This week’s summary of summer visitors arriving in the county.
With most of our summer visitors now in, from the handful left to arrive, three more spring migrants have turned up over the past week.
Although the earliest ever was on 5th April 1985, the first Turtle Dove on 25th is by no means late, considering it was found at only five localities in 2019 and its UK population has undergone a 93% decrease since 1994 (BTO). In that year, it was recorded from 23 localities and the first recorded arrival was on 24th April.
While both Wood Sandpiper and Little Tern are summer visitors to the UK, they are only passage migrants in Northants and their arrival dates this year are unremarkable.
As always, an expanded list of general migrant arrival and departure dates, including historical extremes, can be found in the annually published Northamptonshire Bird Report.
Northants birds 