Manchester Birder's July 2025 Summary

  

July was something of an enigmatic month.  It felt like a lull in parts, where I barely lifted optics for two weeks during a much needed rest; and yet I've added more birds this month to the year list than I did in a June I was praising for overperforming!  This month I went past my highest previous year list (278 in 2023) which feels a little surreal for July.  Though I'm often disappointed by local birding in the summer months my year's only Little Stint was no more than 5 miles from home.  Either end of the month was characterised by long trips, from a visit to the Scottish Borders for a beautiful Blyth's Reed Warbler on July 1st, to a boat trip across to Scilly for Shearwaters on July 29th, the summer so far has wildly exceeded my expectations heading into my favourite time of the year to be birding.  Late August and early September are always exciting times, filled with the promise of scarce migrants and visually spectacular gatherings of birds at headlands and along the peninsula of Spurn combined with long daylight hours and I'm already feeling the excitement building.

Probably the two best birding experiences of the month were the Blyth's Reed Warbler which showed so well to a tiny group of people in a beautiful riverside location, and the Laughing Gull which was so totally unexpected on the busy and sun-drenched beach of Penzance.  I'm no warbler fan boy, or larophile, but these two birds were absolutely stunning in very different ways.  The usually skulking Blyth's was so bold, the subtle colours and head shape, the stubby wings and expressive movement so obvious that it was a real education in one of the UK's most recently breeding rare birds.  The Laughing Gull was gloriously coloured, prettified for breeding, striking in the slate blue-grey mantle and perfect white-broken dark hood.  The joy of standing in summer sunlight on Penzance beach, pointing out the Laughing Gull as the closest bird to birders who were scanning way over its head into the distant gull flock was a real highlight of the whole year, and reminded me of the same experience with the Ross' Gull at a much, much colder South Shields harbour back in January.

The temptation when doing a Big Year is to only go and see birds that you "need" for the list, but that's not my way - Autumn birding is all about seeing those returning migrants streaming past and searching through flocks of thrushes landing either side of a Short-eared Owl fresh off the North Sea.  The feeling of hearing Pied and Spotted Flycatchers in the churchyard at Kilnsea competing with Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warbler for attention is just as exciting as catching a glimpse of Red-flanked Bluetail or something crazily rare like the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler of last Autumn at Bempton.  That said, there is an element of the planning of logistics that I have always enjoyed.  I tend to spend a lot of time planning birding days to maximise what I might see, and ensure that all members of the group have seen as much as they can, and the Big Year partly hooked me by offering that on a grand scale.  I would like to see at least 21 more species of birds this year, amongst them the scarce birds of the second half of the year, so I will be looking for Wryneck, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Barred Warbler (finally!), Red-backed Shrike, Black-throated Diver (can't believe I missed this during winter!), Yellow-browed Warbler, Little Bunting, Pallas's Warbler, Pallid Harrier and so on.  A special effort will go into seeking Leach's Storm Petrel from the Wirral which I have missed year after year.  I suspect Spurn, Flamborough, and Frampton Marsh might have some repeat visits from me.

Something I will be grateful for during this summer has been the kindness of the people I have met and chatted to from the online community, and the opportunity to connect with strangers while birding.  The encouragement of people like (and not limited to) Leon, Andy, "Billy", Rose, Owen, Matt, Sophie, Denise, and a host of others who I know better (cheers lads!) has held me together over a summer of bad news and ongoing difficulty. 

Highlights

Blyth's Reed Warbler, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-winged Scoter, Little Stint, Quail, White-rumped Sandpiper, Black-crowned Night Heron, Laughing Gull, Cory's Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Great Shearwater, European Storm Petrel were all year ticks.

Year List total: 279

New for me in the UK this month: 1 (Blyth's Reed Warbler)

10k circle total: 134

Birds I missed: Wilson's Storm Petrel

The Year List:

Brent Goose

Canada Goose

Barnacle Goose

Ross's Goose

Snow Goose

Greylag Goose

Taiga Bean Goose

Pink-footed Goose

Tundra Bean Goose

White-fronted Goose

Lesser White-fronted Goose

Mute Swan

Bewick's Swan

Whooper Swan

Egyptian Goose

Shelduck

Mandarin Duck

Garganey

Blue-winged Teal

Shoveler

Gadwall

Wigeon

American Wigeon

Mallard

Pintail

Teal

Green-winged Teal

Red-crested Pochard

Pochard

Ferruginous Duck

Ring-necked Duck

Tufted Duck

Scaup

Lesser Scaup

Eider

Surf Scoter

Velvet Scoter

White-winged Scoter

Common Scoter

Black Scoter

Long-tailed Duck

Goldeneye

Smew

Goosander

Red-breasted Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Red Grouse

Ptarmigan

Black Grouse

Grey Partridge

Pheasant

Quail

Red-legged Partridge

Nightjar

Swift

Cuckoo

Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)

Stock Dove

Woodpigeon

Turtle Dove

Collared Dove

Water Rail

Moorhen

Coot

Crane

Little Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Slavonian Grebe

Black-necked Grebe

Stone-curlew

Oystercatcher

Avocet

Grey Plover

Golden Plover

Pacific Golden Plover

Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plover

Lapwing

Grey-headed Lapwing

Eurasian Whimbrel

Curlew

Bar-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Jack Snipe

Woodcock

Snipe

Common Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Redshank

Lesser Yellowlegs

Spotted Redshank

Greenshank

Turnstone

Knot

Ruff

Curlew Sandpiper

Temminck's Stint

Sanderling

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper

Little Stint

White-rumped Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Collared Pratincole

Little Tern

Black Tern

Arctic Tern

Common Tern

Roseate Tern

Sandwich Tern

Little Gull

Ross's Gull

Kittiwake

Black-headed Gull

Laughing Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Common Gull

Caspian Gull

Herring Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Iceland Gull

Arctic Skua

Pomarine Skua

Great Skua

Puffin

Black Guillemot

Razorbill

Common Guillemot

Red-throated Diver

Great Northern Diver

White-billed Diver

Storm Petrel

Fulmar

Cory's Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Great Shearwater

Manx Shearwater

Balearic Shearwater

White Stork

Gannet

Cormorant

Shag

Glossy Ibis

Spoonbill

Bittern

Night-heron

Little Egret

Great White Egret

Cattle Egret

Grey Heron

Osprey

Honey-buzzard

Golden Eagle

Sparrowhawk

Goshawk

Hen Harrier

Marsh Harrier

Red Kite

Black Kite

White-tailed Eagle

Buzzard

Barn Owl

Little Owl

Long-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl

Tawny Owl

Hoopoe

Kingfisher

Bee-eater

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Green Woodpecker

Kestrel

Red-footed Falcon

Merlin

Hobby

Peregrine

Ring-necked Parakeet

Great Grey Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Jay

Magpie

Chough

Jackdaw

Rook

Carrion Crow

Hooded Crow

Raven

Coal Tit

Crested Tit

Marsh Tit

Willow Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Penduline Tit

Bearded Tit

Woodlark

Skylark

Shore Lark

Sand Martin

Swallow

House Martin

Cetti's Warbler

Long-tailed Tit

Wood Warbler

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

Great Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Blyth's Reed Warbler

Reed Warbler

Savi's Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

Blackcap

Garden Warbler

Lesser Whitethroat

Eastern Subalpine Warbler

Whitethroat

Dartford Warbler

Firecrest

Goldcrest

Wren

Nuthatch

Treecreeper

Starling

Song Thrush

Mistle Thrush

Redwing

Blackbird

Fieldfare

Ring Ouzel

Spotted Flycatcher

Robin

Nightingale

Bluethroat

Pied Flycatcher

Black Redstart

Redstart

Whinchat

Stonechat

Wheatear

Dipper

Tree Sparrow

House Sparrow

Dunnock

Yellow Wagtail

Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Tree Pipit

American Pipit

Water Pipit

Rock Pipit

Chaffinch

Brambling

Hawfinch

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Twite

Linnet

Redpoll

Common Crossbill

European Goldfinch

Siskin

Lapland Bunting

Snow Bunting

Corn Bunting

Yellowhammer

Ortolan Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Reed Bunting

Song Sparrow