I cannot really explain what's happened to this spring, other than it was just beginning to feel like it was ramping up and the potential of what I may come across increased exponentially, then the next minute it feels like it's all but over!
The lack of migrants is certainly a driving reason for this, but the weather, how fast time generally seems to go these days, plus how busy I've been at work also all clearly playing a part in it.
It is crazy how rapidly it feels like the peak spring migration period has come to an end without it ever really taking off. And I don't just mean land-based migrants, visible migration simply didn't happen (no Mipit or big hirundine days), sea watching has been slow and wading birds numbers well down - although there is still time for the latter thankfully!
I think this is also the reason why it's taken me until the 10th May to write a blog post this month, whereas usually I would have expected to have seen enough to have posted several times this month before now. I do have a fair bit of time to recap on though, and it hasn't been without highlights including a few nice sightings today...
I will start with wading birds. We had a nice (albeit short) spell of rain last weekend (Sat 2nd in particular). Rain in May usually never fails to deliver some wader passage, but ironically the only obvious passage waders came before the rain on the Friday and after it, although I missed the three Wood Sands that dropped in briefly on Black Hole Marsh during the evening of 3rd (TW).
The waders I have seen include two Grey Plover, one that arrived on the morning of 1st with a sudden influx of Black-tailed Godwits and another tonight that's been around all day - sadly neither were summer plumaged birds...
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| This evenings Grey Plover and a Dunlin |
I saw my first three Common Sandpipers on Black Hole Marsh on 29th and my first two Ringed Plover on the Estuary yesterday (9th) with five tonight. One of my favourite spring waders are male Bar-tailed Godwits, they are absolutely stunning birds, so I feel somewhat hard done by as the seven I have seen since my last post (six on Estuary on 30th and a single bird on Black Hole Marsh for several days in early May) have all been cold grey female-types. Black-tailed Godwit numbers jumped up on 1st, from less than ten that had been present for weeks, to just shy of 70 birds, although that numbers dropped again to about 40 or so. Whimbrel have been on the Estuary daily in small numbers, plus I've seen a couple of small flocks over the sea/beach. Dunlin have been present most days, but only in very small numbers with eight on the evening of 3rd at Black Hole Marsh being my best single count, whilst I was not seeing Wood Sands.
Up in the sky I have missed most the Red Kites that have passed over, but I finally bumped into two singles with one over Colyton on 29th whilst I was at work, and another much lower-flying bird over Colyford on 8th. The best sky-based sighting for me was a fantastic Hobby early on 3rd. I was walking around the Borrow Pit when the small number of feeding Swallows started alarming, and before I knew it a Hobby appeared low overhead and made a swoop for one of the Swallows although it managed to evade capture by rapidly changing direction. The Hobby then did a couple of low circles over the Borrow Pit before it flew off east, although soon after it was seen low over Black Hole Marsh. A truly wonderful encounter.
Several visits to Axe Cliff since my last post have all been poor. Just the odd singing Willow Warbler, and expected breeding birds. I highly doubt I will be making any more visits up there this spring. In the valley, numbers of Sedge and Reed Warblers seem really healthy this year, the Lesser Whitethroat continues to sing along the tram line, and tonight I was surprised to hear a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in the field south of Tower Hide at dusk, my first here for several years and quite possibly a bird on territory considering the lateish date?
Although I have had many beach walks hoping for waders, I have only attempted a proper sea watch on one day since my last post - 29th April. There was a stiff east wind blowing, but other than a single Great Northern Diver west and a drake Common Scoter settled on the sea, nothing of note. It's very much looking like another Pom-less spring for me, and Arctic-less in fact. Thankfully I saw those two Bonxies in mid-April as a completely skua-free spring would be really bad news.
Gull numbers have been really random lately, especially Black-headed Gulls. Some days there are less than twenty on the Estuary, but the next there might be 70+! Have been looking out for some more/a reappearance of Bonaparte's, but just a single first-summer Med Gull yesterday (9th) of note.
In with the big gulls I came across a first-summer Caspian Gull on the morning of 7th, not a bad reward when there's less than thirty large gulls on the whole Estuary! At first I thought it might be the same bird that I saw a few times in late April, but a closer look at my pictures shows it is a different individual, less advanced in its scapular moult (so less plain grey) as well as other differences in the coverts, tertials and overall structure...
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| Bird on the left of the shot, it's not just the white head and breast/neck, note the lovely plain coverts and all dark tertials |
A more typical May record came in the form of two male Tufted Ducks on the Borrow Pit yesterday (9th). If you are patch year-listing here and you don't get to see a winter Tufty, May is the most reliable month to connect with this species, either on the Borrow Pit, on the lagoon at Seaton Marshes or at Lower Bruckland Ponds. As they were the first of the year I did make the effort to see them early afternoon...
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| The two handsome boys |
Whilst on wildfowl I will mention the Black Swan that has been around since 7th, and the continued presence of Gadwall in the valley, with seven this evening from Tower Hide - three pairs and a lone drake.
I did have a rather nice surprise after walking out of work late this afternoon at 17:30, two Common Cranes! They flew in off the sea and up the Estuary, not hanging around at all motoring straight through north east. Thankfully a couple of other locals managed to see them as I fired some messages out rapidly, but as in now the case, who knows where they came from?
I did a post a few years back that's worth putting a link to again (see below) and don't forget the flock of 14 I saw last year in late April that were clearly Somerset reintroduced birds, or descendants of at least. It's easy to be swayed by the impressive sight of these two actually arriving in off the sea, but the reality is they could easily have flown out to sea five minutes earlier and just chickened out! Or of course, seeing as there's a few being recorded in Kent/the east coast at the moment, they could be true overshoots!? What I do know is it's a pity I didn't have my camera with me as they did looked awesome in the evening light and clear sky.
My blog post following a single Common Crane that pitched in briefly on Bridge Marsh in April 2023: https://stevesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-crane-conundrum.html
Last years flock of 14: https://stevesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-flock-of-cranes.html
Although there is still plenty of time for spring 2026 to deliver some goodies, I think it's safe to say the main migration period for trans-Saharan migrants is over. We've even had a Spot Fly which is usually the back marker of spring migrant passerines, Tim C saw one on Borrow Pit on 5th.
Thanks for reading!
