May Highlights

After a exceptional April it was always going to be difficult for May to follow on with something as good, and while it was as expected much quieter, it was still rather good with a couple of good birds and one that will be up their at the end of the year fighting with a few others for 'Bird of the Year'.

In total 69 species were recorded, making it the second best month of the year, so far, eight species were added to the Westport year list putting it on 107 species for the year, their were a few summer migrants still to arrive that we would normally see in April but like several species already this year they were late arriving, these were Reed Warbler, Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler.

The other additions to the year list was Kittiwake, one was seen on the 2nd and another flew around the lake on the 30th, this is, looking back over the records the latest date a Kittiwake has been seen at Westport during spring passage, on the 4th Nick had a Cuckoo calling in the reserve, a couple of Linnet were also new for the year, and on the 15th Dave Kelsall had a Spotted Flycatcher on the top pool, the 15th also produced the bird of the month in a Turtle Dove, the weather was appalling with very heavy rain and I guess it was brought down by the poor weather, sadly it didn't hang around and wasn't seen again, it is the seventh record for Westport and the first since Richard Sutton had one in 1999.

Other species seen this month of interest were, two Shelduck which landed briefly on the main lake on the 14th, Hobby have had a good month with at least 3 separate records, Peregrine was also seen this month for the third month in a row, the second Dunlin record of the year was a single on the boating lake on the same day as the first Kittiwake, the 2nd, another Wheatear went through for the second month on the trot, this one was found by Phil Jones on the 2nd, again the same day as the Kittiwake and the Dunlin. Lastly a Yellow Wagtail was found by Nick on the front of the main lake on the 7th.