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May was cooler than normal and winds were hardly conducive to a good spring passage. That said, those that persevered got their rewards with two observers seeing the county's ninth Black Kite, firstly near Codnor Res and then two days later over Wyver Lane.
More obliging was the county's longest staying Glossy Ibis, the seventeenth county record, which often showed exceptionally well at Carr Vale over sixteen days, but which has since moved on to Suffolk.
The long-staying Great Northern Diver finally departed on the 12th; three Cattle Egrets at Willington were the first triplet in the county, I believe; four Spoonbills were flyovers apart from a brief one at Carsington. The rarest passerine was an elusive Wood Lark that spent four days at Pleasley Pit.
Bitterns were at two sites in the north-east (one heard booming); up to three Great White Egrets at eight sites (thirteen birds logged, including two away from the Trent); six Marsh Harriers; eleven Ospreys; Kittiwake and two Mediterranean Gulls.
Wader and Tern passage was poor; single Little and Sandwich Terns, both at Ogston, plus low numbers of Arctic Terns at just five sites; the best waders were a couple of flyover Avocets at two sites in the Trent Valley and a Wood Sandpiper, also in the Trent Valley.
Other waders included Black-tailed Godwits at Carsington and Willington, Turnstones at four sites, Sanderling and Greenshank at three sites and just one Grey Plover. Ogston scored a site record count of 99 Dunlin. Not a classic May I'd have to say!
Mark Beevers