May

Little ringed plover, Marshside

Well…

May was a funny old month. It started off promising to carry on where a very productive April left off but soon the weather turned and by mid-May the birdwatching was in the doldrums with the Winter visitors mostly gone, the residents and early arrivals quietly getting on with the business of finding food for hungry mouths and the larger number of Summer visitors biding their time waiting for a turn in the weather then straggling through as best can. I'm not one for poring over weather charts at length so I've missed out on this Spring's white wagtails and consistently been in the right place at the wrong time for little gulls and wood sandpipers.

The change in the weather also affected insect life. April was busy with butterflies but the cooler weather in May hasn't done them any favours, my records are mostly limited to Pierids — whites, orange tips and brimstones — and not many of them. I'm not sure if the dragonflies were late or of I'm just being impatient but aside from a couple of days late in the month I've not seen them in any profusion.

Garganey, Crossens Marsh

Then to cap it all I get four lifers in the space of two weeks — spotted sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs, white-tailed lapwing and lesser scaup — and not a one of them on my radar till they turned up, which is a lot of the joy of the game.

I end the month with the year list at 182 and my British list at 287.