APRIL proved to be an excellent month for both weather and birdwatchers.

Pick of the birds was a superb black-winged stilt which dropped in at Nosterfield reserve on the 25th. It stayed for a mere ten minutes and only a handful of lucky observers connected with it.

Fortunately, it returned a couple of days later and spent half a day feeding on Lingham Lake. This striking pied wader, named for its incredibly long legs, is an exceptionally rare visitor to Yorkshire and this bird represents the first local sighting.

But my favourite bird in April has to be the white-tailed eagle which I found soaring incongruously over fields near Ainderby Steeple. This giant raptor, with its 8ft wingspan, was so unexpected that, when I rang my wife to tell her, I was breathing so heavily she thought it was a dirty caller!

This individual was originally part of the reintroduction scheme in Scotland and had also been seen in Northumberland before it flew into Yorkshire. After Ainderby, this bird went on a grand tour of the North, and was last seen being chased off by the resident golden eagle at Haweswater in the Lakes.

It’s always fascinating to follow these movements of individual birds and ornithologists have used advances in modern technology to do exactly that. Of particular interest are the Scottish ospreys which have been fitted with satellite tracking devices.

These allow incredibly accurate mapping of their movements all the way from the Highlands to their wintering grounds in Africa. Among the findings is evidence of how often the birds use the Swale as part of their return journey, including two birds which spent a few days near Thrintoft last August. The birds ranged across to Scruton, Kirkby Fleetham and Morton on Swale, but despite this, I’m not aware of a single sighting of these birds.

As I mentioned last month, it’s always worth keeping a lookout for black-tailed godwits passing through the area in April and they didn’t disappoint this year with a superb passage about the 19th.

Peak counts were an astonishing 109 birds at Newsham Ponds and 59 at Nosterfield, with up to ten birds at another half-dozen sites.

Birds continued to pass through for the next couple of days, so the totals involved must have numbered several hundred.

Other sightings of note during April included a red kite at Morton on Swale, with a possible second bird over the A19, a marsh harrier at Thorpe Farm, osprey near Boltby, and a very unusual record of a black-necked grebe flying low over County Hall, Northallerton. The Nosterfield area attracted two cranes, Mediterranean and little gull, up to six Arctic terns, and a record count of whooper swans, with a total of 95 birds seen at Lingham on the 2nd.

May is one of the best months for finding rare birds.

Nosterfield is always a good bet, particularly for the possibility of some rare American waders, but Bolton on Swale lakes also have a good track record for turning up the unusual, particularly rarer water birds and terns. I would also recommend a trip to Newsham Ponds, near the A66, which are in absolutely perfect condition for attracting waders.

However, as the white-tailed eagle showed, even regular watching of your own local patch might just turn up a surprise.