Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Birdwatch

For many birders summer represents merely a brief hiatus between the excitement of spring and autumn. There might be little or no passerine migration for a few short weeks but there are still plenty of things to look at. Waders and seabirds arguably offer the main interest and inevitably there is the chance of a rarity or two among them. Rare terns feature prominently among the potential summer seabird excitement. Caspian, Gull-billed and White-winged Terns are annual vagrants from the Continent at this time of year, but there are other significantly more alluring possibilities. These are the Onychoprion terns – a group of four species mainly, although not exclusively, linked to tropical oceans. One of these – Spectacled Tern O lunatus – is confined to the tropical Pacific and has…

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System uses fixed VHF (Very High Frequency) radio telemetry receiver stations spread across a wide geographical area – from local to nationwide to global – to detect and monitor the movements of flying animals. It is made possible thanks to tiny ultra-lightweight radio tags that can be fitted to birds, bats and even insects such as dragonflies. Each of these ‘nanotags’ emits a uniquely coded digitalised radio signal, allowing the subject to be individually identified when it flies within range of a receiver, which can be up to 10 km or more. Imagine a mistnet that long! The receivers can probe into otherwise inaccessible areas or habitats where minimal disturbance is important and where it’s difficult to recapture birds or read colour rings – places such…

ONE bird worth seeking out this month is a species I hesitate to mention, as for many readers it will be out of reach without a bit of a journey… but if you can, try to find a European Turtle Dove. Not so long ago, it was no big deal; now, it is an entry in the logbook each time you see one, wherever you are. It is not surprising how often birders I know say that the loss of turtle dove is really depressing. It was never a rare bird or one to particularly treasure above all others, but it was just ‘there’. The low, purring song was a feature of the countryside: like the songs of Common Cuckoo or Yellowhammer, it was an intensely pleasing background feature and…

Q I have a bird I am struggling to identify from my recent trip to France and wondered if you could help. The picture was takenin the Dordogne. Rod Pattison, via email David Campbell, BirdGuides team member, replies: A “This bird is a female Cirl Bunting. The bold head pattern, with a large and conspicuous spot at the rear of the ear coverts bordered by a broad eyestripe and moustachial stripe, immediately points towards Cirl Bunting rather than Yellowhammer. It is difficult to judge the colour of the scapulars in the harsh light in this image (they should be rufous), but the fine streaking on the underparts, and crucially on the neck-side clinches it as a Cirl.” Q I saw a Bar-headed Goose with a group of Canada Geese near the…

MIKE Cooper: I set off for Spurn on the afternoon of 18 May. I got in the hide at 6.55 pm, soon after which an odd alba wagtail landed on the grass in front of me. It had a solid black head and deep breast band with a small white mask, dusky grey mantle and lesser coverts, and blackish wings and tail with white greater coverts, primary panel and outer tail feathers. After watching the bird for a minute and realising I’d never seen anything like it, and discounting an aberrant Pied, I broadcast on the observatory walkie-talkie system there was a strange alba wagtail with the pertinent points. Rob Hunton, Assistant Warden at Spurn, arrived first and saw the head of the bird, followed by Andy Bunting, who managed…

I had been sitting in the car, in the exact same position, for over three hours. Even the most suspicious of local dog walkers had stopped walking past and looking in. As the clock ticked on I had reached the point of no return. I just had to wait this out – a game of attrition. Suddenly, high in the sky a shape appeared and slowly drifted overhead, before being joined by a second shape steeply rising from the ground. Both birds appeared to briefly interlock with extended feet before they parted. The lower shape descended while the other drifted away. In seconds it was over. I had just witnessed a food pass between a male and female Montagu’s Harrier. I was in North Lincolnshire and watching over a hugely…

The first Global Birdfair takes place on 15, 16 and 17 July 2022 at the Rutland Showground in Oakham, Rutland, and is set to be a worthy and much-anticipated successor to the British Birdwatching Fair, with exhibitors and entertainment present in abundance. The key message of Global Birdfair is ‘Conserving Nature Worldwide’, with funds raised by the event being donated to an important conservation project. World-renowned conservation organisations will be showcasing their work, including the RSPB, WWT, World Land Trust and WWF. This year’s Global Birdfair will support the Reviving La Janda project. La Janda, situated in Andalucia, Spain, was once the largest inland lake in Europe but was drained in the 1950s. Many birds we see in the UK rely on areas such as La Janda as staging sites…

The Atlantic Forest of South America is one of the world’s top biodiversity hot-spots. Separated from the Amazon rainforest since the last glaciation by vast Caatinga shrubland and Cerrado savanna, 92% of the Atlantic Forest lies within Brazil. It stretches 3,000 km along the east coast – a latitudinal range of 29 degrees – extending into tropical and subtropical regions and inland into eastern Paraguay and north-east Argentina. Encompassing the 1,500-km-long Serra do Mar mountain range that runs parallel with the coast, the Atlantic Forest ranges from sea level to 2,275 m in elevation. Prevailing easterly winds deposit 4,000 mm of relief rainfall annually on the windward coastal slope, four times the amount that falls on the dry interior plateau. This varied geography has given rise to a complex, highly…

High summer is here and migration has hit a low ebb, but birds will now be very busy rearing the next generation. Perhaps it’s a scaly European Robin or Blackbird on your lawn, a noisy band of Common Starlings being fed on your roof or a brood of fluffy ducklings or cygnets at your local waterbody – we want to see your best photos of baby birds for July’s Photo Challenge! It goes without saying, but please do not disturb birds at or near the nest for this challenge; and photos of birds at the nest will not be judged. 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 31…

AFTER a brief hiatus, July is the month when wader migration starts to pick up again. Many of these early birds may be failed breeders heading south. Some may fail due to predation, and the short window for breeding in the Arctic means there is not enough time to try again. For others, perhaps it was their first breeding season and they were simply too inexperienced to succeed. Then there are those successful breeders which leave their partners to do the work, heading off to moult and feed up before continuing with a longer migration to their winter quarters. Some of these will be females, and others males, depending on the species. Keep an eye out for these newcomers and spare a thought for where they are from and where…

TRADITIONALLY a secretive bird of cereal and hay fields, Common Quail is most often heard but not seen and is therefore one of the most sought-after British breeding birds. One of our least-visible species, it is a rare breeding bird, on the Amber List, and also on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This means it is illegal to disturb it when breeding, which any singing bird may well be doing. No playback is allowed, and trying to flush a bird would also be an offence. Be careful not to trespass on private land when looking for one. Check BirdGuides news page to see if one is listed nearby. Remember that males may sing for a few days and then move on if they cannot find a…

IT was 4.30 am on 12 May and I was about to start another dawn raid on my patch, The Naze in north-east Essex. I was exhausted. This was my 72nd consecutive dawn start this spring, having covered some 1,200 km. It didn’t take long before the espresso started to kick in – that and the familiar sound of a singing Common Nightingale was the boost I needed. Time to crack on. The wind direction had been a variable south-west for the last two days, dropping in multiple Spotted Flycatchers and a beautiful singing Wood Warbler. I made my way north following the main path leading to the Naze Cliffs, pausing next to the bushes where the nightingale was blasting it out. Scanning the brambles along the lower path I located…

This idea all started during an evening of thumbing through what my wife would refer to as my ‘books that gather dust’, when I came across a British Birds article written by A W Boyd in 1957 entitled ‘Sewage-farms as bird-habitats’. In this fascinating read that documents the heyday of England’s sewage farms, which are still so entwined with British birding folklore, there was one sentence that struck a chord: “Future ornithologists, not fortunate enough to have known these farms in their glory during the last 50 years, may fail to understand their nature and condition”. Similar to how football fans reflect on the ‘glory days’ of Don Revie, Brian Clough, Bill Shankly and Alex Ferguson at their respective clubs, it is not just those sewage farms us birders reminisce…

Many years ago I read Richard Vaughan’s timeless Arctic Summer: Birds in North Norway and was totally enchanted by the landscapes and species portrayed in the book. I subsequently made a promise to myself that I would one day visit Lapland and Varanger. It’s a region that holds taiga forest stretching as far as the eye can see, rolling, snow-capped tundra, towering seabird cliffs, impenetrable, expansive bogs and an endless peppering of exquisite lakes. Huge areas are in totally pristine condition, making Lapland almost unique in a European context. The appeal of this marvellous scenery alone was huge, and that’s before the spectacular cast of birds found amid these picture-perfect places. After COVID-19 delayed my plans by two years, I finally made it to the ‘great north’ in May and…

AS recent instalments of this column have shown, sound can be very important in locating a bird or even realising that there is a bird there at all, before identifying it. On a hot summer day, lazing in the garden, you may be unaware at first that there are birds overhead in the bright blue sky, but gradually their calls penetrate your consciousness: squeals, harder chirps, soft, lilting, liquid notes. Common Swifts, House Martins and Swallows… Swifts, of course, give their unmistakable shrill screaming notes, but at considerable height or distance this becomes a less strident, more furtive sound. House Martins have a more-or-less dry chirrup or low rippling call, short and simple or run into little, quick sequences such as trrp-r-r-rp, prr-r’t trr’p (OK, best try your own transcriptions!);…

STAGGERING declines in bird populations are taking place around the world, a team of scientists from multiple institutions has concluded. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity, while climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines. “We are now witnessing the first signs of a new wave of extinctions of continentally distributed bird species,” said lead author Alexander Lees. “Avian diversity peaks globally in the tropics and it is there that we also find the highest number of threatened species.” The study finds approximately 48% of all existing bird species are known or suspected to be undergoing population declines. Numbers are stable for 39% of species. Only 6% are showing increasing population trends,…

OUR World of Birds reader tour programme has been long-established and popular. Working in association with a select group of specialist birding tour operators, we offer destinations and departures with the promise of some fantastic birding and, importantly, excellent value for money. With travel becoming easier again, we have started to put together another exciting schedule of holidays for this year and beyond. Our nine-day tour of the West African country of Senegal in October this year features a wide range of avian possibilities. In addition to encountering many new and exciting bird families, we should also see good numbers of more familiar Palearctic migrants that make the Sahel region their home during our winter. Arabian and Savile’s Bustards, Goliath Heron, Saddle-billed Stork, Scissor-tailed Kite and Cricket Warbler have all…