9th May 2021 ff
The Darling Birds of May!
Groans from all readers...
Lets hope May will deliver something brilliant. So far rather staid - but it's a start.
Sunday 9th May
Fairburn and St. Aidan's this morning and then marrow, courgette and pumpkin planting this afternoon. A few pictures.
Common terns
Cuckooflower / Lady's Smock / Cardamine pratensis
Little owl
Gadwall
Monday May 10th
First swifts seen in the evening over the house.
Tuesday May 11th
A big day out began at Flamborough bowling green where the locals were practising [9.30am] rolling their wooden balls about and the hoopoe[ quite naturally] was nowhere to be seen! Still the other object of the day was to get some year ticks so I could at least seem to be doing some proper birding again. On, then, To Thornwick Pools where little ringed plover delighted, a sedge warbler was very showy but best of all outside were linnet, whitethroat and, hiding in the base of a bramble tangle was a lesser whitethroat. Not a bird I'm usually very good at spotting.
Next was busy Bempton. Tree sparrows galore - which was another year first.
Amazing how the pandemic has changed everything - car park with portaloos, reception desk outside and birds I see in early January not seen until May! A barn owl was out hunting in daylight so was presumably feeding young.
The cliff regulars were almost all present [although somehow I didn't look out for the fulmars. Were they there?]
My guillemot photos were not good so I've omitted them. The jackdaws were very cheeky and approachable. I like them in spite of their reputations for pushing out other species from nest sites. Clever birds - they know they're safe at Bempton, I think.
After Bempton I called at Filey Dams and added just bullfinches to my tick list - otherwise quiet with lots of common geese and common gulls [but no common gulls if you see what I mean!]. Later I saw marsh tit and nuthatch along with other tits and finches at Forge Valley.