Summary : May 2014
Summary : May 2014
Garden
The garden continued to improve bird-wise but we can’t seem to shake off the Woodpigeons that seem to be in our gardens in numbers any time there is food around – and even where there isn’t. Blackbird are getting pushy as they clearly have young to feed. Dunnocks very visible and even on the bird table which is unusual, I even saw one of the bird feeder eating kibbled sunflower hearts. Some good, sunny weather around the 17th and lasting a week saw the first Chorlton Swifts of the year.
Birding Days Out
Having just got back from our holiday in south Somerset and the New Forest, we did not really have the time for many individual days out and most of the middle two weeks of the month was reserved for outings with the birding group.
Birding Group Days Out
The first birding group outing of the month was to Macclesfield Forest which was a little quiet with any woodland birds being well hidden and no trace of Pied Flycatcher or Redstart. The highlights were on the water where we found a Male Goosander who was presumably breeding nearby. Additionally, as we were walking back a Mandarin Duck flew in over our heads and settled on the water for a while before flying back over our heads to from whence it came.
The second outing of the month was a longer one to RSPB Conwy and the Conwy Estuary where the undoubted highlight was the massive numbers of Sedge Warblers in full display mode all over the site parachuting and singing with gusto. If ever you need to know how to identify one, then this is the place to go !Other than that we heard a Grasshopper Warbler but were a little disappointed to have missed the Whimbrel.
We only had time for one more birding group morning out in May before going on our birding holiday in Scotland and that was to the Upper Goyt Valley which we had been near two weeks previously but where the warblers were thin on the ground there, it was obvious that some of the warblers here already had young. The top award of the day is impossible to decide. How can you choose between seeing a family group of four Woodcocks for a full half hour – before we left them to roost – and a life tick at a nearby site near the Cat and Fiddle Inn of a pair of Ring Ouzel seeing of a juvenile Buzzard ! Those were just the highlights of one of the best birding group mornings out ever ! We missed two bird group at the end of May and the start of June. The one on the 27th of May was at Blacktoft Sands – a site where we have had good success in the past.
Scottish Birding Holiday
Towards the end of the month we set off on a round trip of birding and visiting relatives in Scotland. We started off with a visit to Loch of the Lowes where we got our first Osprey of the season but better was to come when we dropped in at RSPB Loch Garten later the same day and saw not only the female sitting on the nest but three chicks and then the male bird arrived with a fish and the female fed the chicks – fantastic ! On the night of the 26th we met John Poyner of Highland Nature who was again to be our guide for three days of guided birding in the Highlands.
On the 27th May we concentrated on the local area around Grantown, visting Lochindorb, Carrbridge, Avie Lochan, Loch Morlich, Old Spey Bridge and Dorback. This gave us Black-throated Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Red-throated Diver and Black Grouse and Short-eared Owl.
On the 28th May we walked in the Abernethy Forest before ascending Cairngorm. In the afternoon we headed for Strathdearn and the Findhorn Valley before ending up at Chanony Point. This gave us Ptarmigan, Dotterel, White-tailed Eagle and Dolphins.
On the 29th May we walked in the Anagach Forest near the hotel before heading for the Moray Coast where we got Little Stint, Yellowhammer, Common Eider, Fulmar and Gannet. After touring the various bays on the coast we ended up at Roseisle Forest and Dunes where we got Osprey, Common Scoter and, at last, Crested Tit !
On the 30th May, our last day at Grantown on Spey, we revisited some our favourite spots and again saw White-tailed Eagle, Black and Red-throated Divers, Osprey, Slavonian Grebes and Peregrine Falcon. In the evening near the hotel we finished off our Grantown adventure with roding Woodcock !
We left on the 31st and visited the Ythan Estuary at Newburgh where we got at least three kinds of Tern and thousands of Common Eider. Among them was our target bird, a drake King Eider.
Our last birding location of the holiday was at RSPB Fowlsheugh where we had fantastic views of nesting Fulmars and added a number of cliff-nesting sea birds to our holiday tick list which ended up at 101 for Grantown and 113 for the whole holiday. This included six life ticks and twenty-four year ticks.