Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Birdwatch

TUESDAY 20 February 2024 started off like any other Tuesday at this time of year, with nothing much planned due to the weather. It was a little before 11.30 am when I decided to pop into the kitchen for a cuppa and take a glance at the feeders, which I often like to do. I have a small lane and some mature trees between the house and a nearby river – this habitat means that I get plenty of feeder visitors including tit species and regular Eurasian Nuthatch. However, when I looked out on this occasion, what caught my eye was a vivid yellow rump disappearing over the fence being pursued by a European Robin. An aberrant Eurasian Bullfinch? I went to grab my camera but realised it had no…

Unsettled weather again defined February across Britain and Ireland, with changeable conditions meaning many experienced a mix of torrential rain, bright sunshine, brisk wind and a scattering of snow and ice. This was in contrast to the birding on offer, which remained steady and saw a number of winter visitors bedded in for the duration of the month. Autumn 2023 may have felt like a lifetime ago, but it always seemed likely there might be a surprise or two yet to come following that unprecedented arrival of Nearctic rarities last year. This came to fruition in Ayrshire, as Kilwinning played host to a popular Myrtle Warbler from 20th (see page 8). Incredibly, this is the 28th species of American landbird sighted in Britain and Ireland since the beginning of September.…

Birders have so much to think about when moving house. Never mind the council tax band and whether the area is still ‘up and coming’ economically – we need to know how close we are to the nearest marshes and whether there are any good leading lines for visible migration. Moving more than a few miles can completely change one’s birding prospects. It can be tough to say goodbye to a local patch. After all those years of putting in hours at a favourite site, getting to know its birds and building an impressive patch list, the thought of making it work long-distance might even cross your mind. But a clean break is for the best and a new area offers an exciting fresh start. Just make sure you time…

THIS book takes a look at the climate and biodiversity crises through the lens of 10 UK species that are being affected. It takes first-time author Sophie Pavelle on a low-carbon journey around the country as she seeks to encounter each of the 10. The chosen species are an eclectic mix, including beetles, bats, grasses and fish, among others. Two bird species are represented: Black Guillemot and Merlin. Using a combination of train, bike, foot and the occasional hire car or lift, Pavelle heads to known hotspots for each species, meeting up with experts along the way. As she attempts to see each one, the conservationists she speaks to explain the different and, more often, interconnected threats facing the plants and animals featured. There are a lot. These species –…

ALTHOUGH well known to American birders, Belize is much less frequently visited by Europeans. It has been overshadowed by Costa Rica, which has a much bigger bird list. Despite being small, it has a wide range of habitats, from the northern coastal savannas to the southern semi tropical lowland forest and montane pine forest and cloudforest. River trips or visits to Maya ruins such as Altun Ha, and especially Lamanai, are very rewarding and will reveal birds as well as culture. Unusually for a Central American country, English is the official language, but relatively few UK tour operators feature Belize. So, you’ll probably have to organise your own tour and use a local guide for the best results, particularly as car hire is prohibitively expensive. Southern parts of Belize have…

APRIL’S digital edition has bonus content, including: Video of Garganey; Black and Common Redstart footage; Film of spring migrants; Bonus photographs of Banda Sea species; More images and videos of the latest rarities and scarcities. The digital edition is available for PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad and Android. Sample issues are free, and subscriptions or single copies can be purchased. Visit www.pktmags.com/bw-digital to find out more. Birdwatch subscriber issues are delivered in a paper envelope so you can easily recycle them in your usual recycling collection.…

IN an autumn and winter of mega Nearctic vagrants, Holboell’s Red-necked Grebe won’t fill many birder’s headline slots – but one at Quendale Bay, Shetland, from 5-15 February, is undoubtedly one of the rarest birds to be found during the American bonanza. Only in-hand measurements can definitively separate the North American and East Asian holboellii form of Red-necked Grebe, which has occurred only once in Britain and sits in Category B owing to a single specimen record from Gruinard Bay, Highland, in September 1925. More recently, birds have appeared in France and Iceland. A credible British claim off Barra, Outer Hebrides, from January-March 2018, was only documented in the field and thus couldn’t make the grade. The Shetland bird’s appearance was certainly suggestive of holboellii. The bird’s large, thickset bill,…

12-14 July 2024 Lyndon Top, Rutland Get your free ticket* to this year’s event, worth £15, when subscribing to Birdwatch magazine or when taking out a membership to the UK’s number one bird sighting service, BirdGuides. Meet with fellow nature enthusiasts, participate in engaging talks and learn from expert speakers in the field. This is one event you will not want to miss! Get your free ticket at: www.bit.ly/globalbirdfair24 Main Media Sponsors for Global Birdfair 2024 *Introductory offer valid with an annual direct debit subscription. Offer expires 10 June 2024. A redeemable voucher code for your Global Birdfair ticket will be sent before the 12th July 2024 via email.…

Do you ever think back to old relationships and wonder what might have been? Where are they now? Would it have worked? No, nor me, except when it comes to our leaving the EU. As a Remainer I didn’t break up with the EU, and it didn’t break up with me – it was the 51.9% of you out there who caused the break-up. I can’t help wondering what might have been. Someone wrote to me recently pointing out that the Scottish and UK governments’ recent banning of industrial sandeel fishing was something that would have been difficult if we had stayed attached to the 448 million fellow Europeans in the most important trading partnership in the world, and I had to agree. This was a positive policy move and…

In the lowlands of northern Bolivia’s Beni Department, occupying the south-west corner of the vast Amazon basin, lies the Llanos de Moxos. Also known as the Beni Savannas, the area is a mosaic of savannas and wetlands, dappled with forest islands and patterned with rivers running down from the eastern slopes of the Andes. Spanning approximately 126,100 sq km, this neotropical ecoregion is a rich haven of biodiversity and endemism. Here, deep in these seasonally inundated plains, lives one of the world’s rarest birds: Blue-throated Macaw. With its namesake vibrant turquoise plumage covering its wings, tail feathers and throat over a bright yellow breast and belly, Blue-throated Macaw was so rare as to be thought extinct until its rediscovery in 1992. Although still Critically Endangered, the 2016 census found the…

THE work of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) should need no introduction. His contribution to the theory of evolution is increasingly recognised (even if it still lags some way behind Darwin’s in terms of acknowledgement) and he is widely considered the ‘father of modern biogeography’, writing about the now eponymous ‘Wallace’s Line’ that broadly divides the faunas of Indonesia into Sundaic and Australasian, in a region also widely known as Wallacea. For those with even a passing interest in Asian ornithology or evolutionary biology, these facets of his contribution will be known, perhaps mostly due to the works of Wallace himself, especially The Malay Archipelago, arguably one of the best zoological travelogues of the 19th century. What is far less known is the life of the man himself. James T Costa…

IN this, his seventh book, West Sussex-based author and campaigner Roger Morgan-Grenville diarises a collection of vignettes of hope and conservation optimism gathered from a 970-mile walk across England and Scotland. Setting out from Lymington on the Hampshire coast, Roger explains that his vision was to progress north to Cape Wrath Lighthouse in Scotland at a pace of 20 miles per day, mirroring the rate of oak-leaf emergence as spring makes its way gradually northwards across the country. As well as being a fantastic way to experience the birth of a British springtime there was also a purpose to the walk, as the author raised £17,000 for Curlew Action, the charity he co-founded with Mary Colwell and others to help boost the fortunes of this iconic but rapidly declining wader.…

THE most important sense for a bird is vision and most species devote a large portion of their brain to it. There is a wide difference in vision between the different bird families, and this is largely to do with food type and feeding methods. Owls catching mice, terns catching fish, swallows catching insects and sparrows finding seeds all have different visual requirements to be successful. Light-sensitive receptors are cones, which are used in daylight and provide colour vision, and rods, which are used in dim light, resulting in mainly black-and-white images. The density of these receptors differs. In pigeons it is 328,000 cones per sq mm, for House Sparrow it is 400,000 per sq mm and for Common Buzzard it can reach 1,000,000 per sq mm (in humans it…

■ Avian stowaways Is it OK to tick a rarity that hasn’t arrived under its own steam? Where do we draw the line with such records? Sam Viles ponders why the subject of ship assistance causes so much controversy among birders. ■ Putting on a show In spring, birds driven by the prospect of breeding perform an extraordinary range of displays. Sarah Harris looks at some of the weird and wonderful courtships that can be seen on UK shores. ■ West Midlands mainstay Steve Nuttall profiles his beloved Belvide Reservoir, a place that has forged a reputation as one of the premier inland birding sites in the entire country. ■ Black gold This month’s ID feature focuses on finding Black Terns in spring and autumn, including the best habitats and…

We are all different in the way we learn. For example, I’ve never learned much from simply reading a book. I must repeatedly experience something, copy out notes and test myself to make something stick in my addled brain. Others can pick things up by scanning a piece of text. I need to understand the why and how: I couldn’t drive a car until someone explained how an engine worked. It’s the same with birds. Just labelling a species won’t do, nor will reading the annotations in a field guide. One method of ‘learning’ which I can’t fathom is through bird identification groups on Facebook. I’m part of one with more than 20,000 members, and that’s just for the UK. I believe in welcoming anyone interested in our wonderful hobby.…

It was impossible to keep Cape Verde out of the headlines at the start of 2024. February saw seabirds take to the fore, including the announcement of the first successful recorded breeding of White-tailed Tropicbird in the Western Palearctic, after an adult and chick were noted in a burrow on Ilhéu de Cima on 13th. A pair first attempted to breed on the islet in 2020. Following the discovery of multiple Black-capped Petrels off the coast of Santo Antão among rafts of breeding Fea’s Petrels a year ago, birds were again logged off Ponta do Sol on four dates early in the month. Might a nesting pair be the next seabird discovery from this exciting archipelago? A Magnificent Frigatebird was reported from Sal, where the White-faced Whistling Duck and Lesser…

Whether it be the sweet, cascading song of a Willow Warbler, the sight of a Swallow skipping through a bright blue April sky or the white flash of a Northern Wheatear’s tail as it flicks along a footpath, we all have our own idea of what constitutes the ultimate sign that spring has arrived. Every year, up and down the country, birders are joyed by their first encounters with returning summer migrants. Such moments are very intimate, representing personal milestones in our birding years and rejuvenating our love for the hobby, as well as providing optimism for the season ahead. The appearance of these common migrants can be relied upon each year, but the timing and pattern of their arrivals varies annually as numerous factors take their toll: no two…

THE Where to Watch guides have a strong and loyal following that dates back to the 1980s. In fact, the original guide for Surrey, Sussex and Kent first appeared in 1987, and the fifth edition of that book was published in 2009. Importantly, this is a completely new book by different authors, but with that said, it is hard not to make comparisons with the original title. In my view, that book was overly complicated with 19 regional subdivisions to cover both counties. This new book divides the region into nine zones – a welcome simplification. In total, 96 sites are dealt with in detail (35 for Surrey and 61 for Sussex) and in addition there are brief summaries for 109 further sites (59 and 50 respectively) where the location was…