2 for the price of 1! - May and June 2022 Bird Report

This article and the images contained within were provided by courtesy of the author, S. Grover

I thought the last Pink-footed Geese of the winter season were the three I saw at Loch Connell on the 2nd May; however, two birds were later noted there on the 12th June and where they continued to remain until at least the month’s end; presumably these were ‘pricked’ birds that were unable to migrate any further north.  At the same site and on the same date a pair of Canada geese were recorded with six near fledged youngsters in tow - nothing unusual in that I hear you cry, dear reader, but what was odd was that only two of the goslings were Canadas’, the other four being Greylags and presumably adopted by the parent geese: they stayed together as a family unit throughout the month.

Eight adult Mute Swans were observed flying down Loch Ryan on the 2nd of May, whilst 7 immatures were at Loch Connell on the 8th.  In June numbers of them on the sea loch began to increase and by the 29th there were some 24 birds.  The regular pair occupying Agnew Park were observed with 11 cygnets, on the 16th June.

The drake American Wigeon seen at Loch Connell at the end of April was still present into May, showing well on the 1st and briefly on the 2nd.  On day one I was content to visually enjoy this rarity but on day two I thought that perhaps I ought to try and capture a better photographic record than the crude images I had so far taken of the bird.  When I arrived at the site I found the duck exactly where I expected it to be.  After a few minutes, however, it paddled out to the middle of the loch.  I suddenly became distracted by a party of Whimbrel and when I returned my gaze to the spot of my previous observation the Wigeon had gone!  I checked and rechecked the water’s surface, the margins, the banks and the sky above but all came up blank.  Curiously - to me, anyhow - the following week, on the 8th, I was back at Loch Connell and saw a lone drake Wigeon occupying the very same spot where I had originally found its American cousin; there were even two male Mallards next to it, fitting perfectly with my memory of the original sighting - an uncanny repetition of events (bar the American visitor, of course).  Talk about de ja vu!  For an instant I thought that perhaps I had just imagined the vagrant species, but then I remembered the ‘record shot photos’ I had secured, and normality was restored.

The number of male Eiders on Loch Ryan can increase rapidly at this time of year when birds arrive from elsewhere to this traditional moulting site.  At the beginning of May there were around 40 or so birds; come the 27th I counted 140; the next day 245, and on the 30th they tallied 357.  The first brood of the season was also observed on the 30th when a female with two recently hatched ducklings was present at the Wig.  The following month saw no increase on the maximum number of males although their appearance changed considerably; at the close of June the majority wore a predominantly black, eclipse, plumage.  On the 24th a large seal was was observed hunting a party of drakes that had been rendered flightless through the moulting process.  A small number of broods were seen about the Wig during the month; none, however, was particularly large - four bite-sized ducklings on the 22nd.  On the 24th two larger offspring were observed, wearing a combination of fluffy down and proper-looking feathers.

Last of the winter Goldeneye

On the 5th of May the Wig held a drake Long-tailed Duck in full summer plumage and a male Goldeneye on the 12th.  These constituted the last of the ‘wintering’ birds for their respective species.  Common Scoters were present on Loch Ryan to at least the 17th of May when 28 were logged, although the peak count came on the 7th when 60 were present.  Only three birds were registered in June, on the 3rd.  Velvet Scoters were surprisingly well represented early on in May with eight males on the 1st and the last record, of six males, on the 5th.  The highest counts of Red-breasted Mergansers was 54 on the 2nd May and, in June, 35 on the 19th.

As expected Red-throated Divers were frequent visitors on Loch Ryan throughout the month of May, with a high of 26 birds on the 1st and a more than respectable 17 on the 29th.  There were just two records in June: a singleton on the 1st and another on the 5th.  Great Northern Divers showed well, being noted on nine days across the month of May; three were present on the 3rd and 5th with single birds thereafter; in June there was one on the 3rd.  In their breeding plumage they are most handsome birds and in this respect those I saw did not disappoint.  The 29th of May was a memorable day: not only did I see a splendid Great Northern, but alongside it was an impressive, immature, White-billed Diver.  A direct side-by-side comparison of these two species is not something I have often experienced; needless to say it was a fascinating privilege.  And all this before breakfast, I should add.  Great stuff!  

White-billed (left) and Great Northern Diver

Fulmars over Loch Ryan are something of a scarcity these days.  One on the 25th of May was a reassurance of their continued existence.  Gannets, meanwhile, hardly require any effort to find at this time of year.  The biggest count of them in May was 99 on the 22nd, whilst in June there were 94 on the 11th.  Adult birds form the bulk of sightings.  The first immature bird of the season revealed itself on the 11th of May: its plumage suggested to me that it was either a second or a third year bird.  Other immatures showing plumages ranging from second to fourth calendar year were sporadic visitors in both May and June.  One bird in particular stood out, on 19th June, wearing an almost juvenile-like plumage (mostly brown overall): presumably it was not a bird that had fledged from a nest this year (an exceptionally early youngster, if so) but an older bird retaining juvenile feathers.  June saw a distinct increase in the number of Cormorants on Loch Ryan as juveniles from local breeding sites joined the population; 29 birds were registered on the Scar on the 27th of the month.

Perhaps the highlight of May - for me, at least - was a Corncrake singing from within the ‘Pool Field’, adjacent to the Corsewall Burn and Fisher’s Lane, on the 3rd.  Like the White-billed Diver it was another example of ‘a one day wonder’, turning up unexpectedly.  Hearing the crake was one thing, laying eyes on the bird was something else.  I followed the noisy outbursts the bird emitted as it progressed across the field, in a skulking fashion.  Occasionally I caught a glimpse of a head, a back, or some other part of the bird but more typically it was seeing the movement of herbage that allowed me to track its course until it once more gave snatches of song. I consider myself fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time.

Of the smaller-sized waders a spritely Common Sandpiper at Bishop Burn on the 15th of May was a nice find.  There appeared to be a small but steady passage of Dunlin at the Wig and the Scar, with a peak of 16 birds on the 4th of May.  On a Wetlands Bird Survey count at Piltanton, however, 30 were registered on the 15th.  Just one record of the species occurred in June, comprising five adults in breeding plumage at the Scar, on the 9th.  Ringed Plovers were more frequently encountered, with a high of 78 observed foraging in a recently reseeded grassland at the Wig, on the 12th of May.  Come June the largest flock noted was 14 on the 1st and there were no sightings after the 9th.  In the same field that held the aforementioned plovers were two Sanderlings on the 12th and three on the 14th of May.  Larger waders included two Black-tailed Godwits at the Wig on the 26th of May, a singleton male Lapwing in grassland beside the Wig, on the 20th, and possibly the same bird at Loch Connell, on the 25th of the month. Single Bar-tailed Godwits were seen at the Wig on the 1st and the 5th of June.  Whimbrel also continued to pass through the area, with the fields surrounding Loch Connell being most favoured: 58 birds being the largest flock, on the 8th of May.  In the same month there were scattered sightings of Curlews, including a party of eight at the Wig, on the 5th.  Some of these, I suspect, were failed breeders rather than true passage birds.  The following month Curlew sightings increased, with 19 noted on the 29th June.

A party of aerobatic Arctic Terns

Herring Gulls are one of the commoner species, or at least more obvious than some others; consequently, my counts of them are generally few and often ad hoc.  Over 600 at the Scar, on the 16th of May, seemed an unusually large gathering.  Also unusual for this month were seven Kittiwakes on the 27th and a flock of 25 seen loafing on the waters off the Wig, the next day, the 28th.  In the same area, an Iceland Gull was a surprise visitor on the 20th.  Arctic Terns were seen briefly on three occasions during early May, the largest flock comprising 14 birds flighting northwards past the Scar on the 12th.  There was just one observation of Common Terns: two birds on the 7th.  For both these species of tern it was a disappointingly poor showing.  Sandwich Terns were considerably more numerous and frequent.  A high of 74 was at the Scar on the 4th of May, whilst in June 30 was the largest count on the 13th.

There is a tendency amongst humans to take common species for granted.  They rarely receive the attention that rare species seem to command.  This is certainly true for the humble Woodpigeon.  Sizeable flocks of them may be seen during the winter months but come the Spring their gatherings are much reduced; 50 of them seen feeding in a field beside the Wig on the 18th of May were to my mind, noteworthy.  Crows, too, are similarly ignored by the birdwatching brigade.  On May the 12th I saw a large congregation of them foraging in a field bordering Loch Connell.  The pattern of black shapes against the uniform green of the grassland caught the artists’ eye in me.  As  I considered the many possible compositions that the various groupings and interactions of the birds suggested to me, I realised that I had not yet even identified them to species level, nor approximated their number.  Here then, for the record, there were in excess of 730 corvids comprising some 620 Rooks, and the remainder, Jackdaws.  A dapper bonus bird seen flying west past the Wig, on May 31st, was a Hooded Crow.

The productivity of breeding Skylarks is hampered by farming practices, notably the timing of silage cuts.  The Wig Fields held six singing birds on the 3rd of May but how successful their breeding attempts were remains to be seen.  So few House Martins and Swallows seem to frequent the village of Kirkcolm these days that their numbers are hardly worth mentioning though their increasing scarcity make the species noteworthy.  As for Swifts, well, … they are just rare: a singleton on the 23rd of May was the only record in the neighbourhood.

The early spring is enriched by the songs of migrant warblers.  Come May the number of these birds in song declines as birds settle to nest and concentrate on raising broods.  A walk through the Corsewall Estate on the 3rd of May revealed seven Blackcaps, eight Chiffchaffs, five Sedge Warblers and ten Willow Warblers in song; thereafter, the woods, copses, scrublands and marshlands seemingly became bereft of these sounds.

Sadly, there was just one sighting of a Spotted Flycatcher: an adult at the edge of the estate marsh on the 15th of June.

The distribution and the numbers of pairs of breeding Stonechats fluctuates widely from one year to the next on my local patch.  I unexpectedly came across a pair with four, pleasantly, plump, juveniles in a drier part of the estate marsh, on the 15th of June. The first Wheatear of May was a large, strongly coloured, male of the Greenland race, observed about the Wig on the 3rd and 4th.  Three other singletons were seen here on the 8th, 11th and 12th, with none thereafter.  White Wagtails were similarly spartan and their spring passage brief, with individual birds on the 8th and the 11th and two on the 12th of May. 

The handsome male Greenland Wheatear

In the recent past you will no doubt remember the decline of our farmland and song birds being head-line news, in at least the conservation press.  In particular, the Song Thrush - being a familiar bird to country and urban dwellers alike - becoming a high priority species of nature conservation concern.  The story of its plight and fortunes has since faded into the background as other species have supplanted it in the public media . . . but I continue to research its predicament, locally at least.  I was pleased to record nine singing birds on the 5th of May.

A gaudy male Greenfinch was a surprise songster in my garden on the 3rd of June.  He was intermittently seen, or heard, thereafter up until the 13th of the month.  Linnets - another of those declining farmland species - are still widespread on my patch.  A flock of 35, on the 3rd of May, were clearly on passage.  On the same date, but at the Scar, a pair of Twite were unexpected visitors.  Although Reed Buntings have a distinctive song it is not particularly tuneful or prolonged to readily invite retention in the memory, other than in others of its own kind.  It is thus an easy species for people to pass by when there are more enticing sounds to be heard.  Clearly, on the 15th of June I had no such competition to draw away my attention because I logged three breeding pairs within  a small area of marshland.