 |
| Ruff, Marshside It's always a treat to see the males in their full breeding plumage pomp. |
It was one of those Springs with days that changed season by the hour. Overall April was dry and windy, most of the sunny days tempered by cool winds. May was cool, grey and windy, not optimal for the peak of the breeding season. Then suddenly, literally overnight, the end of May was full-on Summer. For nearly a week. The first three weeks of flaming June felt like late February with hay fever. Then it turned on a sixpence and the sun was cracking the pavements again. Sudden change has become a feature of our weather recently.
 |
| Black-tailed godwit, Marshside |
The birdwatching was steady-ish. The statistics look fair enough but there were times when I felt I was frantically hurtling about not getting very far with anything or getting to All The Places, etc. and was giving myself a good nagging about it. Which is my normal frame of mind late Spring, early Summer. I could worry for England and I don't know how I have the brass neck to tell my father off for the same fault. This isn't a job, it's a pastime to keep body and mind active in the flickering light of early middle age. And by and large the pastime's doing okay. The birdwatching was steady-ish.
 |
| Mandarin ducks, Etherow Country Park Yes, there are lots of photos of mandarin ducks in my blog. It's my blog, I can put lots of photos of mandarin ducks in here. |
I got to lots of places, I got to visit some new places, I saw lots of birds and heard more which were hiding in the bushes and managed to identify a good many of both. As far as the birdwatching goes, all was well with the world. And I got to combine an exceedingly pleasant seaside stroll with a life tick.
 |
| Herring gulls, shelduck and Western reef heron (front right), Foryd Bay |
Western reef heron wouldn't have been on my radar in a month of Sundays. A first for Britain within easy reach by public transport hanging round for days was irresistible, so I didn't resist it. The next week it relocated, shuffling about Conwy and Llandudno, which would have been an easier trip out but I'd have missed out on splendid Menai Strait landscapes. By the end of the month it had relocated to Pembrokeshire to make sure all the Welsh birdwatchers got a chance to see it.
 |
| Sand martins, Irlam Locks |
And so to the numbers…
The year list to date is 194, my life list 392, and British list 313. And I got around a bit:
- Caernarvonshire 47 species
- Cheshire & Wirral 122
- Cumbria 69
- Denbighshire 34
- Derbyshire 50
- Flintshire 31
- Greater Manchester 122
- Lancashire & North Merseyside 147
- Staffordshire 20
- Yorkshire 86
I'm easily meeting my 100 species a month target and the 200 species year list looks doable. I think I'll try and spend the dog days trying to get a bit further afield to stretch my legs. Which will probably end up with my spending a month getting no further away than Cob Kiln Wood. Well, we'll see how it goes.
 |
| Pheasants, Leighton Moss |
 |
| Pied flycatcher, Keg Wood |
 |
| Gannet, Bempton Cliffs |
