Observations

Let’s hear it for Coenraad Jacob Temminck’s Stint!

A summary of the birds of May-June 2025

May started with monotonous bright sunshine and cold dawns, but as the month progressed the mornings were warmer and the sunshine relentless. By mid-month light northerlies interjected to put a slight edge on proceedings. Excellent weather for breeding birds one supposes, but rather dull for those hoping for unusual migrants dropping in… but…

The first Teal (a pair) were back mid-May, with up four by June. Up to three Shovelers have been present but breeding looks doubtful, whilst the Red-crested Pochards peaked at nine with two broods seen (briefly) so far. The usual build up of moulting Gadwall saw a flock growing to a maximum of 453 in June, but the expected adolescent Swan invasion did not materialised with a peak of only 22 (including four breeders). Have swans declined, or have the Carp reduced food resources in the South lagoons to the point where moulting there is no longer feasible?

The spring Hobby maximum was eight, generally it was a pretty poor showing for them – the spring food bonanza over the meadows didn’t materialise as the dry conditions put paid to the usual mass odonata hatchings which have typified recent springs.

The weather continued relentlessly dry and for the most part sunny. The light northerlies from mid-May produced a little vizmig with Cattle Egret, Great White Egret and an Arctic Tern all passing north in quick succession early one morning. Two Barnacle Geese followed on later that day: one suspects their final destination is unlikely to be Svalbard, Greenland or Novaya Zemlya. Late June saw a rise in Little Egret numbers with up to 13, when they were joined by another Great White Egret.

An unusually good showing of Common Sandpipers was absolutely all that the waders could really offer this spring until the birding Gods finally smiled on us with a cracking Temminck’s Stint on the scrape! The fifth Rye Meads record following three in 1957 and one in each of 1977, 1997 and 2000. Lucky late afternoon twitchers were treated to double bubble – a twenty minute appearance of a Wood Sandpiper!

Otherwise waders were restricted to the usual fare – up to four Oystercatchers and six Little-ringed Plovers doing a lot of nothing much, Lapwing numbers fluctuated around our two pairs with pulses of presumed failed nesters from elsewhere; 18 on 11th May, 20 on 23rd May and 25 on 26th May. June settled on a maximum of seven. A Snipe lingered until 6th May.

Regular as clockwork, the first returning Green Sandpiper was on the 14th June. Ten or more arrived across Herts around this time. These early returners are adult females who, having laid a clutch in the far north, leave the male to raise the brood. One marvels at their wondrously synchronised arrival back in the UK which, if Hertfordshire is anything to go by, may number many hundreds across the kingdom! All the same it wasn’t until 26th June that more than one was seen here, with three on that date. In the second half of June two early moving juvenile Little-ringed Plovers arrived in an audacious attempt to confuse the breeding picture.

Common Terns did not breed and could only manage some irregular fly-throughs of one to three birds. A late Common Gull wandered overhead in early May.

The 89 occupied nests of Black-headed Gulls on the scrape could not fail to catch the eye of our resident fox. On several occasions in mid-May it was seen walking the bank and assessing the situation. So often in fact that the appearance of an innocent Muntjac at the scrape edge would send serious alarm through the gulls and waterfowl. Inevitably it tested the waters and found eggsellent pickings, clearing the entire island of all gull nests over several nights up to the 26th May. You wouldn’t want to be sharing that fox earth…

Cuckoos have been conspicuous, with at least four regularly on site, at least two chicks produced, and males calling to the end of June all bodes well.

Two Ravens on one May day were the only excitement in the world of corvididity.

Early June saw the threat of thunderstorms (as seems usual these days) but mercifully we barely saw a drop of rain at all so our early breeding warblers seemed to get off first broods well. A couple of drizzly mornings and generally overcast conditions produced 70 Swifts and the first three of the autumn’s Sand Martins. Actually hirundine numbers have been dire. Three single Swallows in June was all, and House Martin peaked at just 13. If you think it’s because of the nice weather, I fear you’d be wrong. The dry conditions did hamper food collection for the Black-headed Gulls, and with little opportunity to gather food from the fields they resorted to fly-catching and chick survival has been low. A full breeding round up will appear in the July-August bulletin.

June Constant Effort Site netting added two quality birds (for Rye Meads) to the ringing sheets – a Nuthatch and a Linnet! Few will remember the vintage Linnet year of 1972 (485 ringed), but in the last ten years we have ringed precisely four (and Nuthatch two).

It was a shock to discover of a pair of Grasshopper Warblers feeding young in the second meadow. Further surprise followed the first Lesser Whitethroat of the year singing in the South Lagoons in late June – it turns out he was singing as a prelude to a second brood as evidenced by the three juveniles ringed there the following week! Our stoic breeding surveyor is clearly spread far too thin (or just going deaf). The breeding season; they thought it was all over…

Several ‘remnant’ species were recorded in the period: a Mistle Thrush, a male Bullfinch (with scabby feet), and a male Chaffinch. No Treecreepers, Willow Warblers or Goldcrests were noted, and Kingfishers continued scarce, being recorded on just four days in the period under review. Hopes of a Starling roost were tempered by a maximum count of 62 – and most of them headed south.