Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Bird Watching

twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag RARITY RATINGS 1 SNIPE With the breeding season coming to an end, Snipe start to wander away from the breeding grounds, and begin to be widely spread across the country, wherever there are suitable wet areas to probe with their extraordinarily long bills. In fact, the wintering population is as many as one million birds! But, you wouldn’t know it, as they spend the vast majority of their time hidden behind vegetation, probing out of site (or sleeping). That said, they are a lot easier to see than their relative the Jack Snipe, and Snipe will feed in the open in shallow water, when you can admire their superb plumage and that magnificent bill. 2 STARLING Since late spring, family parties of Starlings have been a feature of…

Find the location closest to your destination and add or subtract the hours and minutes from the high tide time at London Bridge, below. SOUTH WEST Weston-Super-Mare (+5:05) Barnstaple (+4:30) Newquay (+3:32) Falmouth (+3:30) Plymouth (+4:05) Torquay (+4:40) Bournemouth (-5:09)* Portland (+4:57) St Peter Port (+4:53) Swanage (-5:19)* Portsmouth (-2:29) Southampton (-2:53) SOUTH EAST Ryde (-2:29) Brighton (-2:51) Eastbourne (-2:48) Dungeness (-3:05) Dover (-2:53) Margate (-1:52) Herne Bay (-1:24) Southend-on-sea (-1:22) Clacton-on-sea (-2:00) EAST ANGLIA Felixstowe Pier (-2:23) Aldeburgh (-2:53) Lowestoft (-4:23) Cromer (+4:56) Hunstanton (+4:44) WALES Colwyn Bay (-2:47) Holyhead (-3:28) Barmouth (-5:45) Aberystwyth (-6:11) Fishguard (+5:44) Swansea (+4:42) Milford Haven (+4:37) Cardiff (+5:15) NORTH WEST Whitehaven (-2:30) Douglas (-2:44) Morecambe (-2:33) Blackpool (-2:50) NORTH EAST Skegness (+4:29) Grimsby (+4:13) Bridlington (+2:58) Whitby (+2:20) Hartlepool (+1:59) Blyth (+1:46) Berwick…

High-pitched shrieks from a school playground on the park’s edge compete with the raucous laughter from men by a fishing bivvy. Planes growl westwards to Heathrow over a building site, where cranes clank and grind. The pulsating crescendo of a siren cuts through the traffic rumble from the Old Kent Road, and I wonder how on earth am I going to distinguish bird sounds in this racket. Welcome to Burgess Park. Surrounded by dense housing, major roads and new development, it’s an urban greenspace with attitude. Rather like a patchwork quilt, the park was pieced together from scraps – demolition sites, a filled-in canal and gardens – and its 140 acres now include woodland strips, areas of scrub and reedbed slivers at the edge of a pond. Local birder Dave…

“If I have a target park bird species in mind to photograph, I do try to spend time at home getting well-versed with calls before setting off”, Rudraksha Chodankar told me. Back in June 2020, Rudraksha’s eye-catching photographs of a Little Owl in Hyde Park, being pestered by a couple of hole-envying squirrels, made the national press. When I caught up with him, London-based Rudraksha told me he first became interested in birdwatching seven years ago when visiting the Western Ghats in India. Now a committed park birder and photographer, he regularly birdwatches in Greenwich Park, as well as making trips to Hyde Park and, on occasions, Regent’s Park, too. Rudraksha said that while most of his friends aren’t interested in birdwatching, visiting urban parks regularly means he’s benefited from…

The first thing to ask is how long have you been painting birds for? And what was it that got you started? Since just before Christmas. I painted some to impress a girl I’d met on the internet and sent them to her, and it seemed to do the trick. Her interest in birds then became mine, and I started drawing many more different varieties. I try to make them small enough to be affordable, and never do prints. I want everyone to be able to own an original painting. Would you describe yourself as a birdwatcher, or is it more of a casual interest? And is it something that you’ve always had, or is it something that has developed more recently? Painting them has made me more interested in…

PHOTOS, LETTER, TWEETS, QUESTIONS – HAVE YOUR SAY GET IN TOUCH birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag Bird Watching, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA The right thing? Just a quick line to tell you how proud I am of the company I work for. Despite having put up netting on hedgerows several years ago, they soon took it down once complaints were made and (as far as I know) haven’t put any up again since. This spring, an excavator was delivered to one of our construction sites. Upon arrival, a general inspection was made to check it was in good working order. On looking inside the engine bay they found a birds’ nest with eggs. They immediately reloaded the excavator onto the delivery wagon and sent it back to where it…

English Heritage runs a chat-line near me. It has nothing to do with human communications, but is a network of barbed wire fences that criss-crosses an open, windswept hilltop – the best we can do here in the south of England for an upland. And every autumn these fence-lines are duly adorned with chats. Most of them are Stonechats, but there are usually some Whinchats, too, which add flavour in a way that favourite sweets do in a variety pack. They are like Stonechats that have administered a heavy dose of eyeliner, with their long, pale supercilium. It is always intriguing seeing Stonechats and Whinchats side by side in the autumn, because their respective calendars for the next few months look so astonishingly different. One species, the Stonechat, stays relatively…

There is one species of bird that many of us may have encountered on travels that involved entering the urban areas of some of the world’s cities. But it probably features on few urban birder’s lists. Why? Because the populations met with are usually feral or more accurately, naturalised or ‘introduced’. The species of which I speak is the Common Myna. Also known as the Indian Myna and sometimes simply as Myna or Mynah, this perky bird is a member of the starling family. Originally a native of southern Asia, encompassing the Indian subcontinent, Thailand, Indochina, Malaysia and south-east China, it is an omnivorous woodland denizen by nature, that has taken to urban living like a duck to water. Myna is a name given to any member of the starling…

NEW SERIES! Be a better bird photographer First of all, an admission. I am not a birder. Don’t get me wrong, I love birds and have done since I was very young. I don’t, however, possess the birder’s ability to respond to a 3am phone alert with the diligence of a first-response paramedic, to hurtle the breadth of five counties for a distant glimpse of some accidental migrant, through a high-powered telescope. That kind of madness and commitment I will leave up to you. IMAGE SPEC Camera: Canon 5D MkIV Lens: MP-E 65mm f2.8 1-5× Macro Focal length: 65mm; 1× mag Exposure: 1/160; f9, ISO 200 Lighting: Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX II; home-made diffuser Also, I am a terrible bird photographer. I am in awe of the photos I…

WE ARE NATURE, RAY MEARS, EBURY PRESS, HB, £20 Ray Mears seems to have been around for ages, so it will be no surprise to you that a lot of this book is all about helping you with your fieldcraft, making your birding that much easier and making it possible to get close to the species you want to watch. Few books cover the history of binoculars and telescopes, too, but it’s in here. I loved the chapter on smell, and also enjoyed the many tales of Ray in different parts of the world. This is certainly a different book to many, with its emphasis on using all your senses in nature, but that is what makes it special. BIRDS OF HONG KONG, RAY TIPPER, JOHN BEAUFOY PUBLISHING, SB, £12.99…

SOUTH WEST Highlights In association with A new bird for the UK in the form of Sulphur-bellied Warbler on Lundy, Devon, was the undoubted highlight, though it was pushed close by an Egyptian Vulture on Tresco and St Mary’s, Scilly. Little Swift over Scilly and Cornwall and the Ham Wall River Warbler, were good, too! AVON CLEVEDON-WESTON-SUPER-MARE: Clevedon-Yeo had a Golden Plover and Sanderling. Black-headed Gulls increased to 110. Clevedon logged a Wheatear (2nd) and two Tree Pipits (7th). SEVERNSIDE: Northwick Warth had breeding Avocets and Little Ringed Plovers, two Black-winged Stilts (25th-30th), 11 Whimbrels (28th), 15 Black-tailed Godwits, five Turnstones, a Grey Plover, Ruff, Wood Sandpiper and a few returning Wigeon and Teal. Portbury Wharf had two Long-tailed Ducks (18th) and a Greenshank (19th). Oldbury had a Grasshopper Warbler…

Ruth Miller: Black-browed Albatross at Bempton Cliffs, the first time I have seen this bird in the Northern Hemisphere. David Lindo: Nearly getting fired for skipping work to twitch a Naumann’s Thrush in east London was memorable! Amanda Tuke: Definitely the St Kilda Wren subspecies – they were a noisy delight during my time researching there. SIMON STIRRUP/ALAMY* John Miles: I was in Easington when the Siberian Accentor turned up. Had two Isabelline Wheatears in that same year!…

Every month we make wild guesses about which extreme rarities will delight UK birders during the month by turning up out of the blue. Here is this month’s collection of three… SORA This very rare North American equivalent of the Spotted Crake (which is from this side of the Atlantic) is mainly an October visitor, here. But there have been a few (of the total of c25) records in September, and there seems to be a trend of rarities getting ‘earlier’. Look for a small crake, like a Spotted Crake but with a black face and throat contrasting with a yellow bill. BLUE ROCK THRUSH Despite many birders having ‘ticked’ the long-staying Gloucestershire individual, in 2016-2017, it is in fact an extremely rare bird in a UK context, with perhaps…

Ribboned rustic A winged argument that September signifies autumn comes in the form of a moth called Flounced Rustic. Once this widespread, common creature starts appearing in your trap, its autumnal brown attire prompts the sense that summer’s heady excesses are over. Although its overall name sounds like a psychedelic folk act from the 1970s, the ‘flounced’ element relates to the ribbon-like effect to the wing edges, while ‘rustic’ suggests the unfancy clothing of 18th-Century rural folk. INSECT Devilish fruit Blackberries fill the countryside this month, but – unlike the Blackcaps and other warblers they nourish – be sure to eat any you gather before 29 September. According to lore, that was the day that Archangel Michael defeated the angel Lucifer, then banished him from Heaven. When Lucifer reached the…

You might be planning your next overseas birding jaunt, but Hawkeye is not ready to brave the dangers of a post-covid world. Perhaps in autumn, I can tempt her with a few days sanitised self-catering in a part of the UK where the birds differ from our south-eastern corner. Meanwhile, we still shun most mingling with other humans. Our double bubble may admit doubly-vaccinated family members in due course, but, like a lot of old codgers, we are horribly aware of the potentially fatal nature of contagion. So, when many of my fellow citizens were celebrating the relaxing of the rules, we were still shielding in our garden and birding only where no crowds would gather. But, for all that, even the everyday and commonly assumed to be mundane, can…

There’s still time to sign up for our #My200BirdYear challenge – remember that all those migrants have to pass through again in the autumn, and you’ll get a second chance of seeing winter visitors. ● Go to: birdwatching.co.uk/my-200-sign-up ● Complete the form there, and you’re signed up ● Keep an eye on our website: birdwatching.co.uk for regular updates, tips and advice ● Join our dedicated Facebook group: facebook.com/groups/My200BirdYear to exchange sightings, photos and birding knowledge etc ● Buy Bird Watching magazine for monthly features on the which species to look for, when, and where, and how to identify them when you do see them ● Download our target list at: birdwatching.co.uk/target-list ● Get out there, and watch birds! Good luck!…

Back in spring, the garden was alive with plants and a new generation of wildlife. What better environment could there be, in which to let our own ‘chicks’ form a lifelong connection with nature? Although a healthy garden contains a variety of foods for birds, such as insects and berries, by providing fresh water and adding feeders (ensuring they are clean and topped up with quality bird food), we can sustain a wider variety of bird life, and ensure regular visits, as well as the education of future generations of birders and conservationists. Making feeders using pine cones, party cups and hollowed-out squash or pumpkin is a brilliant activity for children. Why not make more than one and see whether they are more popular in an open or sheltered position?…

Autumn is the seawatching season. Although it could be argued that any season is the seawatching season. Anyhow, now is a great time to be on the coast, watching birds fly by. It is an acquired taste for many birdwatchers, but can be one of the most exciting forms of birding. You never know what may go past. It helps if you can identify whatever it is, though. Can you identify seabirds, as they whizz along, over the waves? Why not see if you can? Try out this ID Challenge. All you have to do is name the birds in the six photographs on this page. Then, please turn the page to find out how your answers compare with ours (and check out our reasoning). As usual, all are regular…

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH ENDURANCE ED COMPACTS provide effortless focusing and impressive depth of field making these binoculars quick and easy to use. Water and fog proof. Endurance is designed to battle the elements. Available in 8x25 & 10x25. UK.HAWKEOPTICS.COM/NATURE COLLECT & KEEP Every month we bring you 10 more sites to build up your GO BIRDING collection HIGHLAND MAX MILES ON FOOT: 0.5 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS DUNNET HEAD A seabird ‘city’ with migrants to offer, too The Dunnet Head reserve is the most northerly point in mainland Great Britain, and boasts amazing sea cliffs and coastal grassland, but it’s also worth looking at other areas as you drive up to it. The fact that alpine plants are found growing in the grassland shows the conditions the headland faces…

Send your snaps to birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk to be in with a chance of seeing your photo in print. All images should be high resolution JPEG files. 1 Mallards by Annice Bridgett Camera: Nikon D3200 Lens: 185mm, Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 320 2 Wren by Sean O’Shea Camera: Nikon Coolpix B600 Lens: 197mm, Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 125 3 Sedge Warbler by Kevin Walton Camera: Nikon Coolpix P900 Lens: 357mm, Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec Aperture: f/6.5 ISO: 400 4 Green Woodpeckers by Elisabeth Feuk-Lagerstedt Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: 300mm, Shutter Speed: 1/1,000 sec Aperture: f/8 ISO: 10,000 WE LOVE… The look between the two woodpeckers. A doting parent and a hungry fledgling – magical.…

The Stone-curlew is an unusual, open country wader that is most active after dark, as perhaps you might guess from its large, staring eyes. And the bird’s strange, eerie call is a nocturnal sound associated with low intensity farmland in southern Europe and, to a lesser degree and increasingly infrequently, in the UK. Across much of its range it favours arid, natural terrain and fallow, low intensity farmland satisfies the species’ breeding requirements well. When nesting, and indeed for most of the time, Stone-curlews seem to like a clear view around them, so they can see danger approaching at a distance and slink away. In most parts of its range it is a shy bird and hard to observe, hunkering down and relying on its camouflaged plumage at first, but…

In association with Q I struggle to photograph birds in flight (especially pale birds against pale skies). Can you help? M Goodwin, Hastings A Thanks for your question. Birds in flight are always difficult, it all depends on what equipment you use and how big the bird is! I would recommend using a Full Frame camera and a 70-200mm or up to 600mm lens (Sigma 150-600mm is perfect). This will allow you to crop into the frame without losing quality and be close enough to the subject to give the camera enough contrast to focus on the bird in flight against the sky. Increasing your ISO or exposure compensation will also help with focusing and creating a contrast. If you shoot RAW (digital negative) any lighting corrections can be made…

RAPANUI WOMEN’S THIS T-SHIRT IS RUBBISH, £20 What a fashion statement. All Rapanui products are made to be returned when they’re too tatty to be worn. And those returned items are turned into new Rapanui products. Like this T-shirt. It’s organic, has a great history and comes in grey, light blue or purple. And unlike 99% of the world’s T-shirts, it won’t end up in a hole in the ground. It will become another Rapanui product. In sizes 8-18. rapanuiclothing.com UNIBANK, £89.95 It’s a PowerBank that you can charge by pulling a cord – 90 seconds of tugging can become 25 minutes of smartphone talking, which could get you out of trouble if you’re out in the wilds. If you’re not, you can charge it via USB. It has an…

I have seen albatrosses before. But not in the UK, nor even the Northern Hemisphere. In my previous life, before Bird Watching, I delivered a talk on the skeletal ultrastructure of cyclostome bryozoans (yes, really) at the 10th International Bryzoology Association conference in Wellington, New Zealand (January 1995). My lasting memory of the conference is fielding questions at the end of my talk and, after I gave one answer, hearing a loud “Bullsh*t!” from one of the senior Kiwi conference hosts. After the meeting, I headed off with three colleagues for a few weeks’ field work (collecting fossil and living bryozoans [look them up!]), mainly in the South Island. I found New Zealand’s land birds underwhelming (too many introduced European species). But the seabirds were something else! My first taste…

Jays helping out A rewilding study has shown seed dispersal by birds, especially Jays, mammals and wind, can rapidly produce biodiverse and resilient woodland. The research, led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), shows natural regeneration could make a big contribution to meeting UK tree-planting targets, at no cost and in relatively short timescales. The study found wildlife-rich shrubland developed from previously bare fields after just 15 years and progressed to native closed-canopy oak, Ash and Field Maple within 40-50 years. More than half the trees on each plot in the study were oaks, and Jays are presumed to be the agent, based on their behaviour elsewhere. Stilts spotted A pair of Black-winged Stilts bred at Rye Harbour in East Sussex this spring, although it’s not certain…

Experienced birders may not remember, but bird-listening can be overwhelming for beginners like me. Here are some things I tried, which may help get you started. Spend time becoming very familiar with the sounds of your garden visitors. Being able to easily distinguish singing Robins and Wrens, and the warning calls of Blue Tits and Great Tits, for example, will really help when you’re further afield. Parks are great places to expand your ‘inner song library’ beyond your garden birds. Try taking one new sound at a time and take time matching it to the singer. Listen out for the song or call every time you visit, so you repeatedly retrieve the memory. Make use of the voice recorder on your phone and try to find a generous experienced birder…

It’s always difficult to assess intelligence in other species, as we assume (wrongly) that intelligence can only be measured by our own experience of it. But one aspect of intelligence in other species that we can understand is memory, the ability to remember things. Many species of birds have been shown to have prodigious memories. Some are famous for it. The Jay, for example, is well known for being able to remember where it stored acorns in the autumn. But there is another British bird that has an equally good memory – it just doesn’t get the recognition for it. The Marsh Tit is a bird that may be fairly familiar to you. They are an occasional visitor to gardens, especially in the south and east of the country, and…

The White-tailed Eagle is Britain’s largest bird of prey. Weighing in at an impressive 7kg or just over one stone for a big female (female raptors are usually larger than males), these hefty eagles are unmistakeable. With broad, straight wings and primary feathers spread like fingers, these birds can soar effortlessly on a wingspan of up to 240cm; that’s nearly eight feet in old money! It’s no wonder these birds are described as ‘flying barn doors’. Their adult plumage is dark brown, with a paler brown head which can fade almost to white with age, and a distinctive pure white tail. Once restricted to their stronghold on the west coast of Scotland, the reintroduction of these birds, once extinct as UK breeders, has expanded to the Isle of Wight, and…

POSTCODE: ME12 4RJ GRID REF: TR 049 687 MAPS: OS Explorer 149, OS Landranger 178 PARKING: Park in Leysdown Coastal Park off Shellness Road, thereby avoiding the badly pot-holed track down to the reserve car park TERRAIN: Mostly on the level with rough tracks and paths. Panoramic views across the foreshore can be had from Shellness Road for those with mobility issues ACCESS: Fully accessible throughout the year FACILITIES: Information boards and a hide. Full range of facilities in Leysdown-on-Sea…

Fully inclusive of cruise, return flight via Oslo (based on London airports, though there are many return flight options), and our office and guiding services. Reserve the cabin of your choice! All are quoted per person in shared cabins: Quad. Porthole £2,795 Triple Porthole £3,145 Twin Porthole £3,495 Twin Window £3,695 Twin De Luxe £3,895 Superior £4,295 Junior Suite £4,495 Grand Suite £4,695 Singles – please consider sharing with people of the same gender; this works very well in comfortable accommodation on this voyage. Single occupancy of a Twin Porthole cabin is priced at £4,995. Friendly and experienced Heatherlea guides will be excited to share their knowledge and enthusiasm, and we will be flexible in our itinerary, paying close attention to weather and ice, changing course and using inflatable zodiacs…

Birds on the Brink is a conservation grant-awarding charity (Charity No: 1188009) that owns the competition Bird Photographer of the Year. Grants are awarded to projects that support bird conservation, typically offering between £200 and £1,000 to small groups or individuals carrying out grassroots conservation work that has measurable impact. It was borne of a passion for wildlife and in particular birds, and is a response to the seemingly unstoppable process of human environmental exploitation and biodiversity’s steady progression towards extinction. At its heart there is a recognition that all is not yet lost and Birds on the Brink aims to inspire people to care using striking imagery – to capture the imagination and thereby nurture interest and compassion. Bird Watching magazine is proud to support conservation and money generated…

BINOCULARS OPTICRON AURORA BGA VHD 8X42 £799 Reviewed by David Chandler Opticron offer more binocular choice than most brands, from entry-level models costing less than £100 to their top end offerings at about £800. The Aurora BGA VHD is their new top-end range. There are two models in this range – an 8x42 and a 10x42. I had the 8x42 for review. Opticron also sent me the 8x42 DBA VHD+, their previous top-ender, for comparison. Very bright My first impression, straight out of the box, was that this is a very bright binocular. Its light-gathering ability was evident after sunset, too. Twelve minutes after the sun went down, in a mostly overcast sky, a roof-ridge Song Thrush was very clearly visible. I was still impressed five minutes later. I watched…