump of this male crossbill and the background on this shot.

A Tawny owl hooted twice at about noon. Walked to the north side of the reserve on the glade with the electricity pylons. There had been some removal of gorse and other vegetation, but I kept watch for sunbathing adders.
 I returned the same way and entered the small YWT reserve. There were lots of minotaur beetle exit holes on the ground, and just next to one I saw a beetle! I jumped for joy only to realise it was dead!

Minotaur beetle nest hole.

And the dead Minotaur beetle female. Some marks in the elythra suggest predation, and it feels like an empty shell, maybe only the abdomen contents (eggs?) predated.

I got to the largest pond in the heath. There was a large congregation of spawning frogs, males squabbling for females and a lot of spawn. I estimate several hundreds of frogs were there.

Frogs spawning.

A small area of the spawning aggregation.

View of the pond.

 Although the heath is not a very large area, I walked carefully on the narrow paths made by the grazing sheep in the summer keeping my eyes peeled for adders. In a clearing, on the shelter of a patch of heather an adder was basking. I slowly lay down to her eye level. And took some shots. My binoculars made a rustling noise and the adder slithered into the heather.

Adder.

I waited a few minutes and the adder slowly came out. I managed a short video before it disappeared for good.

I came across this frog near the pond.

A view of the heath, with a few large pine trees and birch.

There are three owl boxes fixed onto the trees. They appear to be in use. Underneath the one above I found this lovely mound of owl pellets. I will update once I find out what's in them.

Barn owl pellets.

A view of the heath.

I had heard the contact call of Siskins, and later I came across Redpolls and Siskins on the birch trees, singing with some Goldfinches.

A male Redpoll

Siskin.

Marsh Tit with food.