Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2020 i Bird Watching

AWASH WITH ARGENTINE One of our largest butterflies, Silver-washed Fritillary seems to be doing well, spreading to new areas and even being seen in gardens. BEE Flower fairy Flower bees are robust bees, some of which nest in walls or cliffs. The UK has five species, although one is very rare indeed. Green-eyed Flower Bee is the most enchanting, with huge verdant gems for eyes flanking a largely yellow face. This is a specialist of southern England’s heathlands, where it nests in sandy, typically south-facing slopes including small, soft cliffs. INSECT Heading northwards July is the start of orthopteran season proper, inviting us to celebrate the geographical success of the Long-winged Conehead. Once considered rare enough in Britain to be part of the Red List of nationally-threatened animals, a warming…

BIRD 1 This is a flying wader, and like many waders it has a clean white belly and undertail coverts. The head though is brown, with a very little streakiness on the upper breast. There is a dark eyestripe, contrasting with a longish, pale supercilium (pale ‘eyebrow’ stripe). The medium-sized bill is straight or with a tiny amount of ‘droop’. The tail is long enough to easily ‘cover’ the relatively short yellow-green legs and feet. The other distinctive feature is the striping on the underwing (hard to see). That underwing in itself should be enough to rule out many waders with medium length straight bills; indeed it should narrow it to the Common Sandpiper, a ‘forgotten’ bird which breeds by streams and lakes in the uplands of northern and western…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS A great reserve to visit at any time of the year, with a whole variety of habitats as well as the famous Barnacle Geese, once reduced to just 360 birds left in the world. It is also noted for its Natterjack Toads in spring. JOHN MILES WHERE TO WATCH 1 As you drive towards the centre, check the reedbed for Reed Warbler, which is scarce in Dumfries and Galloway. Look over the fields for geese and raptors. 2 The centre has views over fresh water, with a good chance of Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Redshank, Snipe and Curlew. Barnacle Geese will be here from October till April. There is also a feeding station which is good for Yellowhammer and Tree Sparrow.…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 3 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS Easington is a great place to start your ‘Spurn experience’, with so many areas to cover. Many birders have moved here from other parts of Yorkshire and beyond, making the village very well covered on a daily basis. JOHN MILES WHERE TO WATCH 1 The Spurn Peninsula is a mega for birding but don’t forget there are birds turning up all along this coast, and especially here at Easington. This lane is a good place to start checking the hedges and gardens. 2 To access the lagoons, it is best to walk past the ‘Boat Yard’ checking the area for classics like Black Redstart and Ring Ouzel along with the odd rarity. Isabelline Wheatear was a great find in the fields…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS A former major steel works, the 16-acre lake is now the centrepiece, together with reedbeds and woodlands, a great example of how a derelict industrial site could be regenerated. The water park separated only by the railway embankment from the vast expanse of the Burry Inlet and its ornithological riches. DAVID SAUNDERS WHERE TO WATCH 1 After parking head along the seaward side of the lagoon – note the tunnel which will provide access to the nearby shore. The flock of Black-headed Gulls needs immediate, indeed lengthy attention, if you hope to add Mediterranean Gull to your day’s list. Many of the Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls will likely to have come from the nearby rooftop colonies at North Dock, Llanelli.…

Choose from Sat 10–17 Oct or Sat 17–24 Oct 2020 This is an exciting and rewarding return to the outdoors for those of you who have missed Scotland’s wide-open spaces and wonderful wildlife. We celebrate by seeking the special resident species, and also visit the east, west and northern coasts, where winter birds are gathering in good numbers, guaranteeing absorbing birding as we maximise our list during a busy period in the Scottish birding calendar. This exciting holiday is ideal for general birders who want to see Scotland’s birds in autumn, as well as those who like to keep lists. Our main priority will be specialities best sought in the Highlands: Capercaillie, Ptarmigan, Black Grouse, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Scottish Crossbill and Crested Tit. We also seek a host of…

BINOCULARS KITE URSUS 8X32 £199 Reviewed by David Chandler Ursus is a new range of entry-level roof-prism binoculars from Kite, a Belgian company. There are four models in the range – an 8x32, 8x42, 10x42 and 10x50. I was sent the 8x32 for review – the smallest, lightest and, with a sub-£200 RRP, the least expensive of the bunch. It was a lockdown review – I didn’t take the binocular beyond my house and garden! Form The Ursus has a standard roof-prism form and a narrow red ‘eye-ring’ beneath the left eyecup. At 520g this is a lightweight binocular that certainly didn’t feel heavy. It has shallow, lightly textured thumb indents which I am not a fan of – I’ll put my thumbs where I want, thank you very…

APRIL’S FINEST In a full month of birding ‘lockdown’, news of some fine rare birds still got out Needless to say, it has been a strange spring. With many of our lives being changed in so many ways, rare birds seem a little low in terms of importance. Indeed, rare bird reporting has also diminished considerably, with not only access to birding sites being ‘complicated’, but with many bird finders being understandably reluctant to encourage others to chase around the country ticking birds. So, the available rare bird news will almost certainly not be close to a comprehensive picture of the birds out there in April. But here is the best we can do to summarise what was in the public domain. Probably the rarest bird of the spring (at…

Patience is a virtue, of course, and has certainly been essential to all of us in getting through these strange times of lockdown. So, I want to start by thanking you all for your support, and for your patience – we know there have been delays to some magazine deliveries, and supply problems at some shops, hopefully now sorted out, but let us know if you encounter any and we will try to sort them out as soon as possible. Your patience is also required for lockdown birding, but as we show in this issue, the rewards can be great. My own highlight this month was a pair of Hobbies displaying over my garden, so it just goes to show that scanning the skies every chance you get, does pay…

Now is the time of year when strange looking birds appear. Not different species, just variations on what we are used to seeing. These are juvenile birds, not long fledged and often still hanging around with the rest of the family, partially dependent on the parents providing grub, or at least grubs! See if you can see any or all of the juveniles of our four commonest ‘tit’ species. Great Tit The theme with juvenile tits is that they tend to have the same basic patterns as their parents, but in slightly different colours. In the case of the Great Tit, the white bits (cheeks and wing-bars for example) are yellow; and the breast is a murkier yellow than the bright colour of the adults. Also the black colours of…

Many of you have suggested that birds have become less timid because of the lack of traffic, noise, and general human activity. PETER CLOKE, of Holbrook, Suffolk, has had plenty to report from his own garden. “I have been amazed at the huge diversity of birds feeding in my small garden since lockdown. Winter and early spring months were bleak, with often the occasional Blackbird or Robin the only visitors. Now, I have had Carrion Crows, Rooks, Jackdaws, Pied Wagtails, Goldfinches, Woodpigeons, Chaffinches etc. I even had a Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull feeding. I guess that the influx of gulls may be because scavenging on beaches is not very productive, with little food waste left by humans.” We think you’re right, Peter – gulls are supremely adaptable, so…

It’s regular exercise. Not the most strenuous, perhaps, but there’s nothing to stop you making sure that your walking between hides or around reserves is of the brisk variety, designed to get you a bit out of breath. As long as you stay alert to the sights and sounds around you, you won’t miss anything. It’s good for your bones and joints, too, being low-impact. If you’re a birder who never heads out without binoculars, scope, camera, guides, and a backpack full of paraphernalia, then it’s probably good strength training, too. Why not take it a step further, or many thousands of steps further, and do all your birding on foot, for a year at least? Bird Watching contributor David Chandler is doing just that this year, and editor Matt…

Smaller grey pigeons: Feral Pigeon vs Stock Dove Feral Pigeon ● Any colour goes ● Usually long black wing-bars ● Most often white rump ● White underwing Stock Dove ● Remarkably uniform in pattern ● Short, broken black wing-bars ● Always grey rump ● Grey underwing Pipits: Meadow Pipit vs Rock Pipit Meadow Pipit ● Small, with small fine bill ● Heavily streaked back ● Underparts pale with fine, neat, black streaking ● Pale eye ring, no dark eyestripe ● White outer tail feathers ● Pale bill and pale legs Rock Pipit ● Large, with long, strong bill ● Almost unstreaked back ● Underparts dark with thick, smudgy streaks ● Broken pale eyering, dark eyestripe ● Pale grey outer tail feathers ● Dark bill and dark legs Don’t…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 3 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS The circular walk can be extended to the south by following the footpath westwards across the edge of the golf course for more views of the pools and grassland and scrub. To the north you can walk along the cliffs to Newton Point accessed by a path just below the corrugated iron church for seawatching. STEVE NEWMAN WHERE TO WATCH 1 Picnic Hill: Some 10 minutes’ walk from the hide will bring you to a picnic table on front of an unusual World War Two pillbox surrounded by gorse bushes. It has great views of the fields and reserve. In February, we got some 30 Whooper Swans, Stonechat, Yellowhammer, Redshank, Ringed Plover and Buzzard. 2 The Beach: The Carrs or rocks…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2.5 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS Popular with dog walkers, this former brickworks lies on the edge of Stamford. A range of habitats includes a deciduous wood, overgrown hedgerows, Hawthorn scrub and grassland, with some rough areas and Rabbit-grazed turf along with two ponds and the old clay pit. TERRY MITCHAM WHERE TO WATCH 1 Check the woodland for woodpeckers, Blackcap and Chiffchaff. Marsh Tit has occurred. Stock Doves breed. Good numbers of common woodland birds – Wren, Robin, Dunnock are present. 2 There are feeding areas for Green Woodpecker and Mistle Thrush on the short grassy turf. Scattered Hawthorns attract passage Whinchats and Stonechats. 3 Wheatears feed on bare ground in the old clay pit on spring and autumn migration. Breeding Meadow Pipits and Sky Larks…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 4 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS The Grove and Stodmarsh sections of the Stour River Valley have been much manipulated by mankind down the centuries; from medieval monks who used the valley for grazing horses, to the 20th Century coal mining industry. The resulting landscape is a mosaic of lakes, ditches, fen, reedbeds and wet meadows. The area has an enviable track record for rarities; typically, Spotted Crake, Purple Heron, Glossy Ibis and Penduline Tit. PAUL TRODD WHERE TO WATCH 1 From the viewpoint, check the marsh and flooded fields for freshwater passage waders including Green, Common and Wood Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, and Whimbrel, plus Garganey, Shoveler, Teal and Gadwall, Wigeon and the occasional Shelduck. At dusk scan for hunting Barn Owl and roosting…

1 Blackbird by Dennis Stinton Camera: Canon EOS 750D Lens: 79mm Shutter Speed: 1/4,000s Aperture: f/5.0 ISO: 1,600 2 Rook by Trevor Burch Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: 500mm Shutter Speed: 1/640s Aperture: f/8 ISO: 5,000 3 Siskin by Kevin Bowers Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: 600mm Shutter Speed: 1/2,000s Aperture: f/6.3 ISO: 800 4 Barn Owl by Trevor Partridge Camera: Canon EOS 7D Lens: 480mm Shutter Speed: 1/6,400s Aperture: f/6.3 ISO: 640 WE LOVE As always, the standard is very high, this month, but Trevor Partridge’s Barn Owl photo is exceptional!…

BRITAIN’S BIRDS – An identification guide to the birds of Britain and Ireland ROB HUME, ROBERT STILL, ANDY SWASH, HUGH HARROP AND DAVID TIPPLING, PRINCETON £20 The second edition has landed, and many new photos of birds have been added, as well as the 12 new species recorded in the last four years, since the first edition came out to great acclaim from everyone. The book feels bigger, and there are indeed extra pages to fit in all these species and extra photos. This book series creates the ‘wow’ factor time and time again, and this volume is no different. It covers all the birds ever seen in Britain, along with a few that may be escapees, with 3,600 photos of the highest quality – giving you no reason to…

SOUTH WEST Highlights A male Lesser Kestrel stayed on St Mary’s, Scilly, throughout the month. Other Scilly rarities included Red-throated Pipit and Eastern Subalpine Warbler. A Sardinian Warbler was at Porthleven, Cornwall. An American Herring Gull was at Penzance, Cornwall, and a Laughing Gull at Axminster, Devon. AVON HIGHLIGHTS: First dates included Ring Ouzel and White Wagtail (4th), Redstart, Pied Flycatcher and Grasshopper Warbler (6th), Lesser Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler (7th), Hobby and Yellow Wagtail (8th), Swift and Tree Pipit (9th), Cuckoo (11th), Whinchat (16th), Wood Warbler (17th) and Spotted Flycatcher (23rd). The last Fieldfares (18th) and Redwings (25th) left for points north. Recording nocturnal migration resulted in 40 reports of Common Scoters, far more than are ever seen in Avon. CLEVEDON-WESTON-SUPER-MARE: A Whooper Swan was at Kenn…

We are blessed with some extraordinary birds in the UK. But is there a stranger one than the Nightjar, the good old ‘Goatsucker’? Of course they are not so strange that they indulge in sucking at the teats of goats and cattle, as legend and ancient slander would have it. Better the name ‘Bugeater’, as that is what Nightjars are really about. This nocturnally flying, cryptically-patterned insect-eater is the only member of its family that occurs with any frequency in this country, but it belongs to a family with nearly 100 species, worldwide. And these are in turn included in the same order as the frogmouths, potoos, owletnightjars and the Oilbird (which is like a large, echo-locating nightjar). They are not common birds, though, with about 4,600 singing males scattered…

Many birds produce pellets: regurgitated packages of undigested material. Material that remains undigested includes things like fur, feathers, bones, teeth and chitin (ie insect skeletons). Most often when we think of pellets we think of owls. But we often forget the Little Owl. These tiddlers have slightly different diets from their larger cousins, and this is reflected in the pellets they produce. Little Owl pellets are smaller than other owls’ (typically 2.5 x 1c.5cm), rounded at one end, and more pointed at the other. They usually contain insect skeletal elements, especially from larger insects such as beetles, which are a favoured food of Little Owls. In summer, this means the pellets often appear blue black. Look for Little Owl pellets beside or in buildings the owls roost in, or around…

House Sparrows may be bouncing back after recent declines, in part thanks to mild winters, the results of this year’s RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch suggest. The species remained at the top of the Big Garden Birdwatch rankings, with almost 1.3 million sightings throughout the weekend in January, in which half a million people across the UK spent an hour watching the birds that visited their gardens or outdoor spaces. Smaller birds such as Long-tailed Tits, Wrens and Coal Tits were also seen in greater numbers than in 2019, thanks to the milder winter. More gardens reported seeing Long-tailed Tits (up by 14%), Wrens (up by 13%) and Coal Tits (up by 10%) in 2020, compared to 2019. “MORE GARDENS REPORTED SEEING LONG-TAILED TITS (UP BY 14%), WRENS (UP BY 13%)…

Lockdown birding advice from naturalists with large gardens surrounded by natural habitat is all very well, but most of you, like me, will consider yourself lucky to have a tiny urban lung that attracts fewer than a dozen species. Perhaps, like me, despite your efforts, the tit-box has hung unloved on a wall for a decade and your cleverly hidden sparrow boxes were shunned and have now fallen off the side of the shed, and joined the heap of rotting prunings left for the bugs and slugs. Still, they should make nice shelters for frogs. Moving here two decades ago I inherited a concrete garden. I’m on a hill and a previous owner carved out a chunk and constructed a garage with its roof two feet above the rest of…

Long before COVID-19 took over the headlines, the potential benefits of birdwatching for mental and physical well-being were being talked about. The latter are, perhaps, obvious. Having a reason to get outside on a regular (preferably daily) basis, and then walk significant distances can only be good, whether you’re a child, a retired person, or someone who crams their birding into their lunchbreak. Birdwatching is an active hobby, however much it can seem as though we sometimes just sit and wait. The way birding can also improve your mental health has been less well discussed in the past, but in the last few years has been the subject of a lot of articles and books, with Joe Harkness’s Bird Therapy being one of the most prominent and significant. In the…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 4 MIN TIME: 4 HOURS Normally thought of as just a winter destination, the basin is very much a 12 months of the year location, with potential Ospreys fishing and even Quail heard in the fields as you walk to the hides, during the warmer months. JOHN MILES WHERE TO WATCH 1 Start at the visitor centre (when open) as this can give you information on where to see the birds present. There are great views across the basin, plus an artificial Sand Martin bank, a tern platform and chance of a Kingfisher. 2 Drive through Montrose and take the A935 and look out for the cemetery sign on the left. This is a great view point over the basin ,and ideal for watching the geese…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 4 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS This is an out-and-back walk from Holywood via Kinnegar to the Belfast RSPB reserve (WOW: Window on Wildlife). The emphasis is on the coast, with its ducks, gulls, terns and waders there is some urban birding at the start, a sewage farm, a small stream, reedbeds, a small wooded area and feeders. DEREK POLLEY WHERE TO WATCH 1 Holywood Station: Scan (scope recommended) across Belfast Lough for diving ducks, Cormorant, Shag, divers and grebes. Scan the sewage outflow pipe at the start for waders and gulls, especially at high tide. The urban area inland will provide the usual mix of common/ garden birds. 2 Sewage works: Usually holds Mallard, Tufted Duck and Gadwall, but at low tide scan the rocky shore…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS Although planted with belts of Scots and Corsican Pines over the years, there is still a good mixture of oak and an impressive tree list of around 50 species. On the outskirts of the main wood are small areas of scrubland and some arable fields. Muntjac and Roe Deer may be seen, while this is one of the few sites in Warwickshire to reportedly have a population of Dormice. PETE HACKETT WHERE TO WATCH 1 The main woodland holds a small population of Marsh Tits, so brush up on their calls before you visit. Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and the occasional Brambling are present in winter. Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Treecreeper, Bullfinch and Goldcrest should be encountered. Chance of a roosting Tawny…

MAX MILES ON FOOT: 3 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS Freshwater wetland habitats comprising flood meadows, streams, pools and reed-fringed drainage ditches contrast with the inter-tidal sand banks and mud flats of the wide, open estuary. The upper Exe Estuary area is notable for large feeding flocks of Avocets and Black-tailed Godwits. Following southerly gales, seabirds including the chance of Roseate Tern, Little Gull and skuas are possible. Always check passerines for Cirl Bunting. PAUL TRODD WHERE TO WATCH 1 Scan the wetlands for waders and wildfowl, including post-breeding flocks of Lapwing and Golden Plover, plus Hobby, Marsh Harrier, hirundines, Swift, egrets and a chance of Spoonbill. Check the rocks by the ferry crossing for Turnstone, Wheatear, Black Redstart, Rock Pipit and Grey Wagtail. A good spot to scan for storm-blown…