Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i Bird Watching

We all have our favourite places to go birding, whether they’re iconic, nationally-known reserves, or more modest, locally-famous spots (as most of mine are). On page 27, we offer you 100 of Britain’s best birding sites. Read about them, argue about them, but make yourself a vow that you’ll visit at least a few of them when you get the chance. If you want inspiration to see something really special this month, turn to page 40 and read all about the extraordinary Nightjar – I can guarantee that a close encounter with this particular bird will live long in the memory. So, enjoy the long days and sunny weather, and tell us what you find on your travels this month. We’ll be out there enjoying it too. HAVE YOU SIGNED…

Little Grebe Though you may expect the more obvious Great Crested Grebe to be the most common UK breeding grebe, the title goes to the Dabchick or Little Grebe, which has 5,300 breeding pairs on the most recent count. These are well named, as they are pretty tiny for water birds, looking comparable to a duckling in size. They are dark in plumage and rather rounded in shape with a relatively stumpy or even blunt looking bill. Most of the feathers are black or dark brown, with a generous splash of reddish on the cheeks and throat and a whiter, fluffy rear end. The bill is black with a yellow gape area, giving them an extra hint of ‘chick’ in their appearance. They’re generally quite shy, hiding in waterside vegetation…

BIRD 1 This LBJ (‘little brown job’), is perching in an upper branch (stick) of a tree or bush. The first thing that may strike you is that this bird has a bit of a streaked crest extending over the top of the nape. So, this is a lark. We have two larks with crests (both occur in heaths): Sky Lark and Wood Lark. This bird is in a tree (and appears to be vocalising) so that may make you lean to Wood Lark. Further evidence comes from the strong, pale supercilium (eyebrow), the black on the front edge of the wing and the tail, which is shorter than that of a Sky Lark. This is a Wood Lark, possibly starting its delightful, fluty ‘lulululu’ song. Key features • Short…

RUTH MILLER The outskirts of the town of Huelva on the south coast of Spain is a heavily industrialised area. Here the Rivers Odiel and Tinto meet, creating the port of Huelva. Much of the city’s wealth has developed from the petrochemical industry and it is one of the largest chemical exporting ports in Spain. Evidence of industry is all around us: storage tanks, cranes, ships, warehouses, earth-moving machinery in all directions. Directly in front of us, squeezed in-between the two rivers is a chequerboard of quadrangles of shallow water separated from one another by narrow levees, each rimed in white. Behind us rises a white crystalline mountain of salt, fed by a conveyor belt arching over the road from the saline water to the salt mountain’s summit. You might…

When people start thinking of their holidays, it’s always with one eye on the weather. So, if you’re picking a spot like Mull, there has to be a promise of at least some good conditions. Good weather is ideal for eagles to soar in, and be seen, while heavy rain can keep them tucked away. If the latter does occur, though, you have to think of other species to go and find, and boy, does that encourage you to tour the island and its offshore isles to find not only birds but some amazing sea mammals as well in summer! I first went to Mull in 1975, as a fencing contractor, and then again in 1986 to see the first nesting White-tailed Eagles. Now, with my youngest lad operating as…

In association with Q I know some apps like SnapBridge allow you to take photos remotely – do these allow you to do the same things that an actual remote control would? T Kimber, Stourbridge A Almost all manufacturers now have apps that allow you to control your camera over Wifi or Bluetooth. The functionality of the app will depend on what camera you’re using but with most modern cameras the app will allow you to control much more than with a conventional remote. Most apps allow your device to receive live view and the ability to adjust a wide variety of settings such as exposure mode, shutter speed, aperture and focus point. This is a great tool if you’re looking to take wide-angle images of birds at say a…

What first sparked your interest in birdwatching, and when? The event that first sparked my interest in birdwatching was finding my housemate’s The Australian Bird Guide book on the shelf. The stars were aligning because that very week I had seen that the Aussie Backyard Bird Count was due to begin. I was living in the outer-city suburbs of Melbourne at the time, so my housemates and I sat out the front, put on our 20-minute timer and counted all the birds we saw. Most of them were invasive or disruptive species, like the Noisy Miner, (European) Starling and the humble Rock Pigeon, but at the time I didn’t know this, I was just so excited to frantically look through the book to identify them. I bought myself The Field…

Ian Parsons: “The Exe estuary in Devon, where I’m from. It’s full of great birds. Clouds of waders and gulls.” David Lindo: “Wormwood Scrubs in West London will forever be my favourite site no matter how much HS2 tries to destroy it!” John Miles: “Geltsdale. I just have to walk out of the house, through the woodland I planted and onto the fell!” Ruth Miller: “The Great Orme, Llandudno. My local patch. It’s a huge limestone headland which can turn up exciting migrants.” …and the Bird Watching team’s answers Matt Merritt: “Charnwood Lodge LRWT – it’s where I first started birdwatching.” Mike Weedon: “Nene Washes, near Peterborough, has outstanding birds!” Tim Unwin: “I was blown away by the variety of birds on the Ceredigion coast!”…

ELEGANT TERN With fewer than 20 accepted UK records involving many fewer individuals (with birds reappearing over several years), this large, orange-billed tern is seriously rare. But, with recent breeding in Spain and birds seen regularly in France, the chances of UK records has increased. This was demonstrated with the long-staying bird on Anglesey and Lancashire, last summer. A repeat this summer? Let’s hope so. BOOTED EAGLE Here’s a bird so rare that it’s not even on the British List. Yet, just about every year there are reports of them in the UK. And every year, those reports are ‘rejected’. Surely, Booted Eagles from France would be capable of taking on the short crossing over the Channel to England. With cameras as good as they are, a real one will…

ALL THE BIGGEST BIRD NEWS & EVENTS Global Birdfair was launched on 19 January 2022, only three weeks after I made the decision to bring back an event much loved by wildlife enthusiasts across the globe. Potential exhibitors were sent a questionnaire asking for a show of interest. Within days, more than 250 had replied requesting stands. Work has been relentless ever since; so much to do in a relativity short space of time, as the new location at the Rutland Showground was only available in mid-July. On 18 February, less than a month from when we made the initial announcement, visitors started booking online. The following week it was the turn of the exhibitors. By early April, close to 200 exhibitors had booked their stands. The diversity of exhibitors…

There is something magical about watching Nightjars. All birdwatching is pleasurable, of course, it’s why we do it, but an evening out with the Nightjars is extra special. Maybe it’s the fading light of dusk creating its own atmosphere, or the anticipation of what is to come, as the daylight is gradually reduced to a faint glow on the western horizon. Or perhaps it’s the show itself: that amazing, almost baffling song filling your ears and the dark silent shapes that flit across the open sky before vanishing into the shadows of the landscape. Whatever it is about them, Nightjars are, in my opinion at least, the most magical of additions to any #My200BirdYear list. These crepuscular birds (meaning they are mainly active at dawn and dusk) are not with…

Sky Lark vs Wood Lark Both our breeding lark species occur in heathland Sky Lark • Crest slightly larger and more obvious • Longish tail • White outer tail feathers • Subtle, shortish pale supercilium • Medium primaries (long wing feathers) • Plain at front edge of wing Wood Lark • Crest short and rounded • Short tail • White tip to tail • Obvious long, bold pale supercilium • Short primaries (long wing feathers) • Black and white patches at front edge of wing Heathlands are low diversity bird habitats When birdwatching in summer heathlands don’t expect to accrue a massive day list! The birds of heathlands are usually a pretty specialised bunch. So expect, at best, to encounter the likes of Tree Pipit, Stonechat, Whinchat, Nightjar, Hobby, Redstart…

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 Grasshopper Warbler by K Gypps Camera: Olympus OM-1 Lens: 300mm, Shutter Speed: 1/1,000 sec Aperture: f/4.5 ISO: 250 2 Swallow by David Walker Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: 500mm, Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 500 3 Turtle Doves by Steve Cullum Camera: Nikon D500 Lens: 500mm, Shutter Speed: 1/2,000 sec Aperture: f/5.6 ISO: 1,800 4 Kestrel by Rob Porter Camera: Panasonic DC-G9 Lens: 400mm, Shutter Speed: 1/1,000 sec Aperture: f/8 ISO: 320 WE LOVE… The Swallow with its wings at full stretch. Glorious!…

BINOCULARS ZEISS SFL 8X40 £1,550 Tested by Mike Weedon These new binoculars from Zeiss somehow squeeze just about all the excellence of the well-established 8x42 SF binoculars into a slightly smaller objective lens diameter pair, which is considerably smaller, lighter and some £800 less expensive. To me, it seems like a minor miracle! I have been using Zeiss binoculars since the launch of the 8x42 FL (in fact I had a 7x42 FL pair) in the Noughties. My tried and well-tested pair were replaced with Zeiss 8x42 SFs a few years ago, which are the pair I use every day. The new 8x40 SFLs (the L stands for lightweight, to go with the smart focus of the SF) take the SF design and tweak it, losing the hinge near the…

BIRD OF THE MONTH JUVENILE GREEN WOODPECKER The laughing ‘yaffle’ of the Green Woodpecker is one of the great sounds of spring. Familiar and pleasing on the ear, it is always wonderful to know that Green Woodpeckers are about and making their presence known. However, come the summer, the soundscape becomes a bit different. Instead of the mellifluous giggle of the territorial adult woodpeckers, the shouting of broken voiced teenagers takes over – usually as a response, it seems, to a human getting a bit too close while they are trying to hoover up ants on the ground. In addition to having a less pleasant voice, the juvenile Green Woodpecker is not as neat and pretty as its parents. It has the red crown, green back and yellow rump; but…

DORSET EXCLUSIVE You’ll need to make a special trip to see Lulworth Skipper. This tiny, golden-winged butterfly curiously lives only in tall grassland on chalk, and survives solely along a relatively short stretch of Dorset coast – yet can be abundant where it occurs. PLANT Special heath The British Isles harbour several species of heath or heather, of which Dorset Heath is one of the more localised. Characterised by long, balloon-shaped flowers, it grows only on somewhat damp heathlands in south-east Dorset (particularly Purbeck, where a large new National Nature Reserve was designated in 2020), west Cornwall and odd sites in Devon and Hampshire. INSECT Bitten by beauty From painful experience, you may think that horseflies are best avoided. But take a close look at a Band-eyed Brown Horsefly and…

Does Akira Miyawaki mean anything to you? A sumo star perhaps, or maybe a character from the Lion King? The name meant nothing to me until recently, which is so sad. Maybe, if someone listens locally, I might just about be able to see a woodland planted and mature before I shuffle off to make compost. This visionary died in the middle of last year aged 93, some 20 years my senior. But his name lives on as shorthand for a method of reforestation that could transform our cities, brownfields and unproductive agricultural deserts. His is a very simple idea… sort of a ‘no brainer’ really, if you start with his first tenet: that you plant the sort of trees that are the most common, native species in any area.…

Send all your birding questions to birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk and our experts will give you the answers Odd goose Q I should be grateful if you could identify this bird, seen on 11 April 2022 on one of the meres on Wicken Fen. Smaller than the average Canada Goose, it did not have the distinct white cheek band of the Canada Goose, the white of its face enveloping the eye, more in the manner of a Barnacle Goose. Its bill, however, was more that of a Canada Goose than the smaller, more delicate version shown by a Barnacle Goose. It was solitary for the whole of the time we watched from the hide, and remained silent. Was this a Barnacle Goose, soon to leave us, or a variant form of a resident…

Join the Bird Watching team for some fabulous birding in the Scottish Highlands this autumn… Autumn in Scotland means rich wildlife potential in a gloriously colourful countryside, and you can join us there for an exclusive trip from: 23 October to 28 October 2022 Bird Watching magazine editor Matthew Merritt and assistant editor Mike Weedon will be joined by Scottish birding aficionado and UKBS editor Gordon Hamlett, to lead a week of wildlife watching, based at the lovely Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown-on-Spey. The hotel boasts high quality en suite rooms and traditional Scottish fare prepared with local ingredients, and while it takes care of bed, breakfast and dinner, we’ll provide optional guided walks, expert tips, bird quizzes, films and evening talks. From our Highland location, we’ll be within easy…

The best rare birds seen all around Britain in April The Crag Martin is a familiar bird in southern Europe and the wider Mediterranean basin. But it is stupidly rare in the UK. Since the first, in June 1988, at Stithians Reservoir, Cornwall, there have been just 16 accepted records in the country. And of these, only three were in April. Admittedly, in the last 10 years there have been seven UK records (and there was one hanging around the white cliffs of Kent in the late autumn and winter of 2020), but it remains a very rare bird over here. It is so rare, in fact, that Scilly had never recorded one. Not until 14 April this year, that is, when a Crag Martin appeared on Tresco. And on…