Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Birdwatch

ONE of the finds of the year concerned a pristine adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron found well inland along a river in an unsuspecting Co Mayo village in late May – the first Irish record of this American species. Irish birder Jim Fitzharris, whose friend found the heron, takes up the story: “Late morning on 26 May, a friend of mine, Ger Nee, who lives in Belcarra, Co Mayo, sent me a message with a phone photo of an unusual heron seen on a footbridge over the Manulla River in the village. The photo had been taken by a friend of hers, Lorraine Ryan Jennings, and as the image was blurred, she was asking me what it was. “It was clearly a Yellow-crowned Night Heron and I relayed this to her, at…

New additions to the Western Palearctic list don’t come around every day, making the incredible discovery of a first-summer male Indian Golden Oriole on Holy Island, Northumberland, on 21st one for the record books (see page 10). It took several hours for this tricky identification to be realised and unfortunately there was no further sign of the bird once twitchers arrived on the island by late afternoon – providing a lucky few with a real ‘blocker’. The oriole was the headline act of a stunning run of British and Irish firsts: the previous day saw a dark-morph Booted Eagle fly over St Just, Cornwall, during a record-breaking day of Red Kite movement (see page 8). This species is currently absent from the British list despite a single record from 1999-2000…

CONSISTENT with other models in the range and under the latest slogan, ‘travel light, see bright’, Kowa has redesigned and upgraded its smallest telescope, the TSN-550 Prominar. Making its market debut in mid-June, prior to a UK launch at July’s Global Birdfair in Rutland, the new model is ultimately set to replace the TSN-553 and TSN-554 models and, like its predecessor, is manufactured in straight and angled versions, known respectively as the TSN-55S and TSN-55A Prominar. Keen to find out just how well this new version performed, I was fortunate to be able to grab the angled model in advance and, upon doing so, one thing immediately became evident: Kowa means business in the travelscope sector! A first look through this neat piece of kit revealed an image of excellent…

WHEN checking the light trap on a warm summer’s morning, many moth-ers – myself included – can sometimes overlook the small and at first glance uninspiring-looking micro-moths in favour of the larger and more spectacular species that are often present. This, of course, shouldn’t be the case, as records of the former are every bit as valuable as the latter, but it can be hard to know where to focus when the trap is especially busy. The newly published A Guide to the Pyralid and Crambid Moths of Britain and Ireland is a fantastic resource that goes a long way towards demonstrating what we are missing out on should we overlook these fascinating families. This weighty new tome, authored by Mark Parsons and Sean Clancy, comprehensively profiles no fewer than…

Birding in a changing world Despite the abundant evidence for potentially calamitous global warming, most people (including many birders) are still in denial about the likely effects of climate change on their own lifestyles. As long ago as the mid-1980s, an eminent Egyptian scientist at an IUCN conference stated: “If we don’t act now, it will be too late.” Forty years on, it must be obvious to everyone apart from members of the Flat Earth Society (and Donald Trump) that his warning should have been heeded. Yet governments worldwide are still reluctant to adopt the serious measures necessary to meet their emissions targets, and they continue to sail blithely on with expensive infrastructure projects likely to become white elephants in the near future. For example, in Portugal, where I now…

IN 2024, I decided to do a year list in my home county of Sussex. I intended to spend most of the year in the county so as not to miss anything, but a short trip to North-East England in May with my girlfriend Megan’s family was an exciting opportunity to visit some migrant hot-spots and potentially see some birds that I’m unlikely to get back home. We spent Monday 20 May over the Scottish border, walking around St Abb’s Head in the hope of finding a Red-backed Shrike. However, a lack of overall migrants didn’t fill me with a lot of hope. On Tuesday, Megan had arranged a trip over to the Farne Islands to bask in the seabird spectacular that’s not been available for the last few years…

Atrio of national firsts made it a thrilling month for Danish birders, starting with the shock discovery of a Red-breasted Swallow at Espergærde from 9-11th (see page 17). An apparent Plain Swift at Skagen on 13th would be the first European record away from Iberia if confirmed, while a fly-over Pygmy Cormorant at Nørresø on 24th was somewhat more expected considering the species’ recent expansion into Germany. Other news from Skagen concerned an Alpine Accentor, Steppe Eagle and Lesser Kestrel. Coinciding with the discovery of two Indigo Buntings in Britain was a first-summer male at Höfn, Iceland, on 19-20th. It is the third Icelandic record and the nation’s first in spring. A probable male was also photographed at Skagen, Denmark, on 9th. The two Ross’s Geese made a reappearance on…

Spending the evening watching bats and listening to the hoots of a Tawny Owl, and with only a layer of nylon between us and the dawn chorus, felt like a formative experience as I earned my most memorable Scouts badge. But convenience has seen me head to the nearest bed and breakfast ever since. Midway through my first spring visit to my partner’s summer house in the Gulf of Finland, we set out on a spontaneous camping adventure. Ingrid was aware that I still hadn’t seen some of the owls and woodpeckers of her ancestral country, so she pulled out a tent and we made the four-hour journey into the forests of South Karelia. With no knowledge of active nest sites, you might say that this was a foolhardy mission…

As we crammed into a cold, dark hide before dawn on 23 February 1983, little did the three of us realise that the events of the next hour would lead us into a lifetime project. We had set a mistnet across the shallow lagoons at Lemsford Springs Nature Reserve in Hertfordshire, and were hoping to catch and ring our very first Green Sandpiper. We had taken advice from local expert Tom Kittle that this was the best way to catch the species, but even so we were still not totally convinced. Just as it started to get light a loud peep, peep, peep call came from the lagoons – we had caught our very first Green Sandpiper, which we could just about make out in the mistnet. Tom’s advice was…

THIS book focuses on several years’ work at the sharp end of conservation efforts for three particular species: Peregrine Falcon, Hawaiian Crow and California Condor. It is a breathless journey with lots of bumps and twists, packed full of personal reminiscences with all the stress involved in active fieldwork. It is also packed full of factual material and demands a close, careful read. You will learn about US hunters – all 18 million of them – and that some would readily shoot condors. There’s also information on the long-lasting and catastrophic results of pesticide use, with more to come due to shocking reversals of US government policy. Despite this at times bleak outlook, there is a lot to enjoy, a lot to admire and some excellent results to celebrate, helping…

BRITAIN and Ireland’s position on the edge of a continent bordering one of the world’s great oceans, with western edges fringed with precipitous cliffs and isolated rocky islands, means it is of major significance for its seabirds. Of these, Manx Shearwater is near endemic with up to 99% of the world population breeding on our shores, while up to 70% of Earth’s Northern Gannets, 60% of Great Skuas and 70% of the North Atlantic’s Common Guillemots also nest here. Of the 25 species of seabird that make up the body of this definitive modern reference, almost all are present in numbers considered of international importance. Clearly, it is imperative that we keep a handle on what is happening to these species. Since 1969, four comprehensive seabird censuses have been undertaken,…

Pre-order your copy online now – see www.birdguides.com for details of how to subscribe and save more than 15% a year! ■ Spoon synopsis A massive conservation effort has been invested in Spoon-billed Sandpiper over the past decade. But how is the species faring? David Callahan investigates. ■ Sound advice Much is still being learned about bird vocalisations, but the ways in which birders interpret them is improving. In conjunction with the release of his new book, Identifying Migratory Birds by Sound in Britain and Europe, Stanislas Wroza explores how we can make the most of what we hear in the field. ■ Big day by bike After his team used bicycles to set a new Oxfordshire day record in late April 2024, Tom Bedford reflects on the pros…

I moved to St Just in October 2023 after nearly 30 years living abroad, with the enticing prospect of some interesting birds to seek out locally. Spring 2024 had in fact been relatively quiet, with very few passerine migrants, but there was always something to see. One eagerly anticipated and remarkable spring event is the annual movement of Red Kites to Cornwall, generally in the first three weeks of May. There had been a few days in the first half of the month with 20 or more seen, but not the big numbers of recent years. However, during the afternoon of 19th, some 370 had been seen moving west over Marazion – clearly something dramatic was in prospect. That evening saw me standing out in the garden watching (and rather…

IT was around 12.25 pm on Saturday 18 May and I was at home in Whitburn, finishing off writing up a few bird notes from a visit to Norfolk in the preceding few days. I looked up from my notes on the kitchen table and was astonished to see a bright blue passerine jockeying for position with the regular Tree Sparrows at the feeders in our back garden. My heart skipped several beats. Looking at it through binoculars for the first time, it immediately reminded me of the Indigo Buntings I’d seen in Florida some years ago. Could it be one – or was there some other explanation? Another blue passerine, perhaps an escape that I’d never heard of? Fumbling with my camera, I managed to take a few record…

THURSDAY 9 May began much like the three previous days, at Rørtangvej, in my city of Helsingør. Following my usual birding route, I found my myself halfway through before something odd happened. Checking out the local Swallows at the farm and horse paddocks, something caught my attention. It was a bird that, for half a second, resembled a Common Swift, but then appeared more like a rather robust and powerful swallow, joining the local hirundines, from which it clearly differed. It had a slow but powerful flight and was silent. As the sky was dark, I could only see a pale red rump and a light throat. Yes! Red-rumped Swallow, I assumed. I called a local birding friend but he was a two-hour drive away, in the field with his…

The UK general election takes place on 4 July. I wouldn’t have the temerity to suggest how you should vote but I do urge you to vote. Why? Because people are dying across the world to get the vote, and people have died in the UK so that people like you and I, ordinary people, can have a say in how the UK runs itself. If you can vote in person then you should acquaint yourself with the new rules on having photographic identification with you – check the GOV.UK website for details, but a UK passport or driving licence are two of the options (there are many others). If Rishi has called the election at an inconvenient time for you then you can get a postal vote (but the…

THIS title offers readers ‘a wild wander around Britain’s greatest habitat’ in book form. Across seven chapters, the author travels from his own rewilding project involving a hedge in Wiltshire to explore the massive impact this underappreciated part of our landscape has had on Britain’s ecological and cultural life. It is both intimate and broad-ranging, informative and inspiring, and a gentle, easy read which will surely make the reader take a fresh look at these ‘wild edge’ habitats they might well have wandered past countless times without noticing. Britain today has some 400,000 km of intact hedgerows, though half have disappeared since the Second World War and, as Hart persuasively explains, they are critical spaces for a range of species from Dunnock to European Hedgehog and Common Nightingale to dung…

MANY birders will be familiar with the North Sea Bird Club – an organisation established in 1979 as a hub for those working on offshore oil and gas platforms to record and share their wildlife observations. The comings and goings of birds at sea is something that has long fascinated ornithologists and those individuals stationed on rigs were perfectly placed to receive a unique insight into what takes place over the open ocean. Unfortunately, as the quantity of keen observers stationed offshore diminished in more recent times, the North Sea Bird Club found itself in a position where it felt the best option was to wind up its work. But this was not before a full four decades of sightings had been detailed and documented, with some remarkable observations made…

As is the case during many chats with my lovely boyfriend, the conversation turned to birds. After discussing this and that, he casually mentioned the ‘Patagonian Picnic Table’ (PPT) effect. Say what? My apologies, reader, I’ve only been to North America twice, and one of those trips was to Walt Disney World at the age of five. I was, therefore, unfamiliar with this delightful expression from our birding neighbours across the pond. This wasn’t even the Patagonia I had heard of, but a town in Arizona. The PPT phenomenon focuses on the idea that where birders gather to look for one rare bird, others will be found. The picnic bench in question has recorded (as of 2022) 229 species and holds pilgrimage status in the US. It even has its…