Great to have Froglife back in the #LDV again this week running another Great Crested Newt training course, held between our NNR Base at Bank Island (theory session) and #SkipwithCommon NNR at dusk for the fieldwork - nice to see both NNRs being used for training and learning.

Great two days with Froglife last week between our #LDV NNR Base and #SkipwithCommon - as part of their annual Great Crested Newt training courses, which involved a classroom/theory session first, followed by an evening and early morning fieldwork session on the Common 🔦

Fascinating little creatures! Now appearing on the wing throughout the area on warm sunny days - keep your eyes peeled, especially on #SkipwithCommon NNR around the bomb bay loop 👀

Great day on Tuesday with our team working at #SkipwithCommon NNR to help the estates team from Escrick Park tidy up Sands Lane car park area and carry out the annual clean up of the cattle grids. Many thanks as always to our fantastic team for their efforts 👏👏👏👏

It's also been a good winter for both Siskin and Redpoll in the local area, especially the lowland heath and birch woodland of #SkipwithCommon NNR and the canal side alders along the Pocklington Canal. Thanks to Andrew Woodcock for these lovely images taken last week in his Wheldrake garden 📸

Following a record of a Brimstone on Monday, the first Adder for the year was recorded by our team on #SkipwithCommon NNR on Tuesday (one of our earliest sightings) - great news given an apparent decline at this site over recent years 🐍

Spring is on the way... exciting to get a record from one of our volunteers of the first male Brimstone on the wing at #SkipwithCommon NNR on Monday morning (six days earlier than last year) with a White-tailed Bumblebee also seen there 🐝

Great to welcome a second team from FPCR Ecology to the #LDV and #SkipwithCommon NNR last week, to help with this winters ongoing work programme in maintaining the open heathland areas. Many thanks to everyone for their fantastic efforts 👏👏 - in rather poor conditions! 🌧️🌧️

Our latest BTO ringing recoveries inc. a young Chiffchaff ringed at #SkipwithCommon NNR (presumably on passage) on 01/09/25, which was then controlled by ringers just 24 days later, 701 km away in Trunvel, Treogat, Finistère, France @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Earlier in the week our team were busy carrying on with our heathland management work on #SkipwithCommon NNR, this time supported by staff from FPCR Ecology - with time also spent looking for and finding evidence of Water Voles.

Another great day last week with our team of volunteers hard at work on #SkipwithCommon NNR - carrying on with our winter scrub programme. Nice to see good numbers of Redpoll still present on the Common, with Green Woodpeckers, Jays and Woodcock also seen @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Thanks to our keen local moth recorder Darren for sending us these interesting records this week from #SkipwithCommon NNR - despite the weather! Rather amazing, and just shows what can be found even in these conditions ❄️🦋

Our volunteer team from #SkipwithCommon NNR this week included Rowan and Bethan (both previous school placement students who have chosen to re-join the team again this year), new recruit Ruby, and long-term #LDV team member Rox Vassie, who were all hard at work clearing birch and Scots pine regen 🌲

Great to have our fantastic team back together and back out on the reserve again this week following the Christmas and New Year break, with work undertaken at both #SkipwithCommon and #ForgeValleyWoods NNRs 🌲

We’ve just downloaded some more data from our recently GPS-tagged Woodcock, with this mapped individual spending time feeding in just a couple of fields near #SkipwithCommon during the night and roosting up on the NNR during the day @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Time was also spent tackling more scrub regeneration on #SkipwithCommon NNR last week to maintain open areas of heath, along with finishing the planting of the last of the hedging plants around NDC and the new building to thicken the existing roadside hedge 🌿🌳

Last week we also welcomed another @naturalengland.bsky.social YorksNLincs team to the #LDV – this time helping us with the clearance of small regenerating Silver Birch scrub and Scots Pine on #SkipwithCommon NNR, to help maintain the open heath areas on the Common. Many thanks to all involved 👏

Recently we enjoyed welcoming back staff from WSP to #SkipwithCommon NNR for a corporate volunteering task to clear birch from the open heath areas (to maintain view lines, glades and flight lines, from the footpaths and between the heaths).

Tonight sees the last episode of the fantastic BBC series 'Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles', and this is the episode we’ve all been waiting for (winter), when Hamza visits the #LDV and #SkipwithCommon NNR in search of the elusive Woodcock - tune into BBC One at 6:15pm 📺 @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Our team have also been present on #SkipwithCommon NNR this week, clearing some of the ditch lines, creating glades and making flight lines between areas of open heath. Nice to also see a flock of 400+ Lesser Redpoll on there as part of the large movement going on at present 🐦

Now is a great time of year to visit our NNRs for some autumnal experiences – #SkipwithCommon NNR was looking particularly nice at the weekend with many families out and about enjoying the natural environment and some of our stunning fungi like this Fly Agaric 🍄

Large numbers of Lesser Redpoll are currently on the move through the #LDV - one ringed at 5pm on the 6th October at #SkipwithCommon NNR was recaught by another ringer, 29 km away, at Thorpe Marsh at 11.30am the following morning @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Wryneck still present on #SkipwithCommon NNR - thanks to Chris Gomersall for the update @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Early this morning our team were searching #SkipwithCommon for our motus-tagged Jack Snipe, with most of the birds having now departed the site as they start their spring migration. Nice to be on the Common at dawn with the web-covered heather glistening in the early morning dew.

Wryneck present on #SkipwithCommon NNR today (in gorse 150m along Sands Lane from the main car park) @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Great to hear about the first Adder of the year this week (seen on #SkipwithCommon NNR on Wednesday), along with the first Comma of the year enjoying the warm spring sunshine 🐍🦋

More signs of spring are now appearing with the first predated egg found last week (Moorhen at #SkipwithCommon NNR), and several pairs of Mute Swans appear to be starting to nest build - they have a long way to go to match this rather impressive effort from last year though 😄

A dense planting of silver birch trees with bare winter branches in a wood

Silver birch trees in winter at Skipwith Common, North Yorkshire, England
#trees #silverbirch #woods #skipwithcommon #Yorkshire

Yesterday saw the first returning Woodlarks at #SkipwithCommon NNR, with just a little sub-song noted in the cold conditions. Please only view (or listen) from the access tracks on the Common to avoid disturbance, thank you @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Small scale niche heathland management works were carried out on #SkipwithCommon NNR yesterday, with our team removing birch scrub to produce a more varied edge structure between heathland & woodland, & to allow pockets of wet & dry heath to expand - another superb effort by our fantastic team 💪