May 2015 archive

May 31 2015

Summary : May 2015

Summary : May 2015

New Species added to 2015 Year List in May= 16

Running Total for the 2015 UK So Far = 128

New UK Life List Birds In March = 1 (Wood Warbler)

Our Garden

The Starlings have been coming to the bird feeders with their new young many times a day and food lasts mere seconds. A pair of Stock Doves comes often as do the usual Woodpigeons. A Dunnock or two are ever present and there are a few Goldfinches but no Greenfinches. Blue Tits are frequent, though Great Tits less so. House Sparrows come for a bath and there are a lot of Blackbirds around. Soon they will all fall quiet but for now there is a wonderful evening chorus of Blackbirds.

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May 26 2015

Birding Group Visit to Goyt Valley : 26th May 2015

Birding Group Visit to Goyt Valley : 26th May 2015

Although I had been to the Goyt Valley the Thursday before, I was still keen to try again for the two species we would normally hope to see there that we did not get on Thursday; Tree Pipit and Redstart. Not only did we fill these missing gaps but we also got another three “year ticks” making a total of five “year ticks” in a few hours.

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May 21 2015

Goyt Valley and Cat and Fiddle : 21 May 2015

Goyt Valley and Cat and Fiddle : 21 May 2015

Tuesday outing for the birding group was scheduled for the Goyt Valley but was changed to Pennington because of poor weather. I was keen that this particular venue should not disappear off the schedule if the following Tuesday’s weather was also poor so we decided to go on the Thursday. The weather that day was a little more promising and, indeed, it did not rain until the moment we were about to leave. This just gave us an excuse to have lunch at the Cat and Fiddle and discuss our successes including a “life tick”.

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May 19 2015

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 19th May 2015

Birding Group Visit to Pennington Flash 19th May 2015

We were scheduled to go to the Goyt Valley today but the weather forecast was so poor we decided to divert to Pennington Flash. There had been some rain overnight and the water level seemed a little high. The main attractions of the day were Common Terns and a Cetti’s Warbler but really that was about it. This sounds very disappointing but it didn’t feel like that; we kept our of the rain mostly and did see 37 species so we could not complain.

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May 12 2015

Birding Group Visit to Macclesfield Forest : 12th May 2015

Birding Group Visit to Macclesfield Forest : 12th May 2015

I looked up last years trip to Macclesfield Forest and it wasn’t that brilliant. This was a bit similar though it wasn’t as windy as then. The weather was a mixture of dry spells and rainy spells. We started out at the car park where I thought I saw a retreating Pied Flycatcher (first of the year in UK) but that was one of the highlights of a rather frustrating day.

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May 10 2015

Mallorca Holiday April – May 2015 Summary

Mallorca Holiday April – May 2015 Summary

Guide Books

The two books I relied on were, firstly, Dave Gosney’s book ““Finding Birds in Mallorca” (which comes with a DVD of the sites in the book and some of the birds you can see at them and, secondly, “A Birding Tourist’s Guide to Majorca” by Maties Rebassa et al, which is a more recent book, more colourful and a good companion to the Gosney book, but it does not replace it.

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May 06 2015

Mallorca Holiday 6th May 2015 : Port de Pollenca and Boquer Valley

Mallorca Holiday 6th May 2015 : Port de Pollenca and Boquer Valley

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May 05 2015

Mallorca Holiday 5th May 2015 : Formentor Beach

Mallorca Holiday 5th May 2015 : Formentor Beach

After a pretty busy day yesterday we decided not to do too much birding today so we got the bus to Formentor Beach with the idea of just having a bit of a walk around the area of the beach in the pine trees just in case anything interesting showed itself.

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May 04 2015

Mallorca Holiday 4th May 2015 : S’Albefura

Mallorca Holiday 4th May 2015 : S’Albefura

I was keen to fit in at least one more visit to S’Albufera before the end of our holiday and this time Anne came with me. She was keen to see the species that she had missed when I last spent the day at S’Albufera. We didn’t spend too much time on the main canal because we really wanted to get to the Sa Roca Pools hides before they got too busy. We did, however, see the usual Little and Cattle Egrets, Cormorant and the avenue was full of calling Nightingales and Cetti’s Warblers.

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May 03 2015

Mallorca Holiday 3rd May 2015 : Formentor and C’an Cuarassa

Mallorca Holiday 3rd May 2015 : Formentor and C’an Cuarassa

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