Half-year review

A juvenile blackcap joined the juvenile great tit, blue tits and spadgers in the garden this morning so I guess it's been a more productive year locally than I thought.

It's been a cool, wet end to a record-breaking scorcher of a June, typical of a year so far that's alternated long warm spells with sudden blasts of cool and wet.

As predicted I caught up with the year list as Spring finally arrived and it now stands at 184 compared to 187 this time last year. There have been a few dips along the way, notably the rosefinch at Kendal and marsh warbler in Stoke and I've still not managed to catch up with green sandpiper, curlew sandpiper or black-necked grebe but there's time yet. And I've not yet visited a seabird city. Bempton's been tricky to get to because of changes to timetables, engineering work and my deep distrust of Transpennine Express so I'll likely nip over to South Stack first.

Species accumulation January to June 2023

Species accumulation January to June 2022

My British list stands at 299, having added a couple of lifers and alpine swift to the list. I'm probably worrying too much about getting past that milestone.

I've been tackling the ever-expanding lists of new places to go and visit while trying to cover as many old favourites as possible. An explore of Mere Sands Wood has opened up the possibility of a walk between Rufford and Martin Mere one day, weather and energy permitting. And I found that the Longendale Trail is both easy and productive. For some reason I've still not been to the Northwich flashes and woods and need to rectify that a.s.a.p. Similarly the washlands of South Yorkshire. I'll need to start having stretch years to fit in All The Places.

For domestic reasons I'm still limiting myself to days out and for financial reasons these are tending to be in the Northwest but I'm still getting about a bit.

• Cheshire & Wirral 122 species so far this year
• Cleveland 31
• Cumbria 80
• Denbighshire 37
• Derbyshire 44
• Flintshire 28
• Greater Manchester 123
• Lancashire & North Merseyside 136
• Staffordshire 27
• Yorkshire 46

 (If you ever need your mind bending go over to the National Rail website and try and make sense of the rover and ranger tickets that are available.)

The next couple of months are traditionally the trickiest in the birdwatching calendar for finding the "regulars" as they go into post-breeding moult and the weather gets oppressive but that's offset by the start of the Autumn passage, usually kicked off by waders drifting back in July. And late Summer often has a surprise or two up its sleeve so it'll be interesting to see what does and doesn't happen.