If Spring ends on 19 May, as I think it does for me, then Summer is about to morph into Autumn. I know there is the whole of July and August that many people would regard as Summer, but the birds are telling me that Autumn is fast approaching.
Sitting in my garden the other day I watched a party of c35 Swifts heading SW up the line of the Nene Valley. Maybe they were failed breeders, or perhaps non-breeding young birds who came to check out potential breeding sites with a view to using them next year.
And the occasional Swallows I see from the garden are now more often heading SW whereas in April and May they were heading NE.
If I see a migrating wader at this time of year then it’s a bit of a toss-up to know whether it is geading north or south on its journey. And the local-ish Lapwings are all in flocks with this years young in them.
And there are two locally interesting pieces of news from nearby in east Northants. At my local patch of Stanwick Lakes, Mediterranean Gulls have bred successfully (so far) and have quite large chicks. I haven’t been to Stanwick that much this Spring but on my visits I have scanned the Black-headed Gull colony without spotting any Med Gulls (although I knew they should be there) but I have had sightings from my garden of occasional Med Gulls with the Black-headed Gulls.
And not far away, down the valley, Cattle Egrets have again nested successfully in Northants after their first nesting last year.
Med Gulls and Cattle Egrets nesting within 4 miles of home? East Northants feels like the Mediterranean – and at midday the temperature was touching 28C heading for 30C this afternoon.
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