Half-year review

Puffin and razorbills, Bempton

It's been an oddly busy few months. I'm somehow ahead of myself on the year list despite still not getting to Northwich or Frodsham and pretty much neglecting Rochdale, Bury, Bolton and Blackpool, and despite Spring's being just a continuation of our long Autumn with cold northerly winds the main feature of June. I think I'm mostly caught up with updating the changes in bus routes and times in the sites posts on this blog, too, I hope.

Common scoter, Davyhulme

I finally got round to a trip out to North Wales and another over to the Yorkshire coast as well as out for short visits into Shropshire and Staffordshire. Cancellations have thwarted attempts to get further than Millom in Cumbria. On the other hand I've been giving more attention to the Peak District. And I've added a whole pile of "must have a nosy round there" places to the list.

Juvenile woodpigeon, Stretford

The year list stands at 189, rather to my surprise. I'm still missing snow bunting, long-tailed duck and white-fronted geese. And Bewick's swan, don't forget Bewick's swan. I'm a bit shy on waders having missed purple sandpiper and sanderling and still not picked up green sandpiper. The Northwest's been a bit shy on scarce waders passing through on Spring passage, black terns too if it comes to that, but there's time yet for they on the return journey and I still have hopes of osprey and green woodpecker round Morecambe Bay.  And spotted flycatchers and redstarts eluded me in that short window of migration between bad weather in Spain and North winds in England. But I've done well by seabirds and, surprisingly, owls.

Short-eared owl, Chat Moss

The roseate tern at Hodbarrow has been the only addition to the life list. I hadn't expected to see one, it's been a very long-standing bogey bird I gave up on years ago. Now I've got my eye in I'm confident that sometime over the next two or three years I'll see another. I haven't really dipped on any lifers yet, which is comforting, though I know I must have been within a hundred yards of two at least without knowing it. It's a subtle difference but a psychologically significant one.

Black-headed gulls, common tern and roseate tern, Hodbarrow

Half-year totals of recorded species by BTO recording area:

• Caenarfonshire 25
• Cheshire and Wirral 105
• Cumbria 75
• Denbighshire 19
• Derbyshire 57
• Flintshire 19
• Greater Manchester 122
• Lancashire and North Merseyside 138
• Shropshire 24
• Staffordshire 28
• Yorkshire 72

The next quarter embraces the relatively quiet days of post-breeding moult and the start of post-breeding migration. I'll try and catch up with the neglected places of Cheshire and the washlands of Yorkshire. And I've no doubt that any predictions I may care to make will be well off the mark.