In May we are starting to see some courting behaviour amongst our feathered friends, and also chicks emerging, writes
John Kitching from New Mills Wildlife Photography. It must be almost summer as I have seen plenty of swallows with their long, streaming tails catching flies over the river by Mousely Bottom Nature Reserve, and you can also hear the whistling shriek of swifts overhead, with wings that look too long for them.
I was fortunate enough to be taking photos of a male kestrel, when all of a sudden, a female flew in and invited him to mate, and remarkably I managed to get photos of that. Hopefully we will see some juvenile kestrels somewhere in New Mills in the next month.
There are plenty of goslings around, with their protective parents, and many ducklings too.
I was also shown a bucket of baby grey wagtail chicks in a local back yard – they are not the prettiest yet, but will grow to have that flamboyant, smart grey and yellow plumage.
The Merlin App shows that there is a huge variety of birds around, including redpoll, willow warblers and sedge warblers, but It is definitely harder to get photos with all the foliage out in abundance. One day I heard lots but saw nothing. I looked up and saw what I thought was a pigeon… but it turned out to be a spectacular large female sparrow hawk, lazily preening herself until her yellow eyes lit up, fully locked on to something, and she whooshed off past me. Awesome!
The spring has also seen the arrival of lapwings on the moorland. I love their unique call which reminds me of an old radio tuning in. When you see then flap past they seem to be black and white, but if you zoom in with a lens, they are a kind of iridescent green with a patch of purple, and an impressive crest.
I’ve not seen the kingfishers recently, as I think they’ve moved to breeding grounds, but hopefully there will be lots of juveniles about next month! Keep your eyes open, and listen out for cuckoos calling – some people have heard them.
