June can feel a quiet month for birds after the excitement of Spring migration and indeed birdsong will have tailed off leaving instead the scolding calls of parent birds together with the pleading calls of their young. Raising young is very much the business of June with new fledglings appearing daily and some birds embarking on second or even third broods.
With these new arrivals comes added drama as parent birds seek to keep their offspring alive with food and by fending off attacks by predators. Survival of the fittest and sometimes just the luckiest is the order of the day and it is no surprise that birds become more secretive at this critical time – staying quiet and out of view. Patience in the field is required but can reveal otherwise hidden secrets such as the location of nests or behaviours and calls only witnessed in the breeding season. Of course, avoiding any form of disturbance to breeding birds is paramount and observing from a distance essential.
At halfway through the year, June represents a pivotal point in bird movements with the great push northwards for the summer tailing off as the migration compass
swings back round to southerly movements in anticipation of winter. June can be a month of flux as non-breeders and immature birds move around, seemingly biding their time before heading off with purpose.
Waders, in particular, can turn up randomly at any suitable waterbody so regular checks can be rewarding. Ringed Plovers, Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwit are all typical while June can be a good month to look for Sanderling or Grey Plover or maybe something rarer too. Particularly notable are the return of Green Sandpipers in the second week of June – barely absent with the last birds usually having been seen just four or five weeks earlier. They represent the start of autumn migration though we have yet to have our summer!
Throughout the month gull flocks will begin to form and build comprising mainly first and second-winter non-breeding birds. Among them can be scarcer gulls such as Yellow-legged and Caspian Gulls. June has on occasion also seen the odd seabird appear with records of Fulmar, Kittiwake and Little Auk. Drivers behind such birds turning up inland can be the search for food where it has become scarce on the coast or simply inclement weather.
Lone ducks such as Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler can also appear with the regular wildfowl and are often non-breeding males starting their moult and looking very scruffy as they transition into their eclipse plumage. June is also a good month to check arable fields for Quail. Though rarely seen their far-carrying call is best picked up on still, warm evenings.
While autumn migration is yet to properly kick-in some species can nevertheless be on the move and late June can see a passage of Crossbills overhead. With big fluctuations in their numbers year on year, regular sightings in June are likely indicators of an upcoming irruption as birds move south to feed on our coniferous crops. Juvenile Stonechats too can appear on any patch of scrub – usually in the last week of June as they too disperse from the breeding grounds.
With the wider mixed movement of birds, rarities too are a possibility in June – maybe a passing Honey Buzzard overhead or a Hoopoe that has stayed under the radar in a quiet corner of a paddock!
Past June rarities have included:
Hoopoe – Hinxworth (2022)
Marsh Warbler – Kings Mead (2020)
Montagu’s Harrier – Wallington (2015)
Purple Heron – Rye Meads (2016)