Out and about in May

The birds don't seem to have been much affected by the late spring although the siskins were here until mid May, when they presumably left for the forests to think about nesting.  The starlings were well ahead of them and their chicks fledged on the 16th.  These photos were taken the day before.

Oystercatchers are nesting on a rooftop across the road and come to the golf course to feed.  They seem to be getting juicy grubs rather than worms and are unfazed by the golfers.

May sees the first counts for the BTO Breeding Bird Survey on my 1km squares near Wark Forest and in Harwood Forest.  The first of these was strange this year with only four species recorded (including one pheasant).  The commonest bird was meadow pipit and I stumbled across a nest so I took a quick photo before moving on.  Despite its name the BBS doesn't look for evidence of breeding, just presence in the breeding season.  I'll do another two counts in June.

At Banks Pond the Canada geese have six goslings

and the swans have five cygnets.  There is a lot of conflict between the male swan and the adult geese.

Red mason bees first appeared in the garden in April but then disappeared in the cold weather.  They have been active again in the past week or so.  Two females are building in my observation bee house.

This poor bee tried to fly through the spray from my watering can.  I picked her up and sat her on my finger while she got herself warmed up and dried off a bit, although she lost much of her pollen load.  I think she is a chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica).

My meadow is in its second year and is already looking better than last year (when there was a drought in spring).  It was satisfying to see a female orange tip butterfly on lady's smock.

Damselflies were out and about by mid May and I have seen large red,

common blue,

azure,

and blue-tailed damselflies.

It was only on the last day of the month that I saw my first dragonflies of the year, four-spotted chasers.  Their emergence is a couple of weeks later than last year - I expect they have been waiting for some decent weather.  The first sign was an exuvia, the discarded exoskeleton of the larva.

Close by was a brand new dragonfly about to make its maiden flight.

This one was still resting on its exuvia, with a damselfly exuvia close by.

As I watched, most of these dragonflies few into the nearby trees where they will stay for a few days until returning to the pond.

It feels as if the calendar has slipped a month.  We had March weather in April and have now had April weather in May. Apart from the last three or four days May was cold and wet, so the spring is late for some things, especially plants and insects.