JULY 2006 was a glorious month, but exceptionally quiet for birds. July 2007 was generally appalling and ... exceptionally quiet for birds.

To be fair, those that braved the rain did find a couple of goodies. Pick of the bunch was a young red-necked phalarope which dropped in at Lingham Lake, Nosterfield. This exquisite little wader has only been seen in the area on two previous occasions. The first was found on Pinker's Pond near Middleham and was seen by a single lucky tourist. The second was at Nosterfield but stayed for a mere 20 minutes so this latest bird, which was there for half a day, allowed many local birdwatchers to catch up with the species (unfortunately I wasn't one of them).

The other significant sighting was a pectoral sandpiper, a scarce American wader, which was found at Cleasby, near Darlington. This area has now notched up more than a dozen records of this species.

Other wader records of note included a good movement of black-tailed godwits late in the month with flocks of more than 20 birds at Nosterfield and Newsham ponds and smaller numbers seen at Bolton on Swale, Scorton and Pepper Arden.

Nosterfield also attracted four turnstone, and three knot and seven green sandpipers were seen together on the flooded quarry pools at Catterick.

July is one of the best months for catching up with hobby. This superb little falcon is one of the bird world's most agile fliers, being capable of catching swifts and even dragonflies in flight.

Hobbies have definitely become more regular in recent years and there has been evidence of the occasional pair nesting in the area.

This July showed a typical spread of records with sightings on four dates at Nosterfield, one watched chasing sand martins at Bolton on Swale lakes and other birds at Kepwick and Morton on Swale.

Other sightings of note during the month included red kite, Mediterranean gull and little gull at Nosterfield, barn owl near Streetlam and a female mandarin at Bolton on Swale.

Nationally, the big news in July was the appearance of a yellow-nosed albatross in Somerset. This bird, the first ever seen in Britain, was found exhausted on a beach by a dog walker. It was taken to a wildlife rescue centre where it soon recovered and was released the following day.

Unfortunately, not a single birdwatcher got to see the bird and, to rub it in further, there is a video of its release on YouTube.

For the wildlife rescue centre, this was a real missed opportunity for fundraising because the donations of the hundreds of birdwatchers who would have travelled to see this bird would have funded them for years to come.

Incredibly, what was presumably the same bird was found again on a fishing pond in Lincolnshire, again without a single birder being aware of its presence.

A belated report of a possible sighting of an albatross in Cambridgeshire this week means it may well still be in the country.

Looking ahead, August is usually the best month for wading birds as large numbers move south from their breeding grounds. Water levels are critical so look for bodies of water with a good mud edge.

Nosterfield is undoubtedly the best site and its variety of pools means there is almost always good habitat but Bolton on Swale lakes, the pools on the A66 near Newsham and the lovely little reserve at Pepper Arden are also excellent.

Dunlin, ringed plovers, green sandpipers, greenshank and ruff are all regular but August is also one of the best months for catching up with scarcer species such as wood sandpiper, spotted redshank or curlew sandpiper.