Summary May 2013
On the 8th May we saw four House Martins (the first for the year for us) starting to nest under the eaves of one of the new flat blocks opposite the Thai restaurant. We saw one nest but at least two other birds were also to-ing and fro-ing so I expected to see more nests later in the week but there was still just the one the next time I looked. They used to nest above Thai Spice.
Garden
May still did not mark Spring or Summer and the weather remained uncertain and was often cold. We have several Blackbirds and a Robin and a Dunnock are regular visitors. We sometimes have a couple of Starlings but the number of Tits and especially Goldfinches is way down. It is hard to conclude anything else than that the birds suffered very badly with a long cold winter that doesn’t seem to have turned into Spring yet ! The only exception to this is the is Woodpigeon and Collared Dove that are still all too common in the Garden. We did see two Mistle Thrushes over the garden which seemed odd this late in the year. Towards the end of the month they actually came into the garden and were feeding from the ground feeder. For some reason we have been having visits from a couple of House Sparrows from across the ginnel which isn’t that usual despite their close proximity. We found a dead Great Tit near one of our bird baths so it looks like another cat attack. Around the third week of the month we started to see a few Swifts flying around overhead but, again, not as plentiful as previous years.
Birding Group Days Out
The first birding group day of the May was to Staley Brushes on the 7th May but it was a little disappointing due to the late spring – all the birds seem confused about what time of year it is as it remained cold and, sometimes, even wintry, We saw our first Raven of the year but otherwise it was nothing special. It was a little bit the same the following week when we went to Macclesfield Forest on the 14th April. We did see our target species, the first Redstarts and Pied Flycatcher of the year, but again it was cold and windy.On the 21st a much reduced birding group, of only five people, birding group went to Neumann’s Flash and Haydn’s Pool where we had quite a modest day’s birding but the fact that the birds thought it might be spring and were in full voice made for a lovely walk and quite uplifting. The highlights were good views of Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Reed Warblers and a Black Swan. On the 28th we were supposed to be going to Blacktoft Sands but there was only me and Anne able to go in the event – due to the bank holiday weekend – so we postponed it until some future date.
Walks and Days Out
We have been stymied a bit by bad weather this month but we did get out on the 17th when we went to Brockholes Nature Reserve near Preston. This gave us a Black Swan as a year tick but most impressively we got fantastic views of a Short-eared Owl; by far the closest views of this species we have ever had ! Although the birding group visit on the 28th was cancelled we decided on the Thursday after that to go to Burton Mere Wetland and Inner Marsh Farm. It was a lovely day and the highlights were some great views of Sedge Warblers and a rather grizzly observation of a Crow eating what was probably a Lapwing chick. There were also good views of Marsh Harriers