Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Birdwatch

Britain and Ireland August 2025 AUGUST started with a heatwave, continued with a mixed bag of Atlantic storms and short spurts of easterlies, then ended with the combative arrival of Hurricane Erin. Wilson’s Storm Petrel has led from the front this summer, and August continued where July left off in that regard, with unprecedented numbers throughout. The cumulative 2025 total for Wilson’s from Scilly Pelagics hit a crazy 514 by 31st (smashing the previous record of 399 set last summer) and this was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the national picture was concerned, with August’s overall total hitting 439 individuals for Britain and 220 for Ireland. New records were set from land too: the passage of Storm Floris on 4th saw a new land-based high of…

Who would have thought there would be enough birding films for the pastime to verge on becoming a genre of its own? In our household it has become traditional to watch The Big Year at Christmas. This is the best-known title, but it is far from the only cinematic release devoted to birding. When I was 14, I noticed a film titled The Hide in the TV listings and persuaded my parents to switch over on the off chance it was bird-related. To my delight, it was. The species the birder was seeking, to improbably complete the British list, was the same as on my first twitch: Sociable Lapwing. This tense chamber piece, filmed in a hide at Elmley NNR, Kent, was unsettling. Despite the painfully square birder at its…

Skokholm’s Old Red Sandstone cliffs, glowing crimson in the sun and darkening to rich claret in the rain, provide a spectacular setting for one of Britain’s most special seabird colonies. Stone tools reveal the presence of people from the late Mesolithic and burial urns highlight its significance during the early Bronze Age. However it was not until the 20th century that a scientific eye fell upon the island. Pioneering ornithologist Ronald Lockley and his soon-to-be wife Doris Shellard first arrived in 1927 to “dwell alone with birds and flowers in some remote place where they were plentiful and undisturbed”, with plans that a smallholding and rabbit farming would provide a livelihood. Ronald made detailed observations and Doris painted, with Ronald’s first published record concerning the sighting of a Lesser Whitethroat…

With the BirdGuides app, autumn migration gets even more exciting: • Get instant one-click directions to your map provider for sighting, parking and access pins. • View all sightings on an interactive map. • Scan the day’s rarity highlights with colour-coded reports. • Filter the birds you want to see and where you wish to see birds on your patch. Last month, the all-new BirdGuides app alerted thousands of birders to a true mega rarity – Britain’s second Black-winged Kite! Don’t miss a mega this autumn! Access the UK’s No.1 bird sighting service on any device for just £1.25 per week. Be the first to know of migrating rarities and make the most of the autumn migration. Subscribe to BirdGuides from as little as £1.25 per week, to receive instant, accurate, trusted…

BIRDS have an amazing ability to balance, which they use when perching, walking, climbing or flying. Just watch a bird perching in a tree during a high wind or a hovering kestrel or kingfisher keeping its head perfectly still. This is all done by two different balancing systems. The vestibular system for controlling balance is equivalent to that found in humans. Inside the ear are three semicircular canals with two chambers attached – the utricle and saccule and a third separate chamber, the lagena, not found in humans. The semicircular canals are particularly linked to balance and the detection of acceleration and gravity, containing fluid which flows along as a bird’s head moves, stimulating tiny hairs inside the canals. The movement of these hairs sends a signal to the brain…

Tell us what you think. Write to: The Editor, at: Birdwatch, Warners Group Publications plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH or email editorial@birdwatch.co.uk  www.facebook.com/birdwatchmagazine  @BirdwatchExtra New exhibition I’d like to let Birdwatch readers know about my new exhibition, Prey, which features a series of paintings that examine the intimate majesty and primal focus of birds of prey. The collection invites viewers into the sharp-eyed world of hawks, falcons and owls. Inspired in part by J A Baker’s cult classic, The Peregrine, the exhibition explores themes of pursuit, hunger, solitude, and the animal sublime. “The peregrine lives in a solitude of distance and silence,” Baker wrote. I hope that each painting echoes Baker’s obsession with precision and presence, compelling us to look longer and to see more deeply.…

Western Palearctic August 2025 IT went under the radar for many, but August saw a mini-influx of Paddyfield Warblers into north-west Europe. The species must be one of the most cryptic vagrants to the region that largely goes unseen by field birders, with a significant majority being found in mistnets. Birds in Belgium, Luxembourg and at Lac de Grand-Lieu, France, were all trapped and ringed, with only one (at Cléden-Cap-Sizun, France) visible in the field. To put it into context, out of the 47 Belgian records, a mere five have been sighted in the field. Despite long-distance vagrancy of Cream-coloured Courser being widely predicted to increase with the onset of warming temperatures and the recent breeding of the species in Spain, the taxon remains stubbornly rare in northern Europe and…

Campaign group Right to Roam is confidently predicting a government Green Paper on further access provisions for England and, as I wrote a couple of months ago, this worries me because of the potential harm to wildlife. Increased countryside access sounds like a good thing on paper but it could potentially be both good or bad. I wouldn’t trust this wildlife-unfriendly Labour government to do it well. I’ve been struck by how my concerns seem to chime with many naturalists. Three supportive letters appeared in the September issue (Birdwatch 399: 68). I talked to Cornish birders a few weeks ago and not surprisingly they were concerned at the existing level of coastal disturbance. Social media and my inbox have also revealed supportive views, although I treasure the remark suggesting I…

Having spent four decades birding the Yorkshire coast, it is without doubt the spectacle of autumn falls that linger longest in the memory. Last October found me hunkered down on the cliffs marvelling at the sight of squadrons of thrushes skimming the waves as they approached the coast. It proved impossible not to feel personally invested in each bird’s struggle to make landfall, nor feel for the unfortunate Song Thrush that was caught by an Arctic Skua after a protracted chase mere metres from safety. Later the same day I saw what looked like a leaf fluttering in the breeze high above me. Suddenly it dropped like a stone, proving impossible to focus on. I remained unsure of its identity until it landed on a nettle a metre from my…

Chee-ow! The call rings out and I watch a jet-black bird rise on the wind, his long, curved bill blood-red, matching red feet neatly curled into his belly. His broad wings with long-fingered primaries give him effortless mastery of the air. At the top of his arc, he folds his wings and swoops down before his wings flick open and he soars upwards once again. This time there’s an answering call from below and a female rises to join him in the joyous territorial rollercoaster display. Satisfied, they leave the stage flying in close formation, wing-tip to wing-tip, mirroring each other, their pair-bond evident as they bank and glide along the cliffs in perfect accord. Another breeding season has begun for this long-established pair. They land, probing the shortcropped turf…

Top of the tree THE WILDGuides series has long established itself as a mainstay among wildlife-identification guides treating Britain, Europe and beyond. This is the latest instalment in a burgeoning series of books that covers not only birds but also mammals, dragonflies, moths, orchids and much more besides. Written by expert Jon Stokes, who draws on more than 30 years’ experience, this book follows a formula with which any WILDGuides owner will be familiar. A fascinating introductory section examines tree biology and life cycles, habitat niches, management and a brief history of British forest cover, before a 45-page ID section gives a general overview of how to recognise tree species by looking at their leaves, flowers, catkins, berries buds or twigs. Following this are the species accounts, which are typically stuffed…

Pre-order your copy online now – see www.birdguides.com for details of how to subscribe and save more than 20% a year! ■ Inside the box Birding could be a much less enticing prospect in British weather without hides. David Callahan investigates their history and uncovers unusual examples from around the world. ■ From the desert to the dunes Desert Wheatear has a special place in British birding culture, with many suggesting its appearance on these shores in late autumn signals the end of the migration season. Simon Papps takes a look at this desirable desert dweller. ■ Returning a goose Lesser White-fronted Goose is one of the most attractive goose species, but also among the most threatened. Sarah Nordlinder and her colleagues discuss the reintroduction project in Sweden, birds from which…

Finder’s Report Zitting Cisticolas, Walberswick NNR, Suffolk, August 2025 ONE of the most surprising events of the British birding year was the confirmation of breeding Zitting Cisticolas on the Suffolk coast. Here, finder Matthew Denny (MD) and local birder Brian Small (BS) discuss this remarkable story. MD: Every August my family and I stay in Walberswick on the Suffolk coast, living near Montpellier, France, for the rest of the year. On Thursday 31 July, we took the first walk of our stay across the marshes at Walberswick NNR. Approximately 500 m south of the caravan site I heard a repetitive and insistent birdsong from the direction of the beach. The tone sounded like that of a Zitting Cisticola, a species that is common around our French home, but against the…

This month’s panel: Mike Alibone, Keith Betton, Dexter Gordon, Rob Hume and Josh Jones The best tips, advice and more www.birdguides.com ZEISS Pro-Series Tripod Universal Kit AS the range of tripods available of the market continues to grow, ZEISS has added two more designed for easy use by birders and photographers alike. The Pro-Series comprises the Lightweight Kit, designed to offer perfect balance between stability and weight and is primarily aimed at birders and travellers, and the Universal Kit, which is the more rugged of the two and aims to deliver optimal stability in any situation. At a total equipment weight of 2.8 kg, the latter is 33% heavier than the Lightweight Kit but I was keen to see just how well it performed in terms of stability, as well as…

The best tips, advice and more www.birdguides.com FOR me – and most birders, I imagine – October is the month when autumn really gets into gear. The residual warmth of late summer may linger on some days, but there’s no denying the approach of winter. In the bird world, it’s a time of comings and goings, as the last of the summer migrants head south, while winter visitors begin to pile in from across the North Sea, with the promise of Siberian vagrants on their coat tails. In the garden, change is everywhere. Leaves turn and fall, herbaceous plants die back and the garden feels less inviting on the colder, darker evenings. It’s tempting to tidy, to sweep, to cut and to ‘put the garden to bed’, but October is…

THE Azores is an autonomous region of Portugal and an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, some 1,500 km north-west of Morocco. There are nine major islands in three groups. These are Flores and Corvo to the west; Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico and Faial in the centre; and São Miguel, Santa Maria and the Formigas Islets to the east. They extend for more than 600 km from west to east. There are fewer than 30 breeding species on the islands, but importantly these include Azores Bullfinch on São Miguel and the widespread and recently split Azores Chaffinch. In addition, Atlantic Canary is widespread and elsewhere occurs only on Madeira and the Canary Islands. Most of the breeders are present all year, but your chances of seeing Azores Bullfinch are…

There are times when I wonder if I’ll ever go twitching again. Even birding, which can be planned, sometimes seems unattainable. I managed a dash to see a Caspian Tern at Eyebrook Reservoir in July but only managed to devote 10 minutes to watching it. When asked if I would be going to see the Zitting Cisticolas at Walberswick, I consulted my diary and realised it would be optimistic to ask them to hang around until mid-November. These are just the realities of life, a child and a long-distance relationship. And then there are hundreds of cakes to bake for the school PTA, the children’s birthday parties always scheduled at 2 pm on a Saturday, playdates, occasionally checking in with adult friends, exercising, eating, swimming, gymnastics, ballet … classes that…