May has more or less now come to an end and we've still got water in the floods which is a good thing. Mind you, it's starting to accumulate the usual summer "algal scum" so it's not looking its best any more. Still it was good enough to attract a couple of late waders still this last week: a few days ago there were a couple of LITTLE RINGED PLOVER lurking by the North Reach and today there was a REDSHANK along the North Shore. Apart from that it's just been OYSTERCATCHERS and SHELDUCK to report with the odd LITTLE EGRET thrown in for good measure.
June is traditionally very poor on the birding front so I wouldn't expect much even if we manage somehow to keep the floods through the month turning out to be unseasonably wet. Mind you, we can't really complain as it's been a very good first half of the year with lots of good county birds being seen that are far from guaranteed each year. In fact our year list total of 128 is just about what I'd expect for the end of the year already. We've even managed a genuine national rarity in the form of the Spoonbill so if the worst comes to the worst and we have no floods at all for the second half of the year then I'll still be reasonably content with how the year has turned out.
Traditionally at this time I turn my thoughts to insects and flowers and this is what I intend to do this year as well. I'm still very much learning, certainly as far as the flowers are concerned, but I hope to find enough of interest to keep the blog posts coming through the summer doldrums.
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| Common Terns up by Godstow Lock, taken a few weeks ago |
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