A new month and a great start!! May is always an exciting time for Birders as it is peak migration time and it is the time when some really good birds arrive in the UK. Also it is the month when all our summer migrants finally arrive back from Africa and further afield. One of our most enigmatic visitors arrived back today … Swifts !!! And right on cue I had three birds circling over the garden this morning May 1st: brilliant to see them back from their long journeys !! Another welcome visitor was noted today, my first Whitethroats of the Summer were recorded on Westgate Carr: two great new birds for this years records!!!It is always interesting to compare dates from previous years … no more so than today.
I got a great tip from my birding mate Graham that a Common Crane had re-appeared in Terrington just west of Castle Howard … Last week when it first appeared I had a good search for this bird but no luck!! But today would my luck change ………. To cut a long story short … YESSSSS!!! Common Crane in the bag… and some fairly close views too!!! Going back to my previous point about keeping dates for certain birds you see: Last year I saw a Common Crane on the 2nd May just outside Scarborough, and this year’s bird at Terrington was seen on the 5th May only 3 days separate these records – but keeping dates from previous years – shows that you can build patterns up and be on the lookout for certain birds within specific monthly parameters. An added bonus whilst watching the Crane were 2 more summer migrants …. Yellow Wagtail and Lesser Whitethroat !!
Again I failed miserably trying to get a photo’ of Lesser Whitethroat …. I have great admiration for those photographers who get a photo’ of a Lesser Whitethroat as I always end up with a mass of twigs, an indistinguishable blurred blob … or a disappearing tail ….. one day I will get lucky!!! On the 6th May my Mrs and myself went to Scampston Hall and had a great walk through the grounds. I was hoping to see Spotted Flycatcher but had no luck this visit. There were lots of Blackcaps, Chiff-Chaff and the occasional Willow Warbler singing but not much else. On the return leg back to the car park, my Mrs who is slowly been indoctrinated into birding spotted some Goldcrests very close to the footpath and it was great at last to capture a few images of these tiny little birds as they fed in the low branches of a Yew Tree. On the lower lake it was great to see the cygnets had finally hatched – this year the female Mute Swan had 7 !!! The parent birds are going to be very busy through the summer months, let’s hope they all make it ……What a great start to May!!!
