UK Species Year List to May 2021: 78
Total UK Species in May 2021: 72
New “Year Ticks” in May 2021: 23
New “Life Ticks” in May 2021: 0
In October of 2020 we resumed lockdown as the second wave of Covid spread throughout the country. Between then and March 2021 we did not leave the environs of our house so back garden birding was all we had. In April we ventured out a little as the vaccination program started to work but all the hides at the reserves were closed. We did, though, manage to fit in a couple of visits into the real world – but only on our own. By May we had both been double-vaccinated and we felt much better about going out into the great outdoors.
Anne and I went to the Upper Goyt Valley and Danebank Quarry on the 6th May but we were on our own. We had some good luck with plenty of Spotted Flycatchers and even got a single Common Redstart and a single Tree Pipit. We didn’t get the other species we hope to find there – Spotted Flycatcher – on this visit but we added this later in the month. It was great to be out and about again.
We had a Sparrowhawk in the garden on the 17th May. It took one of our House Sparrows but I suppose there are plenty of them. We continue to have daily visits from our Grey Wagtail – we have had one or two daily since February – but we don’t see two together anymore. Other than that there is a single Dunnock and the usual suspects. We have been entertained by the emergence of Hedgehogs in the garden. We are not sure but I think there are at least three of them and there are nightly nose-to-nose confrontations. Crapping seems to be a principal weapon of theirs! A camera trap has show us a lot of their antics but there have been other nightly visitors; cats obviously but also a Fox which kept stealing the hedgehog food, forcing us to create a feeding station for the hogs that it couldn’t get inside. It also seems to flummox the cats.
On the 25th we went to Burton Mere Wetlands on our own and managed to get a totally unexpected Bittern- but missed the Glossy Ibis. It is indeed a strange year when in the middle of May year ticks include Mute Swan and Chaffinch. Who would imagine you would see your first Bittern of the year at he same time as your first Mute Swan! At Parkgate, the same day, we got our first Marsh Harrier of the year.
The birding group returned with its first joint birding trip since Covid began. We last met up on 10th March 2020. Fourteen months later we met up again at the Upper Goyt Valley on the 27th May 2021. We managed to add the elusive Spotted Flycatcher and the, even more elusive, Dipper to our year list and heard a Cuckoo.
And that was it for May. There is still no chance of a foreign holiday and prices of accommodation in Britain have rocketed due to “staycationers” but we hope to be able to get out more before the “third wave” of Covid comes along. We really have missed a lot this last year and a half but at least we are alive and still able to bird – even if under limited circumstances.
- Willow Warbler : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Pied Flycatcher : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Common Redstart : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Song Thrush : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Treecreeper : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Tree Pipit : Upper Goyt Valley 6th May 2021
- Common Kestrel : Danebank Quarry 6th May 2021
- Curlew : Danebank Quarry 6th May 2021
- Sparrowhawk : Our Garden 17th May 2021
- Mute Swan : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Wigeon : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Bittern : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Moorhen: Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Sedge Warbler : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Chaffinch : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Swift : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Great Spotted Woodpecker : Burton Mere Wetlands 25th May 2021
- Marsh Harrier : Parkgate 25th May 2021
- Cuckoo : Upper Goyt Valley 27th May 2021
- Dipper : Upper Goyt Valley 27th May 2021
- Goldcrest : Upper Goyt Valley 27th May 2021
- Spotted Flycatcher : Upper Goyt Valley 27th May 2021
- Ring-necked Parakeet : Our Garden 31st May 2021