Summary May 2025
New “Year Ticks” in May 2025: 5
New “Life Ticks” in May 2025: 0
Total Species for 2025 so far: 108
We had a rather quiet month for birding because for at least two weeks of the month the weather was incredibly hot and sunny and there was no rain to speak of until the 26th of the month. As a result, we spent a lot of time in the garden where we actually saw the first Swifts of the year fly over. On another day we had a Buzzard overhead.
The first birding group outing of the month was to Macclesfield Forest on 6th May where we got two good year-ticks in a pair of Pied Flycatchers attending a nest box and a little flock of Mandarin Ducks – seven of them, all males. We missed the next one but did manage to get in a visit to Pennington Flash on the 20th May it was another fine day but the water levels were incredibly low and some of the ponds had dried out entirely. There was a dry area of about six feet from the ends of the main lake.
| No | Species/Place |
|---|---|
| 1 | Swift over our graden 1 May 2025 |
| 2 | House Martin at Macclesfield Forest 6 May 2025 |
| 3 | Mandarin Duck at Macclesfield Forest 6 May 2025 |
| 4 | Pied Flycatcher at Macclesfield Forest 6 May 2025 |
| 5 | Bullfinch at Pennington Flash 20 May 2025 |