Although the summer is generally not the time to visit to see the waders as they have all moved through, early May can give the opportunity to see them in their resplendent summer plumage. Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin are all showing off there summer season collection, ready to attract those females once they arrive in their breeding grounds. Another species of wader which is unlikely to be on the winter list is the Whimbrel. They tend to appear in March but will be present on the mudflats or in the fields till the end of May as they migrant northwards to their breeding grounds and are usually first picked up by their distinctive seven whistles.
Garganey continued to be present on Ferry Pool through the beginning of the month with at least three separate birds being reported. They were joined by up to seven Common Sandpiper and the odd Green Sandpiper.
The bushes continue to harbour all the migrants as last month as they continue to feed up but a late arrival has come in, Spotted Flycatcher, which are now started to be recorded around the site. Another late arrival is finally heard over head as Swifts swoop down feeding after their long journey from Africa.
May is also the month when seabirds start there migration in earnest and there is a merry band of local birders who take their station down at Selsey Bill for the month. However all the action is not there, the patient birder will also have some luck from Church Norton. Already reported this month from the sea is Gannets, Arctic Skua, Little Gull, many Terns and if you are lucky as one local birder an arrival of an Osprey from the continent.
Now the weather is slowly warming up it is not just the birds that are becoming active a whole range of insects are too. Butterflies are flitting around the bushes when the summer shines, Speckled Wood, Holly Blue, Orange Tip and Green Veined White are all on the wing. Over the pools the first dragonflies are appearing with the Hairy Hawker one of the first to emerge.
The Warden, RSPB Crook of Baldoon