Once I had finished the survey, I decided I would take my telescope down to Migrant Alley and scan the fields and sky for a couple of hours. The May list had already reached a record high for any May, 72 species, but I was one short of equalling the all time monthly high set last December. I decided my best chance of getting that species was in the form of something flying over, hopefully a Common tern!
In the two hours I spent watching I recorded, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING GULL, GREY HERON, HOBBY, SPARROWHAWK, KESTREL as well as the usual SWIFT, SWALLOW, and HOUSE MARTIN. Away in the distance a Buzzard was soaring, but not on my patch. DUNNOCK, CHAFFINCH, LINNET, ROBIN, PIED WAGTAIL, BLUE and GREAT TIT all showed up, and the Corvids were their usual anoying selves - they kept rising up on the thermals, and soaring overhead, trying to pass as an interesting Raptor!
I gave up when it got too hot and bright, and I was getting hungry. The all time monthly list high, would stay at 73. Whilst at home hanging around for dinner, I was looking out of the front bedroom window, and saw some Gulls out on one of the Maize fields, I grabbed my bins, and found two MEDITTERANEAN GULLS picking up morsels from the field. They were probably the two recorded earlier in the month, a bit frustrating, they were a patch tick earlier in the month, now they don't even go down as new for the month!
A short walk over to the college grounds after dinner (with the lovely Joy, - my lady wife) did not get me my Common tern or any other new species for the month, in fact the highlight of the walk was the icecream we had from the college garden center.
Its been a good may though, with a patch tick ( med Gull) and a May first (sand martin). The grand total of species seen in combined Mays' is now 86, with a mean of 65 species bieng recorded for this month. Not forgetting the years target of 100 species was reached by the 17th!
Well, its June tomorrow, and the best June total so far is 67, set last year. So the chase begins again, but I think there is less chance of getting the 73+ for the all time monthly record.
The only Photo I got today was of this Male Broad Bodied Chaser, seen just before I had my icecream.
PS. It's 18:10 as I write this, so I might give the sky a look over later - just in case!!
11 comments:
Warren ,
I bet Joy was made up with your company , AND an ice cream .
You certainly know how to treat the ladies .
It certainly did get hot today , and even hotter tomorrow .
Might be another icecream .
Brilliant birding - keep it up.
You've got until midnight so you never know. Still a good number though.
You might not have broken any records, Warren, but you sure had a good month.
Great minds think alike, drop by and you'll see why, Mike :)
Hi Warren.
What a good day for Raptors. I wouldn't mind seeing that many in one day, and the Little owl's. A great days total and good company to end the day.I could do with a ice cream now.
With regards to your comment on my blog the other day - I do have my own bat detector. If you ever fancy giving bat-watching a go, I'd be happy to join you 1 evening sometime to show you what its all about.
...all of your statistics amaze me. I'm keeping track of numbers more and more, but I tend to study behavior of individual birds and then loose track! I guess all of our brains work differently, but you've definitely inspired me to tune into counts. Let's hope June is a good birding month for you as well.
Sounds like a jolly good total to me even if you didn't get the extra one and you may have only got one photo but it was really lovely.
I also loved your last post and all the photos, the one of the Fox was magical, there was pure contentment on its face!
Nice "Male Broad Bodied Chaser", I can't see it in Poland:/
Warren: That dragonfly looks similar to one we have over here.
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