Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i Birdwatch

ON the evening of 23 August 2023, two Blue-winged Teal appeared at Tophill Low NR, East Yorkshire. Both were immatures. One had dark reddish eyes (only appearing so when viewed at close range and in good light), while the other had black eyes, leading us to believe that the pair consisted of a male and a female. No images suggested collection rings or feather damage and they remained part of the suite of interest into October 2023, when curiosity regarding sightings waned and they slipped into obscurity. They were last seen on 25 November. The entire valley was severely flooded during the winter but the reserve was checked most days and likely areas elsewhere were covered multiple times; it was assumed they had migrated or moved elsewhere. With the 2024…

Crazy vagrant records of semi-resident species from warmer climes have become a notable feature of recent summers, presumably at least in part as a result of rising temperatures and more extreme conditions in their home ranges. On the last day of the month, Dutch twitchers were stunned by news of a Red-wattled Lapwing at Oostkapelle, Zeeland. This, the country’s second after one in June 2019, was the first to prove widely twitchable, as the previous bird was largely considered as an escape by Dutch listers. Until, that is, further sightings of the same bird emerged from Belgium, Germany and Croatia – an almost 1,400-km straight line back towards its Middle Eastern breeding grounds. Very few records are known from elsewhere in the WP, with a handful noted in south-west Russia…

I enjoyed my visit to the Rutland Birdfair (I can’t really call it the Global Birdfair without sniggering – sorry!) on the Sunday. I know that Sunday is always the quietest day, perhaps all the more so this year because there was a football match happening on the Sunday evening, but it was very easy to drive on to the site, to get through the entrance and to get food and drink. It was quite quiet. I liked it. There were enough people around to have sensible conversations all through the day but not so many as to send one’s head buzzing. I didn’t spend any money except on the entrance fee (very reasonable), food (better quality than in days of yore) and a beer (delicious – wish I could…

This autumn, a major new bird-identification book, ID Handbook of European Birds, is set to become the new gold-standard photo ID guide for the region’s birds. Produced by well-known Dutch birders Nils van Duivendijk and Marc Guyt, this comprehensive two-volume title has already caused quite a stir among birders on the Continent, with some 5,500 images of 733 European species in all plumages – and across each season. As ID Handbook of European Birds hits the shelves, we spoke with co-author Nils (NvD) to find out more about the journey behind the creation of book, what it sets out to achieve and why it’s a must-have title for birders. For those that haven’t seen the Dutch-language version, please can you introduce the book’s format and purpose? NvD: The primary aim of…

IN this, her sixth book, Kate Bradbury takes us on a seasonal journey through her own garden near Brighton in 2022 and early 2023. For those of you with short memories, 2022 was the year the climate crisis really began to make its presence felt. Indeed, Kate openly writes of how she cried when she heard that the threshold of 40°C had been broken for the first time on record in the UK. In One Garden Against the World, Kate shines a light on the plight of the many creatures and plants which she shares her Sussex garden with and pours her heart and soul into caring for them however she can, and in doing so inspires us to do the same. From recycling used water from showers and kitchen sinks…

VISITORS to the RSPB’s headquarters will have been impressed by the imposing oil painting on the wall of its main meeting room. ‘The man above the fireplace’ is William Henry Hudson, an Argentinian immigrant autodidact with a towering influence on British conservation and birding that, today, has perhaps become largely forgotten. In this biography, Conor Jameson aims to resurrect the reputation of this important man of letters who lived astride the turn of the last century, advocating for wild birds and nature even as he maintained a high profile as a key member of the salons and clubs of Victorian high society. Hudson was widely published during his lifetime – and popular, even venturing into fiction that was highly praised by the likes of Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway; Hudson’s…

TO say I have been looking forward to reviewing this long-awaited publication would be a vast understatement. There has, somewhat unbelievably, never been a book on Scottish moths. So, this title by two giants of the Scottish mothing scene was desperately needed. The Larger Moths of Scotland covers the macro moths – specifically those that have occurred at least once in Scotland, which gives a grand total of 577 species to cover. Firstly, the book is large, approximately A4 size, and as such will act as a reference rather than a guide that you would take into the field with you. It has a stunning cover showcasing one of Strathspey’s special moths, Kentish Glory, on the front and a Bedstraw Hawk-moth on the back. Prior to the publication of this…

WORLD Shorebirds Day takes place on 6 September each year, and there is no doubt that this month is a great time for both looking at and thinking about waders. As a family, they undertake some of the most amazing migrations of any birds and while using various tracking devices is the latest way to find out more about their lives and movements, a lot of information is still gained from catching, ringing and marking them. One of the drawbacks of using metal rings has always been that a bird must be retrapped, photographed at close range or found dead to read the ring. The use of colour rings and markers, such as leg flags, enables information to be obtained at a distance, without handling the bird. Colour ringing provides…

I promised you another column (at least) on our crazy birder passion for collecting, so let’s dive in. So many birders have got in touch to share the different items and themes that they collect, many to the wonderment, scepticism or downright irritation of close family members, and it is a joy to learn just how normal (or crazy, depending on how you look at it) we all are. When you first start out in birding, or take up any hobby, you probably begin collecting by accident. I wonder how many birders first collected cigarette cards or sticker books? At first, things are quite generic; for example, the catch-all term of ‘nature’ books. You have a few Poysers, a handful of Helm guides, maybe some New Naturalists, then ‘Oh! I’ve not…

I could never have realised what a special day 28 July 2024 was going to be. The previous evening my dad, Kevin, and I had set up some nets in a marsh at a private ringing site in south Staffordshire and slept in the car. The morning started extremely well with a juvenile Grasshopper Warbler and an influx of Sedge Warblers – I let my friend Ian Moore know as he needed Sedge Warbler for the year. This species does not breed at this site, but by the end of the morning we’d ringed 20 birds, including some very sun-bleached adults. This was particularly notable as only 10 were caught all year in 2023. Dad and I split up to cover the nets, returning to base to ring and process…

Despite July typically encompassing the sleepiest period of the avian calendar, one surprising by-product of recent summers has been the big boom in mega-rare seabird sightings. While the underlying climatic phenomena behind this offer a foreboding look into the future, it has transformed the month into one of the most exhilarating and unpredictable of the birding year. Sensational seabirding Stealing the headlines during a spectacular spell was a juvenile South Polar Skua from the famous MV Sapphire off Scilly on 5th. Only the eighth British record, it becomes the fifth for Scilly, with four of those having occurred within the last 12 months. Scilly pelagics have taken things to another level in the last couple of years, with an incredible roll-call of rarity finds. This was added to at the…

Ahefty batch of taxonomic changes to the IOC World Bird List this summer included a couple of decisions of particular relevance to British birders. The first news to hit was that Red Grouse is to be split from Willow Ptarmigan, giving Britain and Ireland a new endemic species. However, there is a feeling that our islands won’t boast two endemic species for long, with the crossbills surely set for thorough scrutiny. The lumping of the three species of redpoll into one, Redpoll, was seen by many coming down the road, but the decision still felt like big news for birders across the Northern Hemisphere. It has become a hot topic and even the subject of memes. I doubt I’m the only one whose hopes for redpoll taxonomy flipped back and…

Your trusted guide to what’s new in birding: www.birdguides.com/reviews REVIEW Vortex Razor Ultra HD 8x32 Binocular IT’S been five years since Vortex took a big step closer toward the high end of the optics market with the launch of a new 42-mm model duo, the Razor UHD. The company has now expanded this range with the addition of two smaller 32-mm models with 8x and 10x magnifications, both of which were launched in early summer this year. While the general design follows the larger model, there are some size-related differences, the most significant of which relates to the prism system, which results in a differently shaped body. In order to ensure that the binocular is compact, the prisms employed are Schmidt-Pechan as opposed to the larger Abbe-Koenig prisms installed in…

IT is fair to say that bird vocalisations are often underappreciated. In so many cases, our first encounter with a bird is by hearing it. More experienced birders will have conclusively identified most birds without even setting eyes on them. Yet we still regard visuals as the most important sensory connection with our quarry – whether for listing purposes or simply enjoying a bird while in the field. This attitude doesn’t necessarily need changing, but rather developing. Paying greater attention to sounds will inevitably improve us as birders, for there are plenty of species out there where vocalisations are the easiest means of identifying them. This was a point so eloquently made by Stanislas Wroza in his recent article (Birdwatch 386: 46-49), in which he pointed to the instantaneous identification…

THIS quaint book is a pleasant blend of information, stories and practical advice, aimed at helping you, the birder, get the most out of your time in the field. With a strong nostalgic theme throughout, including plenty of reflections and references to traditional birding practices, Rob Hume shares his many decades of field experience with the goal of making the reader appreciate birds that bit more by paying greater attention to details and polishing their birding techniques. The book is greatly enriched by the author’s numerous sketches, both old and new. Sketching birds in the field is rather a dying art in 2024, understandably so given the proliferation of cheap, highquality cameras, and the emphasis on such a skill could perhaps seem dated – but it is presented in a…

A potentially distinct population of Short-toed Treecreeper is among the findings of a recent genetic study of Mediterranean passerines. Michaella Moysi and her colleagues used double digest restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq) to compare genetic divergence and population structure among six passerine species in the Mediterranean Basin. As well as the treecreeper, the study involved Great Tit, Eurasian Wren, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Sardinian Warbler. A total of 172 individuals were sequenced from Cyprus, Crete and northern Greece. The genetic diversity of birds on islands is governed by the number of past colonisation events and within-island diversification. Islands provide a rich opportunity for scientists to study genetic variation and population differentiation, with insular populations being subject to greater barriers to genetic flow and different ecological factors compared to those on the mainland.…

THE increase of Eurasian Goshawk in Britain could help regulate numbers of the nonnative Grey Squirrel, according to new research. Grey Squirrel is native to eastern North America but was introduced by humans to Britain in the early 20th century. In areas where it is present, it outcompetes the smaller, native Red Squirrel, which has a less varied diet. Indeed, it is estimated that since the introduction of Grey Squirrel to British shores, the Red Squirrel population has plummeted from some 3.5 million to 120,000. Red Squirrel is now localised in Britain and absent from much of England. Grey Squirrel has a few natural predators, including mustelids, domestic cats and birds of prey – especially Eurasian Goshawk. Eurasian Goshawk was extinct in Britain by the end of the 19th century…

Tell us what you think. Write to: The Editor, at: Birdwatch, Warners Group Publications plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH or email editorial@birdwatch.co.uk www.facebook.com/birdwatchmagazine @BirdwatchExtra Take terns I thought you might like to see this Common Tern image. I was photographing the birds on an island with my Nikon Z9 and 180-600 mm lens. The terns were quite a long way away, but suddenly this individual flew straight at me and nearly parted my hair! Maisie Welsh Stick to birding IN response to Alan Vittery (Birdwatch 385: 74), I would like to say that I found his words make for a depressing read. We are all more than aware of the change in the seasons and the need to do more, but do we really need to…

Pre-order your copy online now – see www.birdguides.com for details of how to subscribe and save more than 15% a year! ■ Pride of Yorkshire Filey is a name that has become synonymous with thoughts of epic migration and rarities. Andrew Cottrell, Ian Robinson and George Watola introduce the work of Filey Bird Observatory and Group. ■ Trouble in paradise In the Southern Ocean lie the seabird-filled Prince Edward Islands. However, these remote specks of land face huge problems from introduced mice. Robyn Adams of BirdLife South Africa outlines the Mouse-Free Marion project and how you can help. ■ All at sea After four decades in existence, the North Sea Bird Club ceased operations in 2019. Andrew Thorpe reflects on the club’s history, including its formation, achievements and the many amazing…