Birds of May

 

 Above: sedge and reed warblers showed well early in the month.

Note: this was written back in May, but delayed until I could process some photos to add.

It's been a busy few weeks with family stuff, but I've managed to do a few trips out to catch some nice birds, and to try and get better shots of some I'd already encountered.

A kestrel carries a rodent kill - I didn't realise this until I sorted through the photos at home.

The torrent of passage migrants has finally tailed off at home, and most trees are in full leaf now, so the golden period of spring is over. However, it's been a chilly month, so things have been delayed, which is to my advantage.

Above: a montage of martins and swallows feeding over the park lake.

Below: a swift.

A couple of species that are guaranteed here in mid-late May are spotted flycatcher and common sandpiper - the latter will stay on in various places, but the former usually only passes through for a week or less. Five flycatchers turned up at the park, but only one was visible when I arrived - but it gave me my best ever views. The sandpiper was much more distant, but I don't mind - it's just good to see them back.

A spotted flycatcher. 

A male scaup has become very tame on the marine lake down the coast, and again provided wonderful photo opportunities. I went down a couple of times, visiting the nearby dunes as well, which provided a few treats. An unreported female whinchat, a loudly singing (if frustratingly hard to see) lesser whitethroat, and a nice flock of breeding plumage small waders (dunlin, ringed plovers, and a handful of sanderlings) were the highlights. Towards the end of the month, my bird mentor David took us to Martin Mere, my first time there, and although we missed the bird that had enticed him out (a white-winged (black) tern), we saw an almost-as-rare Temminck's stint, and nearby a couple of farmland species I've never managed to find, corn bunting and yellow wagtail. Not to mention excellent close (albeit obscured) views of roosting tawny owls (my first sightings, as opposed to just hearing their calls), exceptionally distant breeding plumage little ringed plovers, a barn owl hunting mid morning, dozens of swifts, and lots of nice avocets. We stopped off at the local tern colony on the way back, but it's still early in the season, and they haven't started laying yet. I will return there next month.

A whinchat I found myself!

Finally, I nipped up to Silverdale - ostensibly for rare orchids, but I caught the ever-reliable marsh tits to add to the list.

This male scaup has become a local fixture.

May 2015
13 species (3 lifers) - year total 143
Arctic tern
Barn owl
Common sandpiper
Common tern
Corn bunting
Little ringed plover
Marsh tit
Scaup
Sedge warbler
Spotted flycatcher
Swift
Temminck's stint
Yellow wagtail

 Above: a very poor quality but still diagnostic shot of the Temminck's stint.

Below: more good birds from in and around Martin Mere.

 

Below: avocet, my first ever self-discovered Mediterranean gull, and lady's slipper orchids, a good end to the month.

Summer arrives

A warm sunny day after some nasty weather meant I had to get out. My target was one of the warblers I'd not yet seen, the sedge warbler - and anything else likely on the local patch (swift, common sandpiper, etc).

I stopped off at a pond where a reed warbler had been reported as 'showing well' - and so it was. I got good views, and saw some adorable coot chicks to boot. Then to the first wetland proper, and immediately a singing cetti's warbler waylaid me. This male is a little way from the main local population and seems easier to catch a glimpse of - but he didn't come out. However, immediately in front of me a pair of birds flitted through the reeds - and they were sedgies! One came out, then flew a little way off, then came back and gave my best views ever.

 
Elsewhere, a male reed bunting, lots of breathtakingly low-swooping swallows, starlings, a whitethroat, blackcaps, and greenfinches filled the apple blossom-scented air with their songs. What a great day to be out - and swinging by the other pond on the way back (I didn't need to go further), I got my best ever views of the reed warbler too.

Birds of April

A male common scoter followed on from the female seen at the local reserve the month before.

 Above: common residents showing unusually well, a greenfinch and a treecreeper.

Below: commoner mid-spring arrivals, willow warbler and whitethroat.

The spring migration built up quickly in the first half of this month. It's been fascinating to follow some of the more southern bird observatories on Twitter, and then see the species they ringed appear in the local bird sightings a few days later. The usual suspects, and in the usual order - after the chiffchaffs started filtering in at the end of March came willow warblers, blackcaps, reed and grasshopper warblers, and a few less regular species that continued through northwards (such as ring ouzels and redstarts). Overhead a similar progression - sand martins, then swallows and house martins. A surge of warmth just after Easter brought out a mass of invertebrates - many butterflies, moths, bees, flies and hoverflies, ants and wasps. Aside from feeling summery, it's the main reason all those incoming birds are here.

 Above: redstart, pied flycatcher, and a feisty wood warbler - a trio of lovelies.

The weather has been much colder since then, but the birds kept coming. A rash of rarities in the local park boosted my list, and a couple of day trips to hotspots further afield brought some success. I couldn't possibly choose a bird of the month - while the pied-billed grebe is by far the rarest, it was totally unexpected, while garden warbler, redstart, raven etc. are birds I have been after for ages.

Above: a marsh harrier, one of Leighton Moss's specialities, and a much rarer (and exceptionally distant!) pied-billed grebe - the only one in the country.

April 2015
19 species (7 lifers) - year total 130
Blackcap
Garden warbler
Grasshopper warbler
Lesser whitethroat
Marsh harrier
Pied-billed grebe
Pied flycatcher
Raven
Redstart
Reed warbler
Ringed plover
Ruff
Sand martin
Swallow
Whimbrel
Whinchat
Whitethroat
Willow warbler
Wood warbler