Gonna break some records in the month of May

Here are the results of the May bird list challenge panel:

May 3
Black swan (Brockholes)
Skylark (")

May 4
Song thrush (Bowness-on-Windermere)
Common gull (Lake Windermere)

May 5
Yellow-legged gull (Lake Windermere)
Housemartin (Windermere village)

May 6
Reed bunting (Brockholes)

May 11
Dipper (Uppermill)

May 13
Swift (Leeds University)

May 19
Ring-necked parakeet (Sefton Park, Liverpool)

May 28
Blackcap (Mossley)

Year total: 75 species

A couple of rather unlikely additions in there, together with a couple that I might have expected to have ticked off earlier. I'm fairly certain that I've heard blackcaps several times over the last few weeks but had not managed to see one and wasn't 100% confident in my ability to identify the song. So it was a relief to finally get this one ticked off at the end of the month with some decent views.

A couple of stops at Brockholes reserve near Preston on the way to/from the Lakes proved fruitful (despite our daughter not allowing us to spend much time exploring the wider reserve), and I certainly wasn't expecting to see a black swan. The Swedish blue duck is definitely not a species that I was aware of, and it's thanks to Akira and Fiona's efforts on internet search engines that we achieved this group tick.

The big bonus for me though was the ring-necked parakeet as I wasn't expecting this to feature in my list this year, unless I could engineer a trip to London at some stage (although I believe there are some knocking around South Manchester). It turns out that there is a small population that regularly gather in Sefton Park.

A week in Norfolk beckons so I'm hoping for a few more to boost the tally further. Looking over the full list, I think I'm now pretty much at my upper limit for what I might have expected at the start of the year. I've certainly got all of the regular visitors to the garden and local area.