Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Bird Watching

twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag 1 WATER RAIL Probably because of its habit of living concealed within dense reedbeds and staying hidden, official UK Water Rail breeding numbers seem extraordinarily low, with only 1,100 pairs supposed to be nesting. There just must be more and the bird is crying out for a thorough census. Such a census would mainly concentrate on sounds, as Water Rails are noisy birds, and produce a wonderful array of strange vocalisations, the most familiar being a piglet-like squeal, where higher notes mix with deep growls. Scan the edges of reedbeds (especially where they’re very shallow, and particularly at dawn and dusk, the crepuscular hours) and you may be lucky enough to set eyes on one or more of these beautiful birds creeping along the edge, easily identified by…

Come the end of August, my Peterborough area year list (and so #My200BirdYear list) was stagnating nicely. My list had reached a half-decent 178 by late July, after a hasty visit to Deeping Lakes LWT, to see a family group of Spoonbills. Yellow-legged Gull took me to 179, followed by miserable stasis throughout August. But things were going to change, rapidly. On the last day of the month, my friend Will B reported an adult Gannet swimming across the same east pit at DLLWT where the Spoonbills had been. I dashed up to see this rare inland seabird. But as I arrived, I was told that I needn’t have hurried, as the poor Gannet was not looking well. Indeed, a closer look at the huge, elegant bird revealed that its…

Spoonbill success Norfolk’s Holkham Estate is to increase its Spoonbill habitat because the colony, the UK’s largest, is thriving, with 43 pairs nesting this year. It will double the size of the nesting area by carrying out management of the wetlands – Holkham’s National Nature Reserve team will create new ditches and islands with trees to futureproof the colony. Other birds such as Little, Cattle and Great White Egrets will also benefit from the extension. Help for Curlews Thirty-seven ‘head-started’ young Curlews, rescued as eggs from RAF airfields and reared in captivity, have been released, and are being monitored by scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). UK Curlew numbers crashed by almost half between 1995 and 2018. Poor breeding success is responsible for much of this decline, but…

On a warm but windy late May morning 25 years ago, I walked along a rocky path – known without a hint of irony as ‘The Street’ – past remains of stone cottages. The goat-like Soay sheep scattered as I passed and a St Kilda Wren sang boisterously from a wall. An Oystercatcher called frantically overhead and I looked up to see a Bonxie or Great Skua – an avian TIE fighter – in close pursuit. The predator and prey seemed matched in flying speed and agility, but with one last desperate twist and shriek, the Oystercatcher escaped to safety. You couldn’t ignore the Bonxies on Hirta. This 2.6 square-mile island, the largest in the St Kilda archipelago, 50 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, was home to about 240…

Finches are cool birds. As Darwin showed in the Galápagos, they have bills which are very much designed for a particular job. In the case of most European finches, this job is eating seeds. And, in a UK context, by seeds this means everything from tiny thistle seeds (eaten by Goldfinches, Lesser Redpolls etc), through the small seeds in Alder and Birch catkins, to cherry stones (Hawfinch) and the difficult-to-extract seeds from pine cones (Crossbills). The size and shape of the bill increases with the power needed to crush the seed to extract its nutritional goodness. But finches are more than clever multitools, they are pretty little birds, variable in size, colour and pattern. Here are six species of finch for you to try to identify. Can you put a…

COLLECT & KEEP Every month we bring you 10 more sites to build up your GO BIRDING collection MORE SITES For a full list of the sites we’ve featured, go to birdwatching.co.uk/gbindex HIGHLAND MAX MILES ON FOOT: 3 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS ABERNETHY FOREST Explore some ancient Caledonian forest Abernethy Forest is 31,516 acres (12,754 hectares), with the RSPB owning the majority. Our walk here is just a fraction of the area, but gives you a great example what is on offer in the forest. WHERE TO WATCH 1 As you approach the start of the walk have your windows down to listen out for Crossbills and Crested Tits as you drive along the track to Forest Lodge. Once at the start scan the trees in this area, as I…

HOLLY PAGE Holly started out as a Heatherlea client, and after enjoying numerous trips she’s now passing her wide knowledge of all Scotland’s wildlife on to guests. MARK WARREN Mark has guided Heatherlea tours all over the world, but he has a great track record of rarity-finding in Scotland and the rest of the UK, and lives locally. MATT MERRITT Bird Watching editor Matt will accompany the second Birdlist Booster trip – this is your chance to tell him what you want to see more of in the magazine!…

BINOCULARS MAVEN B1.2 10X42 £1,049.99 Reviewed by Matt Merritt I’ll admit up front, Maven isn’t a brand I’ve come across before. They’re assembled in the USA, using Japanese components, and operate on a direct-to-consumer model. This pair were supplied by Highland Outdoors, and are available through the NatureObservationUK.com website. They make a striking impression straight out of the box. Dark grey, with chrome-look trim and some smart orange piping, they feel surprisingly compact for 10x42s, and at 760g they’re certainly not heavy. They feel really very solidly put together, with a closed bridge design and rubber armouring that’s easy to grip. The eyecups are covered with hard, textured rubber. I did wonder if it might be a bit uncomfortable, but even in extended use it was fine. Indeed, the eyecups…

SEASONALITY IAN PARSONS, WHITTLES, SB £18.99 Bird Watching’s own Ian is into his second book. The first was on vultures and living in Spain – this one concerns living in Devon, and the charm of walking and viewing the area. They are not set walks for you to follow, just accounts of Ian’s rambling around the area, with the wildlife seen and identified in full in each chapter. Ian has added his own photos, mainly of wildlife rather than landscape, and as the title suggests he guides you through the seasons in that part of the world. His ‘No Parking Whitebeam’ sounds like a tree that needs planting in many parts of Britain! BOOK OF THE MONTH THE WILDERNESS CURE MO WILDE, SIMON & SCHUSTER, HB £16.99 The title of…

SOUTH WEST In association with Highlights As is often the case in August, seawatching was superb in the region, with good numbers of tubenoses especially on Scilly pelagics, including several Wilson’s Petrels, and the odd Fea’s type Petrel among the throngs of scarce shearwaters. A possible Trindade Petrel passed Porthgwarra, Cornwall, on 24th. AVON CLEVEDON-WESTON-SUPER-MARE: Seven Sanderling visited Sand Bay (30th). Clevedon had a possible Audouin’s Gull (15th). SEVERNSIDE: Four Common Scoters were off Northwick Warth (7th). A Kentish Plover flew around Severn Beach (26th-27th). Severnside produced a few Little Ringed Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers, a Wood Sandpiper, two Greenshanks, Mediterranean Gulls and Yellow-legged Gulls. A Kittiwake was at Oldbury Power Station (23rd). Littleton ringers had a Firecrest (21st). THE RESERVOIRS: Eight Garganeys remained and the first returning Wigeon and Pintails…

Pete Brown – South East Northumberland, 22 September 1991 It was only just over half a day. It contained no great rarities, no vast falls of displaced migrants, no life ticks and probably not a great deal to interest the county recorder, but it was significant in that at the end of it I was left with a pleasantly contented feeling that, for me, is what birdwatching is all about. For more than half a century Sheffield, has been my home, but Tyneside is where I grew up and the Northumberland coast is the area where my interest in birds developed and flourished in the early 1960s. Occasionally, during visits back to the North East I reacquaint myself with old haunts, but haven’t time to do justice to the opportunities…

Autumn brings with it many birding highlights. Clouds of waders on our estuaries, rafts of ducks on our reservoirs, and the magical murmurations of Starlings; but one of my favourite autumn birding highlights is the arrival of the thrushes. Redwings and Fieldfares are heralds of the approaching winter, and I delight in seeing and hearing them for the first time each year – they’re my autumn equivalent of Chiffchaffs and Swallows. October is the month when these two thrushes start to arrive with us. You might get a few in late September, especially in the east of the country, but in the south-west, where I live, it is in the tenth month that they first appear. A bit like with the Chiffchaff in spring, it is their call that I…

The Great Kiskadee (also known simply as the kiskadee) is a widespread member of the New World’s Tyrant Flycatcher family, with a range stretching from southern Texas south into Argentina. In the US it is slowly spreading northwards, perhaps fuelled by the climatic changes that the world is currently going through. It has also been introduced to Bermuda and Tobago for fairly stupid reasons. Several hundred birds were liberated in Tobago from nearby Trinidad in the 1970s in an attempt to control the exploding numbers of lizards, including the Tree Lizard, itself an introduced species. Of course, the plan failed miserably. The birds bred prolifically and in a few short years the population had reached 60,000. As omnivores, they were eating everything but the multitudes of lizards on the island.…

I planted a lavender bush to feed more pollinators. Last year it was moderately successful and the spent blooms ended up in a pail in a bathroom cupboard, where they still broadcast summer scents. But I am now doubting its parentage: surely, it has elements from the Triffid genepool? It is in a raised bed, but even reaching above my head at full stretch, the tips evade me and its girth rivals a Baobab. It’s doing its job, in spades! I counted 33 Honey Bees, five Garden Bumblebees, a Buff-tailed Bumblebee and, and I can see its point, a Tree Bumblebee. There are Marmalade Hoverflies in profusion, and today, at least, two Large Whites, a Gatekeeper and several Holly Blues drawn to its heady odours. Closer inspection revealed pollen-clad flower-bees…

If you’re trying to twitch a rare bird, then doing so the day after a Rolling Stones gig, more than 250 miles away from the Yorkshire coast, is not the best way to start. Nor was the two-hour wait for my teenage daughter, Daisy, as she got herself ready for the long drive north. But my biggest barrier – psychological rather than physical – was that I had failed to see this particular species in Britain not just once, but several times, over the past four decades. The good news was that this wasn’t some fly-by-night Siberian songbird, skulking in dense vegetation before vanishing overnight. On this sunny summer’s day, my target bird was a Black-browed Albatross – the Black-browed Albatross – or ‘Albert’, as he is affectionately known. Of…

Many of us have had the experience. We put up a new tray feeder in the garden, or a tray feeder in a new garden, and wait expectantly for our first bird customers to visit. Thoughts of Chaffinches or Blue Tits go through our minds as our heart races. Then comes the let-down; there is a noisy fluttering, a plop, and a plump Woodpigeon lands on the pristine surface, and begins to fill its substantial crop, without a word of appreciation. We are inevitably disappointed. But here’s a question – why are we disappointed? The Woodpigeon is a bird, and the food is put out for birds. So, what’s the problem? I’ve heard many excuses over the years: the pigeon is well fed enough; the small birds need it more;…

The Bird Watching #My200BirdYear programme for 2023 begins with holidays in Scotland, which offers excellent birding in January and February. We aim to see as many species as possible, and these exciting holidays are ideal for general birders who want to see Scotland’s birds in winter, as well as for enthusiasts who keep lists. There are two holidays to choose over a total of nine different departures, so whether you would like a full week or a four-night stay, there’s a holiday which is just right for you. Get 2023 off to a cracking start! One priority will be British speciality species best sought in the Highlands; and during the Birdlist Booster full week tours we specifically target Ptarmigan, Black Grouse, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, Scottish Crossbill and Crested Tit.…

With the swift progression of digital photography and the ability of today’s equipment to capture amazing detail and colour even in low-light situations, you’d be forgiven for asking yourself if the black-and-white genre has any place in the modern era of wildlife photography. Nature is so full of vibrant colour after all, but for me at least, there is something so pure and simple about a monochrome image. Whereas colour images tend to offer a truer representation of a scene, reducing an image to black-and- white can add drama and offer the viewer a different and more simplistic perspective of reality. Monochrome mode There is something endlessly appealing about stripping away all the colour in a photograph, leaving nowhere for the skills of the photographer to hide. Form, texture, lighting,…

SUPER SPARROW ULTRALIGHT WATER BOTTLE, FROM £17.20 Like its Marvel character namesake, Super Sparrow bottles are made with “high performance technology and eco-friendly materials”. The Ultralight is made from pro-grade stainless steel. It’s lightweight, easy to clean, “climate friendly”, has double-wall vacuum insulation to keep the wet stuff cold (up to 24 hours) or hot (up to 12 hours), and has a lifetime warranty. Available in various colours/patterns in 0.5L and 0.75L capacities. PS: Marvel does not have a Super Sparrow character. Not yet, anyway. supersparrow.com SANDWICH STASHER, £12.99 It’s made from “pure platinum food-grade silicone” and is non-toxic, tough and waterproof. You can use it again and again. And again. It has a Pinch-Loct™ seal, a 3D shape for more storage, and you can see what’s inside – in…