Big Year 2026: May Update
Already we are halfway through the year! It’s crazy how fast this year is flying by!
This month hasn’t been plain sailing! When I returned home from working away, I was in hospital, three days later I returned home after an operation to remove my appendix! So trips out has been hard with not being able to drive and under doctors instructions rest. Well that’s what I have had to do! As time has gone on, I was able to do short trips out, all the trips this month has been thanks to my brother driving and helping! What a legend!
The Highlights
The highlights this month there is only one visit which I can name to be the best highlight! Gladly this was before the hospital visits and I’ll be honest to beat this, it would have been a hard one! At the start of the month, the day after the April update was posted we adventured off to another new site for us and I will say it didn’t disappoint! RSPB Otmoor was action the second we got out of the car!
The first bird we heard the infamous Cuckoo! Having heard one, but not seen, this was high on the list for the day. As we walked down the first path, already seen 15 different species, including a Sparrow Hawk on the hunt however, the best was yet to come.
As we carried on walking within the reserve, we kept hearing the Cuckoo. Then we stopped at a junction and tried to decide which way we were going to go. Then out of no where, there it was! The Cuckoo, in a tree about 20 feet from us! I snapped a rough picture and pointed it out to my brother. Then all hell broke out, as 4 more came into sight! Two of them landed in a tree where we both got some amazing photos and footage from my brother!
After about 20 minutes with these stunning cuckoos and both of us having huge smiles on our faces after what we had just experienced, we then moved towards a place where we were told that Hobby’s were seen earlier that day! So off we went in the hope to see these stunning birds! After about 10 minutes there, one appeared at height and circling and hunting and eating on the wing. This one then left and within 10 minutes, another one, this time in front of us at the back, the next thing we saw 2 more, then another appeared totaling 4 Hobbys all hunting. What I love about these birds, they hunt and eat on the wing, crazy! Mainly eating large flying insects like dragon flies to hunting small birds.
Otmoor will be a place we will be returning at some point this year, whilst we know we got fortunate to see what we did, we want to see what else that has in store for us!
Towards the middle of the month after starting to recover, my brother took me out a few times as I still can’t drive. Even though we stayed local, we still saw a couple of new birds which was great to seem, even if they were glances!
Big Year Progress
Some of the new species added to the list are:
Cuckoo
Hobby
Egyptian Goose
Common Sandpiper
Greenshank
Cetti’s Warbler
Sedge Warbler
Garden Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
Whitethroat
Redstart
Yellow Wagtail
Bullfinch
As I said before, my goal for this big year is simple: record every new species I spot. If you’d like me to include monthly stats or breakdowns, let me know in the comments and I’ll start adding them.
May wasn’t the easiest to see new birds, but thanks to Otmoor and my brother it was a decent month under the circumstances.
Still, I’m thrilled to say that for March, I recorded 14 new bird species! This brings my total number of different species to 115!
If you’re following along with your own list, how many did you spot this month?
May Gallery
Here are some of the photos I managed to capture this month:
