Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Birdwatch

I trust October has produced some great birds for you. I’m writing this from windswept Co Mayo, where a week’s birding has so far produced ‘just’ a Semipalmated Sandpiper and no sign of the hoped-for American landbirds. However, with a Swainson’s Thrush to the north on the Mullet and Ireland’s first Alder Flycatcher just to the south (see page 9), there’s still plenty of hope that a mega might appear. But as November draws closer, my thoughts will turn back east to one of my favourite late autumn visitors – Pallas’s Warbler – which is a classic species of the next few weeks. Andy Stoddart profiles this beautiful ‘Sibe’ on pages 26-29. However, if there’s more north than east in the wind this month then it might be worth a seawatch…

Common Nighthawk: Wantage, Oxfordshire, 26 September 2022 MY phone rang just after 10 am on 26 September. It was Ian Lewington, the Oxfordshire county bird recorder, who asked me if I was free to help him out. What he then recounted rocked me to the core and sent shocks of adrenalin coursing through my veins. “I am in Wantage and standing within seven feet of a Common Nighthawk.” He elaborated and told me how this came about. Apparently, earlier that morning, Lee, a resident of Springfield Road in Wantage, had looked out of his kitchen window to see a bird sat on the fence that protected his garden from the road. He had no idea what it was. He contacted someone else who thought it might be a European Nightjar…

There are nine species of auk on the British list (not including the extinct Great Auk), four of which are breeding species. Among these are some of our favourite and most charismatic seabirds, such as Puffin. Many birders will know our breeding auks well from summer visits to Shetland, the Farne Islands, Bempton Cliffs and the islands off the Welsh coast, but what about in autumn and winter? What exactly are those small black-and-white dots zipping through the wave troughs? And how do you see some of the more exciting Arctic species which are reported around our shores? This guide will aim to help you to gen up on Guillemot and Razorbill, perfect your Puffin and Little Auk identification, and just maybe score big time with a bonus Brünnich’s. Stats…

The Gambia has long been a popular destination for visiting birders from Europe and further afield, offering an impressive range of sub-Saharan species in a relatively accessible and affordable destination. From the UK, it is just a six-hour direct flight away and has no time difference. It is served by a number of package-tour operators offering good-value winter sun at the resorts on the ‘smiling coast’ of Africa. The peak time for tourism coincides with the early part of thedryseason(mainlyNovemberto February), which is an excellent time for birding in the region. English is widely spoken, infrastructure has improved greatly and there are plenty of good local bird guides available to show you around. Seeing upwards of 250 species is possible in a week to 10 days of intensive birding. Less…

THIS is the time of year to begin checking inland waters, which can be extremely rewarding, especially after coastal storms. There is a good range of unusual species which might be seen and all of the birds mentioned below often arrive during October and November, with many of them frequently seen tagging along with commoner species. Wildfowl flocks are always worth looking through. Greater Scaup is not a rarity but is an exciting find inland, often among flocks of Common Pochard and Tufted Duck. Nearctic species should be expected occasionally, such as Ring-necked Duck with Tufted Duck, American Wigeon with Eurasian Wigeon and the much rarer Bufflehead with Common Goldeneye. Last year there was a major arrival of Lesser Scaup in Scotland with five present on Islay, Argyll, in late…

IF you want to go out and look for lots of wildlife on a November day then why not start by checking out some ivy. A common native plant in Britain, Common or English Ivy is great for wildlife throughout the year but comes into its own from September onwards. Often recognised by its glossy, green three- or five-pointed leaves, it can be found climbing anything from walls and fences to trees and rocks. Ivy can cling onto surfaces such as walls and bark by using adventitious roots which grow along the stem. These produce fine hairs which can enter tiny crevices, producing a glue-like substance and becoming rigid. Mature English Ivy actually has round leaves and flowers from September to November when many other plants have finished. The flowers are…

Finding a national first is always a big deal, yet keen Inishbofin birder Steve Millar is making a habit of it on the island. After discovering Ireland’s first (and so far, only) Tennessee Warbler on 6 October 2020, Steve has now added a second ‘first’ to his collection just two years later, with an Empidonax flycatcher on 8 October. Although weather conditions were horrendous the following morning after the bird’s discovery, it was still present and offered excellent views to a solid crowd of appreciative Irish birders who had braved the morning ferry crossing in rough seas – unlike the last American flycatcher to visit the island, a one-day Eastern Kingbird on 24 September 2013. Identifi cation of Empidonax flycatchers is never easy, but initial images taken by the finders…

Pallas’s Warbler – sometimes known as ‘Siberia’s sprite’ or ‘seven-striped sprite’ – is a special bird indeed. It has acquired a legendary, almost mythical, status among ornithologists and birders alike. Through a unique combination of rarity value, great aesthetic appeal and enduring scientific interest, this tiny bird has come to exercise the most remarkable hold on our collective imagination. The memory of my first – on St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly – is still vivid. For years the species had teased me with heartbreaking near-misses but finally, on 20 October 1985, I set eyes on my most-wanted bird. It was tiny and jewel-like, little more than a blur of stripes and flashing yellow rump, but as it danced high in a sunlit elm it was all I had…

The sun had slipped down below the horizon, removing the last vestiges of warmth from a frigid winter’s day and had rimmed the clouds in a pink glow that made them look like candy floss. It was sometime in the early 1990s and I was standing in a barrier-beach parking lot at Jones Beach, New York. After an afternoon photographing Snowy Owls, a group of photographer friends and I were discussing the rumblings of the advancing digital camera technology when someone mused: “Hmm, d’ya think digital will ever rival or replace film though?” Looking back now, two decades later, that statement seems laughable and shockingly naive. As a photographic medium, digital technology has far surpassed film in every way. The impact of 21st-century technology on both birding and photography has…

WE’RE now moving into the closing weeks of autumn. The days are rapidly shortening, the temperatures are dropping and the foliage is a mix of yellows, oranges and browns, while the bushes are stuffed with berries. When it comes to birding, what says November most to you? This month’s Photo Challenge is to send in your best shots taken in this month – it could be a species typical of November, a famous rarity seen during this month, a bird framed in classically autumnal settings, or anything else seasonal. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! Terms and conditions Please email your entries to editorial@birdwatch.co.uk. The competition is open to anyone and you may enter as many photos as you wish. The closing date is 30 November…

IT’S a bad time to be a finch. The BTO and RSPB reckon that breeding populations of Chaffinches have fallen by 30% in five years. Greenfinch declines have been known for longer than that. Have a look at the Garden Wildlife Health project pages on the BTO website (bto.org). One of the big problems is a protozoan (a minute single-celled parasite) responsible for trichomonosis. This disease has caused adult Greenfinch numbers in spring to fall from 4.3 million to 2.8 million since 2005. You might notice a bird looking ‘sick’ and having difficulty breathing or swallowing. The disease is transmitted by infected birds visiting drinking pools, bird baths or feeders and it is vital to keep these areas clean and free from infection, and ideally move their positions every few…

NOT long ago the only warbler that our field guides might have called ‘resident’ in the UK would have been Dartford Warbler. Common Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps then increasingly were hanging around all winter, but summer and winter individuals were not necessarily the same: ringing recoveries showed that many winter Blackcaps came from central Europe. But by the 1970s a new species was added: Cetti’s Warbler. This is a ‘real’ resident, as the same birds remain all year, largely in southern England, East Anglia, the southern and northern fringes of Wales and a few areas farther north. It is surprisingly still absent from much of northern England and all of Scotland. In summer it sings: the sudden outburst, a loud, rich phrase that starts with two or three notes followed by…

WE met up as usual on Fox Hill Down at Langdon Cliffs near Dover, Kent, shortly after 7 am on Sunday 11 September. There was pretty much no wind and it looked like it was going to be a nice, sunny south-coast day. It felt ‘drifty’, the type of day with the potential for some aerial bits thrown into the mix and perhaps the odd passerine in the bushes. Having watched the site for a handful of years we now have a decent, trusted circuit each visit. Starting off in the National Trust car park at Langdon Cliffs, we walk east from Langdon Cliffs NT through Langdon Hole and onto South Foreland before heading back, checking all the cover that there is and keeping our eyes to the skies. Generally,…

The car has been an essential item in the birder’s toolkit ever since the hobby took its modern form in the 1950s and 1960s. It not only offers the ability to quickly reach rare birds or stretches of coastline enjoying promising weather systems, but the motor vehicle also allows us to unlock the full potential of our local areas. With the seriousness of the climate crisis sinking in, recent years have seen us question how we get about when we go birding, with driving pricking our conscience almost as much as air travel. There are several options for a green birding utopia, with walking, cycling and public transport leading the discussion, but do cars fit in to that vision at all? With all my favourite local sites just too far…

REVIEW Viking Swallow 50 ED Compact Spotting Scope WITH the demand for physical compactness combined with substantial optical quality having escalated in recent years, many optics brands have cast a critical eye over their product portfolios with a view to meeting this now-important requirement. Having already launched 65 mm and 80 mm ED models in their Swallow range of telescopes, Viking has now upgraded its basic 50 mm offering in the same series to include ED glass, along with a number of other constructive modifications. The result is impressive. Officially launched at this year’s Global Birdfair, the new scope became available at the beginning of October and is ultimately set to replace the existing 50 mm Swallow which, although bearing a superficial resemblance, it differs from considerably. A more integrated body…

THE UK is essential for more than 840,000 migrant geese and swans that travel here from northern breeding areas like Iceland, Greenland and Svalbard, either wintering in the UK or using it as a stopover site on migration. Many are distinct populations and the UK is especially important for several of these. A monitoring scheme to collect data on these populations has until recently been managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), together with JNCC and NatureScot. WWT has now handed over its role to the British Trust for Ornithology (BT0). The BTO/JNCC/NS Goose and Swan Monitoring Programme (GSMP) is made up of annual and periodic surveys that monitor 13 of the UK’s 14 populations of these birds (including one resident population) during the non-breeding season. Four of these…

Q We hear a great deal about bird migration as a result of climate change and read about the predictions of the next bird species likely to take up residence in the UK. However, just how might the Red-tailed Shrike have arrived at Bempton this summer when it should have been in Asia? What is the likely outcome for where it might go next and what are its survival chances? Roy Richardson, via email A Sam Viles, BirdGuides News Manager, replies:“‘Vagrant’ refers to a bird that turns up outside of its expected range. The greater the migratory urge of a species, the more likely it is to turn up as a vagrant, while more sedentary species are less prone to wandering from their usual haunts. “There are number of theories as…