Royston Wildlife Blog: UK Wildlife Sightings May 2021

Following several weeks of cold, dry weather, conditions deteriorated further as a storm blew in off the Atlantic on the 3rd, just in time for an RSPB Local Group walk at Broom gravel pits. Gale force winds, driving rain and a temperature of 7C provided almost certainly the worst weather conditions that we have ever experienced on a spring walk. Ten hardy souls still turned up and, in the hour or so that we stayed, all saw greenshank and yellow wagtails at Gypsy Lane East, whilst half the group (we split into two groups to obey Covid-19 restrictions) also saw two wood sandpipers here. During the rest of May temperatures warmed up a little to just very cool as westerly winds predominated, bringing frequent showers and longer periods of rain. This proved a thoroughly depressing spring for birdwatching, with few rarities to chase in the region. Insects (particularly butterflies and moths) were few and far between, but at least the rain benefited their food plants - by mid-month vegetation was lush, green and thriving.

A visit to Amwell Gravel Pits early on the 8th (in pouring rain) produced my first garden warbler of the year, but the black tern that had been seen on the previous evening had gone. However, I didn't have to wait long to see this species as another bird turned up at Dernford Farm Reservoir in Cambridgeshire, which is an 18 minute drive away from my house, on the 10th. This relatively new reservoir is proving to be a magnet for interesting passage migrants and rare gulls and terns, unlike Mardleybury Lake (the only substantial piece of water within four miles of my house), which is often deserted. An interesting swift was also seen at Dernford. Paler than the other swifts, I managed to get a photo as it skimmed the water. Certain features suggested the possibility of pallid swift - an extremely rare UK visitor at this time of year - but the details are not conclusive by any means, and may have been due to a trick of the light. The image is below.

Black Tern, Dernford Farm Reservoir, 10 May

Swift Species, Dernford Farm Reservoir, 10 May

A brief improvement in the weather on the 12th encouraged me to spend a day out, trying to record as many bird species as possible - an event that I have been staging once per year for over 20 years. The only year I missed out on was 2020, due to the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown. This year I fell well short of my target of 100 species (as I usually do), but I enjoyed getting out and about at Amwell, doing a local walk and then visiting Wells and RSPB Titchwell in the afternoon. I added Temminck's stint and wood sandpiper to my year list at North Point Pools (Wells) and had some fun photographing sanderlings in summer plumage on the beach at Titchwell.

Sanderling Developing Summer Plumage, Titchwell Beach, 12 May

I drove down to the New Forest on the 16th, as part of an unofficial RSPB Local Group visit (we were booked to travel there on this day by coach, before Covid-19 struck). The weather on the way down was appalling, with torrential rain, but one other brave member (Peter Chapman) also made the journey and, as the weather improved to just (occasional) sunshine and showers, we waded through the rivers and streams that had been left by the rain to record 50 bird species, including curlew, 10+ crossbills, redstarts, a fine variety of warblers (including Dartford warbler) and a confiding woodlark. We might normally expect to see dragonflies in the marshy areas of the forest, but the weather had put paid to that.

Butterfly numbers were low everywhere due to the poor spring weather, but the appearance of local brown argus butterflies near my home encouraged me to visit Bison Hill, near Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, on the 18th, to look for species that are active in the spring. I was lucky to find at least a dozen Duke of Burgundy butterflies, most in good condition, as well as green hairstreak, grizzled and dingy skippers, a few more brown argus and (a bit of a surprise) a painted lady. All these butterflies fly close to the ground and are not easy to photograph: a couple of my better efforts are shown below.

Duke of Burgundy, Bison Hill, 18 May

Grizzled Skipper, Bison Hill, 18 May

I undertook another of my annual trips, this time to the Peak District, on the 19th. The plan was to do a shorter walk up to and along Derwent Edge from Cutthroat Bridge, adding tree pipit, pied flycatcher and red grouse to my year list and taking some nice photos of the latter before moving on to Lathkill Dale to see and photograph dippers. Well, I carried out the plan except that the birds weren't there! Asked beforehand what would be the most likely bird to 'dip' on I would have said pied flycatcher, yet that was the only bird of the four that I saw! I've been doing this trip at roughly this time of year for at least 25 years and never dipped on red grouse before: I heard birds on a couple of occasions but that was it! Tree pipit is rapidly becoming a bogey bird for me this year. It also appears to be declining in this region: I used to regularly record three to four singing birds in the Strines/Cutthroat Bridge area on my visits in the past. Wood warblers have also been absent for a few years now. However, ring ouzels were seen and heard in several places - I must have recorded at least seven. Insect activity was, unsurprisingly, rather low although I did see a few moths, a green tiger beetle and a green hairstreak butterfly which was perched in heather on the Derwent Edge ridge. Lapwings and curlews were nesting close to the path as I descended towards Strines Farm from Derwent Edge. Lapwings appear to have two strategies to keep me away from their nests: either to mob and scold me in flight or to land close to me and then walk away from the presumed nest site. Both were used as I walked along the path.

Green Hairstreak Butterfly, Derwent Edge, 19 May

Lapwing in Flight, Strines, 19 May

With the weather at last improving in the final week of May I visited Rutland Water (Lyndon reserve) on the 25th to see the ospreys there. The pair had two young on the nest, although these were still too small to see.

Male (in Flight) and Female Osprey Pair, Rutland Water, 25 May

On the 27th I made my first visit of the year to the excellent RSPB reserve at Frampton Marsh, near Boston in Lincolnshire. I was looking to add curlew sandpiper and little stint to my UK year list, but apparently both were feeding out on The Wash, having only been seen on the reserve around high tide. Another bird was, however, added to my year list: rather embarrassingly, I saw my first short-eared owl of the year there, having missed my 'local' SEOs on several occasions. However, this was not the highlight of my visit. A single black-necked grebe had been reported on the reserve for a few days beforehand, but when I got to the area of the reserve where it had been seen I found three grebes, including a pair which were displaying not far from the path and subsequently were seen mating! I was close enough to get some decent photos of these birds in their spectacular summer plumage - what a privilege, and totally unexpected. I was also very lucky, because on the following and subsequent days only the (original?) single grebe was reported. Before I left I was also able to get some decent photos of a very showy sedge warbler.