Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i Bird Watching

twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag RARITY RATINGS 1 LITTLE OWL This tiny owl is a naturalised bird in the UK, introduced in the 19th Century. They are native across continental Europe and into Asia, but look perfectly natural in a British setting, so don’t get the grumpy reception afforded to, say, the Canada Goose, Egyptian Goose or (dare we mention it?) the Ring-necked Parakeet. Most of the nearly 6,000 breeding pairs are in England, but they have now crept over the Scottish border and are also in North and South Wales. Little Owls are birds of farmland, parkland, orchards etc. They often nest in hollows in trees such as oaks and willows, and can often be seen perching in the open during the day. Look for a small (just a bit bigger than…

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…

My morning went like this… Showered, ate toast, burnt my mouth drinking coffee too fast, helped find some school shoes which were exactly where you might expect them to be. Sat at my desk to write down the idea I had in my head when I woke up. Thought about going out with my binoculars. Answered two emails. Expanded the writing idea. Again thought about going outside. Made another coffee, read the news while I drank it, through gritted teeth. Fleshed out my writing idea further and found some scientists online to approach for interviews. Thought about going outside. Again. Put some washing on, read an annoying email, more teeth gritting. Took some deep breaths before writing an answer, deleted the answer before sending it. Ate lunch. Rang to hear…

If you did need reminding how birdwatching can change how you feel, here are some of my favourite books that explore its impact on emotional wellbeing and mental health. BIRD THERAPY BY JOE HARKNESS Long-listed for the 2020 Wainwright Prize, Joe’s important and inspiring book follows his journey from near-suicide back to mental well-being with birdwatching contributing. This is a compelling personal story, but I also loved the birdwatching tips he shares. OWL SENSE BY MIRIAM DARLINGTON Miriam shares a passion for these wonderful birds with her teenage son, but her desire to see all 13 European species is overshadowed when he is struck down by a strange disabling illness. I enjoyed her beautifully written account of her owl-watching quest and its impact on her anxieties about helping him. MINDFUL…

Leonard Winchcombe, or Lord Len as he is known, visits Tice’s Meadow nature reserve every day. Len, a former precision engineer, now retired 12 years, thinks of Tice’s Meadow as his back garden; five minutes after leaving his house he is in the centre of it. He’s a birder with the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group, but he also helps with upkeep at the site, such as changing and restocking the bird feeders twice a week in the purpose-built feeding station, or bringing in the tern rafts to clean them. “Tice’s Meadow is my love, I love the place so much. It would make me feel very emotional if it were to be sold”, says Len. Nature in the UK is under threat, not just from the large gash through the…

Identifying gulls – nightmare, or nice day out? This is what we ask the guests each month in Backchat. There are no group of birds which divides birdwatchers as clearly as gulls, the classic Marmite birds. This month, we feature six of the smaller species; so at least sparing you the big, terrifying chip-stealers who are always looking for a poodle to carry off (according to the tabloids). In reality, gulls are only really ‘terrifying’ as an ID conundrum. And one or two of the smaller species featured here could, on a good day, even be called cute, or possibly pretty. Anyhow, all you have to do, should you wish to, is put a name to these six smaller gulls. Some are commoner than others, but they are all birds…

MORE SITES For a full list of the sites we’ve featured, go to birdwatching.co.uk/gbindex COLLECT & KEEP Every month we bring you 10 more sites to build up your GO BIRDING collection MORAY MAX MILES ON FOOT: 5 MIN TIME: 5 HOURS FINDHORN BAY A superb bird-rich bay on the Moray Firth The River Findhorn flows into a large, spectacular bay, complete with a myriad of creeks and sand-bars ideal for a wide range of wintering wildfowl and waders, including thousands of Pink-footed Geese. A resident pod of Bottlenosed Dolphins also enjoys the Moray Firth. The bay area also has had rarities, such as Whitebilled Diver, Spotted Sandpiper and Pacific Golden Plover. PAUL TRODD WHERE TO WATCH 1 Scan Burghead Bay at high tide for seabirds; typically Gannet, Fulmar, Guillemot,…

Fully inclusive of cruise, flight Longyearbyen to Oslo and our office and guiding services. Reserve the cabin of your choice! Prices from £3495 in shared cabins. 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 among the ice-floes, spending as much time ashore as possible. Expect a friendly, intimate atmosphere in a cosy and very comfortable onboard environment. OUR VESSEL The 80-cabin MV Hondius is ideal. Meeting the latest and highest standards,…

These wonderful short holidays last for four nights and three bird-filled days, as you join a Heatherlea Guide to explore the Scottish Highlands. Easy-paced ‘Short Breaks’ are ideal for those who don’t want to walk too far, or for the visitor looking to see Scottish species for the first time, and target the birds which make Scotland such a special destination. We look for Capercaillie, Golden Eagle, Crested Tit, Scottish Crossbill, Black Grouse and much more. Add wintering waders, seaducks, divers, gulls and farmland birds at the Moray coast, and you have an absorbing and rewarding few days of Scottish birding in winter. ‘Birders’ Blasts’ are faster-paced, and ideal for the busy birder. We again look for the Scottish specialities, both inland and at the coast, and also target any…

DAVID LINDO THE URBAN BIRDER When I was recently invited to a long weekend visit to the historic Portuguese city of Porto, I could not turn it down. However, the invitation had one major proviso: I would have to spend most of the time being forcibly taken sightseeing. Normally, the response to such demands would be a flat no or at very best perhaps taking an hour of organised chaperoning before falling into a boredom-induced stupor. But this time I jumped at it. Why? Because it was a golden opportunity to seek out Europe’s most recently discovered ornithological secret: Plain Swifts living in plain sight within urban Porto. Firstly, what is a Plain Swift? Of Europe’s six regularly found swift species it is instantly confusable with both Swift (aka Common…

Ruth Miller: I don’t spend a great deal of time seawatching, so I find juvenile Long-tailed Skua tricky to identify Ed Brydon: I’m not a ‘twitcher’ or even a regular birdwatcher, but I have to say I struggle most with the small brown ones, so I’d go with Dunnock, believe it or not. David Lindo: If I had to pick one ‘bogey’ bird I struggle with, it would be an out-of-breeding-plumage Dunlin. Amanda Tuke: I momentarily thought someone calling their dog was a Cuckoo calling, after hearing one passing through my local patch a few years ago.…

Rub your hands together in anticipation, as this is a month when anything can turn up in the UK. Here are three hugely desirable and ridiculously rare birds we can but fantasise about appearing this October. YELLOW-THROATED VIREO British birds don’t get much rarer than this one: one record, at Kenidjack Valley, Cornwall, 20-27 September 1990. Imagine the ‘twitch’ if one turns up this month, a potential ‘unblocker’ for a generation of birders. SIBERIAN ACCENTOR All but one of the 14 Siberian Accentors seen in the UK were in 2016 (the other was in February 2017). And 12 of the 13 were in October (the other was in early November). Most were in the north of the country (Northern Isles and Scotland) with a few in north-east England, the furthest…

When I was a lad, Dad used to take me fishing. On one memorable summer day, he fancied Pike fishing on a backwater on Kent’s River Rother. This involved a slog across half a dozen fields, laden with fishing gear. I confess that I was mostly a spectator that day, as he hauled in half a dozen Pike and I managed an Eel and one small, soggy Bream. The fierce heat of the June day was broken by half a dozen short, sharp showers. The walk back may have been the spark that lit the conservation fuse in me. Halfway back to the car, we spotted fish floating on the surface. At first a few tiddlers flopped about in distress, the first dead floaters soon appeared, and before we reached…

Chantelle Lindsay works for the London Wildlife Trust and spends much of her time encouraging other Londoners to enjoy and care for nature. If you caught either her appearance on BBC Springwatch or Blue Peter in 2021, you’ll know that she has a gift for this. Chantelle describes herself as fairly new to birdwatching and, while her job is in conservation, she says it can be hard to carve out birdwatching time for herself. “Last weekend I did finally manage to get out with Flock Together – the birdwatching group for people of colour”, she tells me, “and I had a brilliant time”. We’re in Crystal Palace Park this morning, squeezing in half an hour of early morning birding before her working day starts. We decide to find as many…

★★★★★ Birds need food, water and shelter to survive. But as they’re part of a wildlife food chain, think more broadly about what you offer other creatures in your garden. Carefully selecting the plants you grow can mean you’re rewarded by sustaining a wider range of birdlife in a natural environment throughout the year. Insects are obviously an important and natural food source for your local birds, so increasing their variety and number is a vital and truly beneficial way to support them. By leaving clumps of leaf litter, stacking sticks or wood to make log piles and leaving areas of long grass, you create valuable habitats for insects, beetles and invertebrates. What is even better is that you are using free natural materials! Having made a couple of new…

In June 2020, when lockdown started to ease, a friend of mine suggested we go for a walk in Tice’s Meadow. I had never been before and jumped at the chance to go someplace new for a change. Once inside the nondescript entrance, I was immediately struck by how, despite the presence of the housing estates and roads, this small, unobtrusive oasis of nature enveloped me. Four months later, in October, I returned by myself. It was then, talking to one of the birders in the shelter, that I found out about the potential sale of the site. I was gobsmacked. Here was a place I had just connected with, that could be taken away at any moment. I was compelled to build a photoessay about the connection between the…

GET IN TOUCH birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag Bird Watching, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Please release me… Last month, we found a Sparrowhawk hopping around our home, which seemed unable to fly. A neighbour had spotted the bird hiding under a car earlier in the day, and it was clear that it might starve or fall prey to a cat if we did nothing to help. Vets4Pets in Leyland said that if we could bring the bird in to them that they would look at it. The prospect of catching a bird of prey was somewhat daunting, but with some help from close neighbours, a cotton bedsheet and a plastic box we cornered the bird and dropped the lightweight sheet and a coat over it. The bird ‘played dead’…

When you’re already going there! RUTH MILLER I would call myself a birder; I go out intentionally to look for any and all birds that I might encounter. However, I would not call myself a twitcher, which I think of as someone who goes somewhere specifically to see one particular bird from overseas, that shouldn’t really be there, and which has got itself off-course somehow. I’m lucky enough to have seen many birds in their rightful places around the world, and so I don’t usually drop everything to dash across the country after a particular individual bird that has turned up by mistake in Britain. However, if a special bird turns up where I’m already going, then that’s a different story. It’s remarkable how often that seems to happen. In…

ORGANISATION: All holidays are organised by Heatherlea, one of Britain’s leading birding tour companies, and based at their home at Mountview Hotel, in Nethy Bridge. Holidays run Saturday to Saturday, and your guide(s) will plan activities according to weather and wildlife to maximise your list and birdwatching experience. LEADER/GROUP SIZE: Guides will be members of the Heatherlea resident guiding team, which includes the hugely experienced Ian Ford, Mark Warren, Mike Coleman, John Picton, Holly Page, Jenna Berry and Dave Pearce. Please note that the maximum group size will be seven guests per guide. WHAT’S INCLUDED: • Seven nights comfortable accommodation. All rooms are en suite, there is no single supplement, and guests are never expected to share. • Full Scottish breakfast, a substantial packed lunch, and a delicious dinner. •…

Though those below a certain age won’t believe this, many of us lived through the days before the internet. I am old enough to remember when there even used to be a weird phenomenon called a public library. Indeed, being from a middle class, suburban background, my mother used to send her brood of four off to the local library to get books out to read. But I rebelled against her plan, and being an exceptionally lazy reader, used to seek out the books with the fewest words. Ant and Bee books were a favourite, as there was hardly any reading required. But, I soon progressed to non-fiction, anything to stop me reading actual stories. Books in the Observer’s series were my favourites to get out of our library. In…

North West festival The North West Bird Watching Festival at Martin Mere WWT returns on 16-17 October. Open from 8am, the event is timed to watch the spectacle of thousands of Pink-footed Geese leaving the roost, and the centre is open until 7pm on the Saturday to watch up to 30,000 geese return to the roost. There’ll also be a range of talks, guided walks and workshops, Tickets are available to collect on the day. Normal admission charges apply. For further event information, speakers and a list of exhibitors, visit: www.wwt.org.uk/nwbwf Chichester grant The Friends of Chichester Harbour’s Return of the Tern project has been awarded a grant from the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund. Return of the Tern is an environmental project – in partnership with Chichester Harbour Conservancy…

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!…

This month it’s the fourth in our series of cut-out-and-keep, at-a-glance ID cards (on the inside of the front cover of the magazine). To celebrate the autumn, the ID cards feature autumn thrushes and chats; larger gulls and sea terns; gallinues, rails and crakes and gamebirds; plus winter grebes and winter divers. Here’s a guide to using these ID cards 13 Autumn thrushes Card 13 covers five thrush species which occur each autumn in the UK. The almost over-familiar Blackbird has been left out. Redwing and Fieldfare occur between autumn and spring, while the Ring Ouzel arrives in spring and leaves in autumn. Song and Mistle Thrushes occur all year. Size and shape Size is a good starting place for any ID, but can be very useful for thrushes: eg…

DOMINIC COUZENS ON THE… SPECIES FACTFILE GOLDFINCH Scientific name: Carduelis carduelis Length: 12-13.5cm Wingspan: 21-25.5cm UK numbers: 1.2 million breeding pairs Habitat: Parks, gardens, open country with trees, bushes and plants with fine seeds Diet: Fine seeds of a variety of plants, such as those of thistles or Teasels Have you ever found that in October, every bush, tree and patch of scrub in the wider countryside, not to mention lakes and estuaries, seems to be full of birds? But at this time of year, the garden can be quiet and disappointing, the feeders no longer a buzz of activity, the backyard as empty as a post-summer seaside resort. Even Goldfinches, which can be the most enthusiastic customers, seem to have gone back for the school term. Where have they gone?…

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 Dipper by Vin Scothern Camera: Nikon D850 Lens: 500xmm, Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec Aperture: f/7.1 ISO: 3,200 2 Jackdaw by Harriet Day Camera: Canon Powershot SX60 Lens: 50mm, Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 100 3 Kestrel by Mark James Camera: Canon EOS 5D Lens: 600mm, Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec Aperture: f/10 ISO: 1,000 4 Wheatear by Robert Porter Camera: Panasonic DC-G9 Lens: 400mm, Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec Aperture: f/10 ISO: 400 WE LOVE… Harriet Day’s Jackdaw sure is one serious and focused bird……

Now is the time to begin thinking about your 2022 birding year, and here is a chance to get it off to a cracking start! With the expert help of our longstanding partners Heatherlea, based right in the heart of bird-rich and scenic Speyside, we’ve put together a #My200BirdYear programme for 2022. It begins with a Birdlist Booster holiday in Scotland, which offers excellent birding in January. We aim to see as many species as possible, and this exciting holiday is also ideal for general birders who want to see Scotland’s birds in winter, as well as those who keep lists. There are also shorter breaks and the popular ‘Birders Blasts’ in January and February, which again will give your year list a flying start, or just give you a…

There is ALWAYS something unexpected in Scotland! On a Monday morning back in May 2021, one of the hard-working Heatherlea team found a Hoopoe outside the office window at 9am! A fleeting view, though this quick-thinking person managed to get it very briefly on film (see social media). Heatherlea MD Kevin Shaw said: “If I hadn’t gone checking sites elsewhere in the village to see if Tree Pipit and Redstart had finally arrived on territory, I might have been on time for work.” Enjoy your birding in Scotland!…

MUCK BOOT APEX LACE UP, £170 This is not a deluxe welly – it’s a rubber and neoprene, 100% waterproof, lace-up boot made for “high endurance’’ activities that need “a more athletic and agile boot”. So it should be just right for birding… It has a breathable mesh lining, a comfort memoryfoam footbed, and an anti-microbial “Footbed Insert Topcover” to help keep moisture and pongs under control. And there are sole options for traction in different terrains – rocky ground or cold/wet ground for example. Men’s 7-15. Women’s 5-12. Various colourways. muckbootcompany.co.uk RSPB ULTIMATE EASY-CLEAN® BIRD SEED FEEDER £19.99-£28.99 The ultimate seed feeder – that’s quite a claim. So what makes it tip-top? It’s tough for starters. The polycarbonate tube won’t go a funny colour in the sun and the…

SOUTH WEST Highlights In association with Although there have been four accepted Devon records (in 1859, 1876, 1959 and 1980), the Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin at Black Head, Lizard, was a new bird for Cornwall. Other potential ‘megas’ in the region this month included reports of Bearded Vulture, Eleonora’s Falcon and Red-footed Booby in addition to the more predictable claims of Little (aka Barolo’s) Shearwater and Yelkouan Shearwater, both off Cornwall. AVON CLEVEDON TO WESTON-SUPER-MARE: The Axe estuary held over a hundred Shelducks, 425 Redshanks, and a Bittern (27th). Clevedon-Yeo logged over 300 Dunlin (all juveniles), 200 Curlew, 12 Bar-tailed Godwits, 240 Redshanks, a Spotted Redshank (26th), a Greenshank (23rd), a Golden Plover and a Knot or two. The Clevedon coast had at least 1,000 Black-headed Gulls, also a Med Gull…