Third-quarter review

Goldfinches, Marshside

A warm but windy June gave way to the driest July on record, an extended coo what a scorcher! with pulses of additional heatwaves extending into August, which at least managed a few nights of rain. The landscapes, the wildlife, and certainly this birdwatcher, felt the effects. 

Rixton

The lush greens of June were replaced by parched straw browns in July, a False Autumn in August then a cold, wet Bank Holiday weekend stretched into a cold, wet September and suddenly there was a lot of green about. Then the month closed with a succession of cold mornings and warm afternoons just to make sure we were inappropriately dressed at least twice before teatime.

Stonechat, Chat Moss

Even by traditional standards the dog days were excessively quiet. The advice not to feed the birds over Summer to try and control a couple of epidemic diseases meant that there wasn't the usual crowd in the back garden to tide things over. Elsewhere a lot of Summer visitors looked to have packed up their suitcases early, I made heavy weather of July and August, spending too much of my time hiding from the heat.

Despite that, I had a bumper Summer for butterflies and dragonflies, adding lifers of both to my lists. If I were rather a lot better at identifying Noctuid moths I dare say I'd have added some new ones of them to the tally I don't maintain properly. Bats kept a low profile, and hedgehogs one even lower though my excuse for that is they're not queueing at the front door waiting for me to feed the late cat.

Sand martin, Irlam Locks

Gannets, Bempton Cliffs

Ruff, Marshside

Marsh harrier, Leighton Moss

Woodpigeon punch-up, Chorlton Ees

Despite the weather, and myself, both the year list and the life list ticked over. I added the white-rumped sandpiper at Meols to the life list after years of dipping on this species along the same stretch of mud. An obliging nightjar sat on a branch in a clearing in Kenworthy Wood. And just yesterday I saw my first pallid harrier on Crossens Marsh only just over a year after seeing my first Montague's harrier in the same place.

Nightjar, Kenworthy Wood 

The year list to date is 207, my life list 395, and British list 316.  And I got around a bit. Annual totals to date for BTO recording areas:

• Caernarvonshire 47 species
• Cheshire & Wirral 135
• Cumbria 73
• Denbighshire 34
• Derbyshire 55
• Flintshire 31
• Greater Manchester 128
• Lancashire & North Merseyside 152
• Staffordshire 28
• Yorkshire 91

I'd have got about a bit more had the trains managed to get over the Welsh border the day I tried to get over to Llandudno.

The parakeets flying over the garden have lost their power to surprise. Glossy ibises on the sewage works by Barton Bridge managed to astonish.

Juvenile robin, Clifton Country Park

Grey wagtail, High Rid Reservoir

Little stint, Meols