Following on from April’s lockdown due to the Corona pandemic; birding was restricted to the back garden and local walks for the first two weeks in May. In that time before restrictions were lifted I had set myself a target of seeing 50 birds from the garden whether they were direct visitors to the garden or fly-overs i.e. birds seen from the garden.
I can happily say this target was achieved with two great sightings of 2 great birds!!! On May 4th I saw two crows mobbing what I thought was a ‘buzzard’, directly north from my house. Said ‘buzzard’ had narrow wings and a forked tail; A Red Kite!!! A very irregular visitor in Ryedale and a new bird for my garden list!!!
That put my garden list for the Lockdown on 49 – surely I will make 50??? But I had to wait another 10 days – until the 14th of May when a Hobby was spotted circling high above the house. The first sighting of the year.
Usually I see about 3 Hobbies per year from the garden- usually blasting through about 7oo mph accompanied by heckling House Martins and Swallows who take exception to this magnificent raptor invading their air-space.
13th May…. Lockdown restrictions were now lifted and you were allowed to meet up with one other person, travel as far as you liked for exercise but return home at night to your home address; once again the World was a bigger place!!! Time to get in touch with my birding mate Alf !!!
Our first trip out was eventful, there had been intermittent reports of a juvenile White Tailed Sea Eagle seen on the North York Moors …. so with that in mind we set off … and it wasn’t long before disaster struck … the clutch on my car had burnt out !!!!
So I did not see the WTSE and my car was now off the road until weekend!!! However, whilst waiting for the AA breakdown truck I did manage to photograph one of the palest buzzards I’ve ever seen …. with nearly totally cream/white underparts … A really strange looking bird!!
15th May … As my car was in the garage I had to do my Birding on foot …. it wasn’t all doom and gloom .. because today I had a long walk down to the Carrs close to home and I found a pair of Lesser Black Backed Gulls; a new local record for me!!!
17th May… mobile once more!!! I visited some local upland areas and heard and saw my first UK Cuckoo for nearly 10 years. Sadly Cuckoo have now virtually disappeared from Pickering’s lowland and Carr areas. In the early 1980’s I regularly used to record Cuckoo on Pickering’s lowlands; a very noticeable contributor to the dawn chorus.
Now you have to travel up to moorland areas to see these enigmatic sub Sahel African migrants.
28th May..Another migrant I always love hearing and seeing is Lesser Whitethroat; their sharp rattles are a true reminder that Spring is here!! This season I thought I would try and photograph LWT; So today with that task in mind I set off… And what a frustrating task that turned out to be!!!
A two hour session returned 99 arse shots and 1 frame that could be used!!! In retrospect it was rubbish so back to the drawing board to review another strategy!! After the utter failure with the Lesser White throats … I had a drive up to Newton -upon- Rawcliffe.
In the village, I was lucky to find some House Martins collecting mud from the local pond; these amazing little speed-bombs gave some privileged views as they buzzed overhead with beaks full of mud; a super experience!!! And as May slowly melts away… two distinct species come into sharp focus Turtle Dove and Honey Buzzard; hopefully I might get some photos, fingers crossed …
I also managed some flight pictures of these little ‘Buzz -Bombs’…. They presented a real challenge ..but at the same time, I had great fun trying to get some shots.
