Birds spotted in May - July - beautiful birds at our doorstep

Birds spotted in May – July

Every year my wife and I are counting the individual bird species we spot each month. Always in the beginning of the year, we reset the list and start over again. Once we have seen a species for the first time in the year, we add it to the present months list. Sometimes we are very lucky and spot a bird we have never seen before. In bird nerd language this is called a life bird or a lifer. In this article I will be listing the birds spotted in the months of May to July.

List of species

Months May to July have been a bit lazy with regards to birding. We have quite a large garden and were working non stop with very little possibilities to go to the woods. Although we only were able to spot 7 new bird species those are fantastic sightings. Below you find a list of species of birds spotted in May, June and July. All of those birds have been spotted either around our house or just a couple of kilometers away.

- Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus)
- Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)
- Ural owl (Strix uralensis)
- Golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus)
- Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)
- Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops)
- House martin (Delichon urbica)

Life birds

Compared to January, February, March and April we spotted one lifer. It’s the beautiful Golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus). The bird was perching on a tree in our garden but the light wasn’t good enough to take a decent picture. We did see it a couple of times again when walking the dogs but I didn’t bring a camera.

Ural owl

The Ural owl (Strix uralensis) is a large nocturnal owl that lives in small numbers in the forests surrounding us here in the Przemysl foothills. Our neighbor was working in the forest and told me about a bird he saw making strange noises and believed it was a buzzard. This draw my attention and my wife and did a little bike tide to the forest. After a while I was able to spot a large adult bird perching in the trees. I took a couple of shots and we were about to leave the forest again. When I walked back to my wife I literally almost fell over a chick. I had to pinch me in the arm but the chick was still there. We were obviously way to close and slowly walked away. After taking a picture we decided to give them some space and returned home. My wife an I are very cautious and respectful when it comes down to wildlife watching and even more careful when young ones are around. Hence I waited a couple of days and went there alone. I tracked down a tree where two chicks were perching. What I also noticed was that a pine martin was showing up (already last time we saw it). When leaving the forest I found an Ural owl chick leg. At first I was quite sad about this finding but what ever animal did that needs to eat as well and maybe this was the work of the martin.

Some impressions

Find below a couple of birds spotted in May – July and caught on camera. I usually use a 500mm f/4 lens that gives me enough space between the bird and me and makes sure I don’t distract my little friends.