Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i Birdwatch

Eurasian Crag Martin: Bryher, Scilly, 17-21 April 2022 SPRING on Scilly, like most of the UK, had started slow on the bird front and been rather chilly weather-wise, but there were a few highlights. It had been a record spring for the gorgeous Brambling and, despite the cool weather, up to 10 Hoopoes graced the isles. Then, on Friday 15 April, Rob Lambert put out a message on the local birders’ WhatsApp group to say that he’d been on Bryher and met a birder who, when asked if he’d seen much, replied: “Not today, but yesterday I had a Woodchat Shrike and a crag martin on Tresco.” Wow! Now Scilly would be high on the list of places for a Woodchat Shrike to turn up in mid-April and, although a…

Iberian Wagtail: St Mary’s, Scilly, 13-16 April 2022 APRIL is a great month for flava wagtails on Scilly. Never common and frequently only one-day birds, they are always delightful given the variety of plumage characters on offer from the males. A few years ago I found a putative Ashyheaded Wagtail on St Agnes which, given an absence of photos or sound recordings, was unsurprisingly filed as ‘not proven’. Other birders found further candidates in 2019 and 2021, which remain in circulation. In 2018 Graham Gordon turned up Britain’s second accepted record of Iberian Wagtail – though there had been earlier sightings of good candidates on the islands. Wednesday 13 April was fairly typical, in that I was late heading home for lunch – the commute on Scilly is terrible! I…

Western Palearctic: April 2022 Southern Turkey’s great potential for rarity finding came to the fore during April, with a number of North African and Afrotropical vagrants unearthed. Near the border with Syria, Milleyha produced the country’s first Temminck’s Lark and second Egyptian Nightjar alongside no fewer than five Greater Hoopoe-Larks and two Bar-tailed Larks. Three more Greater Hoopoe-Larks were unearthed at Hancacız Dam, Gaziantep. An immature Bateleur spent several days along the Black Sea coast near Sinop from 13th, while, from the east, a putative Blackheaded Penduline Tit trapped and ringed at Aras on 6th is a potential national and Western Palearctic first. Malta also helped itself to some North African vagrants, with the discovery of an Egyptian Nightjar on 18th – the island nation’s first since 1978 – and…

For anyone who has even once taken in the slicing shape of a Common Swift or its devilish screams, each year’s first encounter is a fond reunion and an affirmation that the seasons have firmly moved forward. It may be a plain brown bird, but the species has found a special place in the public consciousness, as well as being a favourite among birders. Common Swifts are one of the latest spring migrants, only really filling our skies from early May, though a vanguard of early arrivals can move through in the last couple of weeks of April. In their time away, these birds will have flown to southern Africa and back, each bird potentially doing so without settling once. Despite barely featuring in folklore and only staying with us…

It’s 2015, and a Brazilian researcher named Rafael Bessa is conducting an ornithological census in the northeast of Minas Gerais, a large state in the centre of Brazil. Seeking to find a shortcut between census points, he takes a small dirt road that passes through a stunning valley, where the habitat is noticeably different to the rest of the Cerrado he has encountered. Suitably charmed by this new environment, he pulls over and takes some photos. A low hooting call starts emitting from a nearby patch of dense shrubbery – it is completely unfamiliar but certainly interesting. The calls persist, but the source remains hidden and the ornithologist leaves, still turning over the mysterious call inside his head. Frustrated that he was unable to confirm the sound’s identity, he returns…

PHOTOGRAPHY has become such an integral component of modern birding that just about every birder has a camera these days. For many, managing a good photo has become as important as (if not even more than) actually seeing a bird. But getting the camera settings right and ‘nailing’ a quality image is just half the story. Image processing – the course of enhancing an image by using specialist computer software – is every bit as important. Texas-based Topaz Labs has been producing photoenhancement software products since 2005, but it is only in the past couple of years that the name has begun to circulate in the UK birding scene. Having seen an array of positive feedback and some impressive results, I decided to download three of its apps: DeNoise AI,…

SOME species are widespread and easily seen – think of Woodpigeon, Black-headed Gull or Dunnock – but others are limited, to either a particular habitat, a small geographical area, or both. Pied Flycatchers, for example, are curiously limited as breeding birds to western woods. Few, though, are quite so tightly restricted to a specialist habitat as Bearded Tit. Its alternative name, reedling, proclaims its requirements. It used to require a trip to the coastal reedbeds of Suffolk and Norfolk to see one. Places such as Minsmere or Walberswick initially, while Cley and Titchwell became ideal as the species spread a little from its core sites, with a famously isolated colony at Leighton Moss in Lancashire. Now, there are Bearded Tits in more scattered sites from the West Country to Kent…

AFTER three Red-rumped Swallows were seen by Chris Hobbs on the Garrison on the evening of 1 May, I thought I would give it an hour in the dull conditions the following morning before I started work. There were 13 Northern Wheatears on the rocks and plenty of hirundines feeding on the west side of the Garrison, but not a sniff of the target species. After a crazy day at work I finally finished at 7.30 pm after dropping guests off at a restaurant at Porth Mellon. The sun was still out and it felt very warm but I only had an hour of light left to bird. As the golf course was just up road, I thought I would go and see what the crack was up there. From…

As spring days go on the Norfolk coast, it had been no better than average. I’d amassed a decent total of species on my local patch, but seen nothing truly out of the ordinary – unsurprising given the chilly north-east wind. At least the sun was shining. I got home, made a drink and joined my wife in the garden. We were watching a male Blackbird collecting food for its noisy fledgling when another slightly smaller bird appeared a short distance behind it. Backlit by bright sunlight, I couldn’t make out any colours, but the size and posture immediately piqued my curiosity. Reaching for binoculars and squinting into the glare, the puzzle quickly resolved itself. Wryneck! There are a few species, no matter the location, that always set the pulse…

Shetland in autumn is a special place for local and visiting birders. It is undeniably the place to be, sharing its gold status only with the warmer, comparatively tropical and long-established destination of the Isles of Scilly, in the extreme south-west of Britain (see Birdwatch 351: 42-44). But Shetland is now on every birder’s radar as the leaves curl brown, and exciting, volatile weather systems start to form. Shetland’s ‘mega’ status in autumn has developed over the years due it to producing unparalleled extreme vagrants, from both Siberia and North America. Being a string of more than 100 small islands isolated in the North Sea, it is the perfect location to host off-course, lost vagrants and create a hotbed of excitement for anyone out looking for them. Of course, the…

Building new roads, housing estates and shopping centres conjures up images of concrete-covered acres, but the process does have at least one positive side effect for nature – the creation of gravel pits. During the past century the thirst for gravel and sand to feed our increasingly urban nation has led to the development of many artificial nature-rich wetland habitats around the country, and these in turn have inspired generations of birders to take notice of the natural world for the first time. Like so many birders I cut my teeth at my local gravel pits, in the Lee Valley on the borders of London, Essex and Hertfordshire, at a site stretching from Waltham Abbey and Cheshunt in the south to Broxbourne and Nazeing in the north. I became hooked…

THE summer season is here and many of us will be paying a visit to a seabird colony in the coming weeks. As such, what better way to celebrate these brilliantly noisy (yet often pungent!) places than by making Kittiwake the subject of this month’s Photo Challenge. Despite a sharp decline in recent years, they can still be enjoyed in good numbers at many locations around our coasts. We look forward to seeing your photos of these gorgeous gulls. Terms and conditions Please email your entries to editorial@birdwatch.co.uk. The competition is open to anyone and you may enter as many photos as you wish. The closing date is 30 June 2022.…

IT is always worth keeping an eye on the sky when birding as many sightings are ‘flyovers’. With warmer weather, thermals of hot air encourage larger birds of prey to soar. Riding high with residents like Common Buzzard and Red Kite you might just see a late European Honey Buzzard or perhaps a wandering Black Kite from the continent. A Western Marsh or even a Montagu’s Harrier could fly over and a non-breeding Western Osprey might also be heading for an inland reservoir. Keep an eye out for warm weather across in Europe which might facilitate the appearance of some real megas, and June was the month for seeing both Egyptian and Bearded Vultures arrive recently. Perhaps a Eurasian Griffon Vulture will appear this year. Insectivorous raptors are starting to…

Pre-order your copy online now – see www.birdguides.com for details of how to subscribe and save more than 20% a year! ■ Going, going, gone? Montagu’s Harrier is suffering a decline throughout its range. It hangs on by a thread in Britain, with a tiny breeding population remaining. The RSPB’s Mark Thomas takes a closer look at this elegant bird of prey. ■ Sites of the past Deep in the annals of British birding there are mentions of sites that either no longer exist or have ceased to produce the birds they once did. Richard Bonser takes a look at the history behind some of these legendary locales of yesteryear. ■ Tracking by transmitters Ever wondered exactly which route familiar autumn migrants such as Song Thrush and Yellow-browed Warbler take…

Greater Sand Plover: Tramore, Co Waterford, 2-5 May 2022 IT was almost 5 pm on Monday 2 May and time to prepare dinner, but a rising tide and a couple of Little Stints reported across Ireland tempted me out to my local patch of Tramore Backstrand. The usual small waders were spread over the sand but something passed quickly through the lens that made me reverse and search. The black mask and sandy reddish crown really stood out, making me think of a sand plover. However, Kentish was on my mind too and I didn’t want to be wrong on this one, so sent out some shaky and distant phonescoped images to a couple of local birders. One, thinking I was still holidaying in Spain, went for Kentish. I was…

Despite the often warm and sunny weather, a persistent north-easterly airflow restricted the month’s migration action, with western areas scoring somewhat better in the passage stakes. Many areas enjoyed healthy movements of Ring Ouzel and Little Gull, although, as is often the case in the British birding calendar, Scilly proved the place to be in April. Southerly winds from midmonth saw a respectable tally of European rarities unearthed. Topping the bill were two undoubted megas: an Iberian Wagtail at Little Porth, St Mary’s, from 13-16th was followed by a Eurasian Crag Martin on Tresco and Bryher from 14-21st. It was the archipelago’s first of the latter, with the species enjoying a boom in recent years – a third of Britain’s 15 records have been documented since 2014. A subspecies of…

‘Ask not what birds can do for you, ask what you are doing to the birds’, John F Kennedy might have said if he had been a birder in Britain in the 21st century. If you’re paying attention, the disturbance of birds by many that spend their spare time peering at them is an almost daily occurrence. Much of this disturbance is driven by our desire for pictures, more and more pictures, better and closer pictures. I don’t want to fall into a birders versus photographers, holier than thou, argument; like every subset of society there is good and bad in both camps. It does appear to me, however, that we need a serious reassessment of what drives us to take pictures. Much of this activity seems driven by social…

PROFILE VINCENT VAN DER SPEK is addicted to anything birdy. An ID obsessive, he is also a member of the Dutch rarities committee. I hear two melodious notes coming from dense thickets on the edge of a reedbed: Tee dü. Four dry clicking notes follow, not unlike the call of a Lesser Whitethroat. I hit my brake pedal. It’s spring 2020 and I’m on a mission. An unprecedented Blyth’s Reed Warbler influx has hit north-west Europe and I’m trying to find one. The singing bird repeats the first phrase, followed by a complex scale of five notes, each one ascending in pitch. Yes, this must be it! For birders, the identification of small unstreaked Acrocephalus warblers long focused on the difference between the common Reed Warbler and the scarce Marsh…

Your trusted guide to what’s new in birding: www.birdguides.com/reviews REVIEW ZEISS Victory SFL8x40 binocular THIS month witnesses the launch of a new ZEISS binocular which, with shedding weight as the key objective, sees the ‘refortification’ of two models that involves a move away from standard 42 mm objectives. Casting a critical eye over the current optics market, there are already indications to suggest we are on the cusp of a forthcoming trend. And why not? Given the technological improvements in recent years, which have delivered an increase in light-gathering capacity, larger objectives are perhaps no longer assuming the same level of importance as they once did. The SFLepithet, an abbreviation of ‘Smart Focus Lightweight’, takes its cue from the already popular, larger Victory SF models at the top of the…

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THE Royal Entomological Society has designated 20-26 June as National Insect Week and there is no better time to become interested in this fascinating group of invertebrates. Many of them are essential pollinators, which ensure future generations of plants in the countryside. Just like birds, lots of them fly and migrate, some make different sounds and then there are those which present great identification challenges. There are an estimated 6,000 species of insectivorous birds in the world and a recent study showed that they eat 400-500 million tons of insects each year. About 75% of these are forest-dwelling birds, while the others live mainly in savanna and grassland areas, agricultural areas, deserts and the Arctic tundra. Watch a Spotted Flycatcher as it feeds. From its prominent perch it waits for…

RESEARCHERS set out to investigate the influence of sex and size on the migration strategy of Little Buntings at a longrunning ringing site on Heuksando, an island 90 km off mainland South Korea. Little Bunting is a passage migrant in Korea, which is on the route between wintering areas in southern Asia and their Siberian breeding grounds. The Korean Peninsula regularly hosts 13 other species of Emberiza bunting, but among these Little Bunting is unique in that males and females have such similar plumage that they cannot be reliably distinguished in the field. Ringers collected a tail feather from 124 Little Buntings caught in 16 mistnets over three migration seasons and used DNA analysis to determine the sex of each bird. The results were compared against various biometric measurements, including…

In March 2022, The Times ran an entertaining article entitled ‘Who’s the most boring? Birdwatching bean counters take prize for tedium’. I could have been offended or outraged, but honestly, I flicked my metaphorical hair and felt that I had arrived in society. Okay, I’m not an accountant (cited as the second-most boring profession after data analyst by the study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin), but I’m most definitely a birdwatcher. Frankly, I felt seen. When I first tentatively picked up a pair of binoculars more than a decade ago, this was completely alien to my friends and family. Relationships evolved to accommodate this new hobby, and I was delighted that it brought me closer to some people and led to many more deep friendships being born. On the…