Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2026 i Bird Watching

birdwatching.co.uk/my200 Spring is finally upon us. As I write this, my garden is full of singing Dunnocks, Robins and Blackbirds, and some species have been busy displaying for a couple of weeks now – the local Ravens, and most exciting of all, Goshawks just a couple of miles down the road. On page 28, John Miles takes a look at a species which, in my humble opinion, produces one of the best displays of all – the Black Grouse – with some good news from northern England. But on page 32 we also take an in-depth look at how advances in DNA science are changing the way we think of related bird species, and accordingly how field guides are put together. Wherever you’re birding this month, take the time to…

twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag RARITY RATINGS Common, widely distributed Localised – always a treat Very scarce or rare GOOSANDER BROODS This large and magnificent ‘sawbill’ was first recorded breeding in the UK in the 1870s (in Perthshire). By the middle of the 20th Century, they had spread to northern England. After continuing their range expansion south and south-west, they now nest reasonably widely in Wales and England (with a total national population of 4,800 pairs). There are even half a dozen nesting pairs around the fen country of northern Cambridgeshire. Goosanders nest in tree hollows, their little fluffy babies tumbling from some height when they leave ‘home’. In April, it is possible to catch up with broods of a dozen or more cute, fluffy goosanderlings trying to ride on their mother’s back,…

#My200BirdYear ticklist Download and print off our #My200BirdYear ticklist to track your progress… www.birdwatching.co.uk/ my-200-sign-up You can track your progress in #My200BirdYear by joining us on the Birda app, as featured in our recent Gear Guide. Download the app, sign up for the #My200BirdYear challenge, and log your sightings as you make them. While you’re at it, Birda’s monthly and geographically-based challenges are a great way of motivating yourself towards the bigger target, too, and by interacting with other users you can develop your ID skills. YOUR LOCAL PATCH If you’re lucky enough to have wooded areas on your patch, it’s time to check out hole nesters: Stock Dove, Little and Tawny Owls, Nuthatch, Marsh and Willow Tits, woodpeckers, Ring-necked Parakeet. Stock Doves have a low repetitive call that is…

In association with os.uk/osm MAX MILES ON FOOT: 9 MIN TIME: 4 HOURS St Mary’s Loch is now a popular site to visit, with folk arriving out from Edinburgh and the Borders, especially at weekends. It boasts a good mixture of wildfowl, waders and small birds, plus raptors. JOHN MILES WHERE TO WATCH 1 Coming in from Moffat on the A708, you can start your walk via the Glen Café (open until October) and car park next to Loch of the Lowes. The best way to walk is via the Tibbie Shiels Inn and along the shore from there. Check the trees for migrants in the spring with finches and warblers likely along with the chance of Sparrowhawk. 2 Scan the bays as you walk for mixed duck with Mallard,…

In association with os.uk/osm MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS This reserve consists of worked-out parts of the limestone quarry complex, and has a good variety of habitats – chalk grassland rich in wildf lowers, scrub, and woodland patches. MATT MERRITT WHERE TO WATCH 1 In spring and summer warblers around the scrubby areas can include Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat, with this being a particularly good site for the latter. Yellowhammers are regular, and Turtle Dove is a possibility, as is Cuckoo. 2 The open grassland areas will hold Sky Lark and, likely, Meadow Pipit, plus Fieldfares and Redwings in winter, and Green Woodpecker at any time. Check overhead for raptors. Buzzard, Red Kite, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk are all likely, plus…

GET IN TOUCH birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag Bird Watching, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Reader Day appreciation Thank you Mike, Matt and Tom so much for such an amazing birding day last Friday (13 February)! Despite the atrocious weather and getting soaked, it was wonderful. I appreciate how much organisation and effort went in to giving us such a great experience. I had a fantastic time and will certainly remember the day. I hope that you and the other readers enjoyed their day out, too. It was great to visit some of the sites mentioned in Bird Watching magazine and to understand where they sat in the wider landscape. I’d imagined the Peterborough area as being a magical land with unique habitats that attracted rare birds, because it was…

EXMOOR BY FLEMMING ULF-HANSEN NEW NATURALIST, HB, £65 The New Naturalist series hits number 150, and this is the last of the UK’s national parks to be covered. Some have even had rewrites, so I’m not sure why it took so long to cover this area. It is the smallest of the national parks, but still has some amazing landscapes. Moorland has been maybe the worst treated of its habitats, with large areas converted into farmland, so not surprisingly that is where a number of birds have been lost, including Black and Red Grouse, Merlin and Ring Ouzel. Even so far south, these western woods hold Pied Flycatcher and Redstart, while the coast has Peregrines and seabirds, all covered in detail here. BOOK OF THE MONTH THE FOREST GUIDE: ENGLAND…

John Miles: “Am I boring if I say Black Grouse? I was up at the lek watching them just on Thursday.” Ruth Miller: “Nothing beats Great Crested Grebes. Puffed up head dresses, mirrored movements, gifts of weed…” Dominic Couzens: “I love the Woodpigeon display, flying up with wing-claps, stalling, then gliding down.” David Lindo: “I like the male Blue Tit’s flight displays, performed on slow, moth-like flapping wings.” …and the Bird Watching team’s answers Matt Merritt: “It has to be the Curlew – the male belting out that bubbling song as he rises above a misty pasture at dawn – magical!” Mike Weedon: “A Marsh Harrier on a spring morning, rowing slowly through the air at great height, yelping and throwing itself into a dive.” Cover pic: Black Grouse OLIVER…

FAMISHED SERPENT This is a good month to find Grass Snakes, which have emerged from winter dormancy and are intent on mating. First, though, they need sustenance – which transforms a passing Common Toad into a potential meal. The amphibian photographed was not going without a fight, however, having inflated its body to make swallowing a challenge. MOTH Banded beauty Nut-tree Tussock is a thickset, delightfully furry moth that reminds me of a stylish (if old-fashioned) woollen coat. In a sign of the changing climate, these spring-flyers are emerging fully three weeks earlier than in the 1970s. In southern Britain, those breeding this month and next give rise to a second generation that flies in July and August. BEETLE Mini-longhorn Longhorn beetles are always worth looking at. Common Grammoptera is…

At the onset of spring and improvements in the weather, thoughts of long days outdoors will often occupy winter-weary minds. Newly arriving migrants, birdsong in full flow, and nesting activity vie for birders’ attention. For many, the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is a key component of spring birding and while we see extraordinary coverage across a range of habitats, thanks to thousands of volunteers, we appreciate that the methodology doesn’t always make it easy to cover all the squares in our often hard-to-reach uplands. This is why BTO launched Upland Rovers, a flexible survey that complements BBS and encourages birders to help fill in some of those gaps by a more casual approach. Our uplands are subject to pressures, and these areas support important numbers of breeding waders, raptors, and…

I was on maximum birdy-sense alert. I’d heard something a few seconds earlier while I was picking my way along the compacted hardcore track, trying to avoid tripping in wheel ruts made by rubble lorries. The site is big enough that I don’t circumnavigate it every visit, but that morning I’d been determined to get to the east side, to have plenty of time to explore the track along the perimeter fence separating the construction waste site and incinerator from the adjoining sewage works. From the entrance gate I hadn’t let myself get distracted, until I’d reached the furthest hide. There’d been a record of a Dartford Warbler in the bushes next to it from a couple of days before but no sign of the bird that morning, so I’d…

Back in December 2025, Alan and I visited Kruger National Park in South Africa, one of our favourite places in the world. This park is around 8,000 square miles, the same size as Wales (that universal unit of measurement) and it was created back in 1898 to protect the incredible biodiversity of this region. The habitat is mostly open savannah with thorny Acacia trees and denser Mopane trees, with the occasional striking Baobab tree towering above the rest. Think of a ‘typical’ African scene, and you will imagine Kruger. Its biodiversity stats are impressive, being home to 336 species of tree, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds, and 147 mammals. In recent years, boundary fences between South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique and Zimbabwe have been removed, so the…

In association with os.uk/osm MAX MILES ON FOOT: 2 MIN TIME: 2 HOURS Owing to how well-watched the area is, it can be extremely difficult to find anywhere that’s new to look for birds in north Norfolk. However, this small site close to the big draws of Cley Marshes and Kelling Heath is well worth a look in spring if you’ve a spare hour or two. MATT MERRITT WHERE TO WATCH 1 As you start out along the track, check the fields for both Grey and Red-legged Partridge, as well as Sky Larks singing overhead and Meadow Pipits, while fenceposts can be perches for other birds such as Reed Bunting and maybe a Stonechat or two. Raptors overhead are likely to be Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk, with the occasional Red…

CLOTHING THREE FROM MR WOLFSKIN… JACK WOLFSKIN’S PRELIGHT COLLECTION IS “FOR ACTIVE HIKERS… ULTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT, BREATHABLE, AND TAILORED TO RESPOND TO CHANGING CONDITIONS”. COULD IT WORK FOR US? Women’s Prelight 3 in 1 Jacket, £260 A soft, lightweight, waterproof, breathable shell with snap-in insulated gilet, that folds up small. To quote my better half, Ruth, “There’s lots to love – delicate, smooth-running zips with grippy pulls, underarm pit zips (for ventilation) which I thought gimmicky, but put to good use, many options to customise fit and control temperature, and the shaped hood, which stayed on in high winds. Ordering to size gave a neat fit – for looser, go up a size. I liked the generous arm length and the ‘A line’ looks smart and is flattering. The body is short…

SONG THRUSH Many people, probably correctly, state with confidence that the Blackbird is our finest songster. But it has a challenger which has a fair claim to at least a podium position. The Song Thrush is a magnificent singer. The clue is in the name. However, with most of its singing coming at dusk and dawn (rather than throughout the day), many of us forget about its vocal majesty. That singing at slightly unsocial hours (for stay-in-bed humans) has also contributed to a perception that Song Thrushes have largely disappeared from the UK countryside and our gardens. Yes, Song Thrush populations crashed almost by half in the 1970s, but there has been something of a comeback more recently, and there are now about 1.3 million pairs nesting in the UK…

Early this morning, the sun was shining on Tufted Ducks swimming across the east pit of Deeping Lakes LWT (in south Lincs). The drake to my right was shining the classic purple sheen on the sides of its head and I was thinking how we go crazy for a flash of this same colour on the wings of a male Purple Emperor, but just take it for granted on a TD’s cheeks. To my left, another drake Tufty swimming towards me had a distinctly bottle-green sheen to its bonce. The difference in apparent colour was to do with angle of incidence and reflection of sunlight on the barbules in the feathers which present a form of structural colouration. But I couldn’t be bothered to twist my brain any further thinking…

The Office for Environmental Protection watchdog has said that the UK Government will not meet its targets to save wildlife in England and Northern Ireland and is failing on almost all environmental measures. Despite having encapsulated in law the 10 targets it set itself to reach by 2030, seven are almost certain to fall short. The only ones still ‘partly’ on track are clean air, improving the beauty of nature, and reducing the harmful impact of environmental hazards. I’ve no idea why anyone thought nature needed improving; it cannot be improved upon, but it does need to be given more space and a great deal more protection! One target will certainly not be met; biodiversity. To do that, the decline in many species would need to be stopped and turned…

In these ID Challenges we mostly cover birds in the same family, or at least order. But we also like to throw in birds which share a similar habitat or perhaps a behavioural style. Occasionally, we provide you with a bunch of birds which are somewhat similarly coloured. And, of course, that is what we have done here. As you can clearly see (unless you are colour blind, in which case, you probably need to concentrate on structure…) each of these birds has a lot of ‘reddish’ colouration in its plumage. In some cases, these birds are always coloured like this, and in others they may have acquired some splendid red or orange tones for the breeding season. Have a look at the following six photographs and try to put…

In association with os.uk/osm MAX MILES ON FOOT: 4 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS Described as one of the most scenic roads in Britain, the B6277 runs parallel with the Harewood Beck in its upper area, and has a wide mixture of birds for you to look for. JOHN MILES WHERE TO WATCH 1 Driving up the B6277 from Middleton-in-Teesdale towards Alston you pass Langdon Beck, where the road can take you to Cowgreen Reservoir and another heads off to Weardale. This is exciting country for a number of species, especially Black Grouse. England’s highest count of cocks at a lek was found here, with 59 birds one morning. Add on the chance of some rare plants and this area is not to be missed in spring. 2 There are a…

In association with os.uk/osm MAX MILES ON FOOT: 3 MIN TIME: 3 HOURS Much of the woodland between Shadoxhurst and Warehorne is managed for timber by Forestry England with a mix of deciduous and coniferous plantations, plus coppiced clearings which attract breeding Nightingale, Willow and Garden Warblers. Marginal stands of mature oak and Ash are often the most productive for Marsh Tit and Hawfinch along with Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, best sought in early spring prior to the canopy closing over. PAUL TRODD WHERE TO WATCH 1 Check around the car park clearing for resident woodland birds including Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Jay, Stock Dove, Mistle Thrush, Bullfinch, Goldfinch and Great Spotted Woodpecker, plus summering Blackcap and Chiffchaff. A short walk into Faggs Wood should yield singing Nightingale, Garden and Willow Warblers. Look…

In December 2025 a weird corvid-like bird with a long-graduated tail was found pottering around the RNLI lifeboat station at Calshot Spit, in Southampton, Hampshire. It was eventually, with the use of DNA analysis, identified as a Great-tailed Grackle, a denizen of the Americas found from central southern United States south to the northern coastline of South America. Not known for their migratory habits, this species has latched onto the opportunities that urban living has presented to them since the explosion of human activity in the Americas. Now, you may be wondering what is a grackle? They are not a group of birds which fit neatly, or at all, into a European (or indeed Palearctic) concept of bird families. Grackles are a subfamily of the icterids or ‘New World blackbirds’.…

ROAMWILD PESTOFF BIRD FEEDER 3.0 £34.99 This provides “complete squirrel protection” – from them, not for them, doesn’t spill seed to attract rats and is supplied with “Corvid Covers”, to foil feeding attempts by corvids and parakeets, the avian intelligentsia. The baffles and anti-cling ring deter squirrels and spring-loaded feeding ports close under the weight of a squirrel, rat or corvid. The tube is “completely chew proof”. Take that, squirrels. Eight colours. 2L. 19×19×54cm. roamwildproducts.co.uk ALPKIT VORA 6L HIP PACK £49.99 A different way to carry your kit. The Vora has “redesigned adjustment for a better fit for all hip shapes” and delivers a “stable waist carry” that “reduces bounce and movement”. That’s good. It will take a water bottle in each side pocket, has a foam back panel with…