Table of contents for November 2018 in Bird Watching

Bird Watching |November 2018

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Writer and bird guide Ian Parsons on the macabre way that the Great Grey Shrike creates a ‘live larder’. Be shocked on page 20 Writer Ed Hutchings interviews musician and birdwatcher Fyfe Dangerfield – lead singer of indie/rock band Guillemots – on page 26 Ellie May Forrester wants disabled people to have better access to our nature reserves. Read about her campaign on page 32 Renowned bird author Dominic Couzens reveals all there is to know about the secretive Jack Snipe. Find out more on page 42 Urban Birder David Lindo concludes his birding tour of London with a trip to the central area and Canary Wharf. Join him on page 84…

1 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

FIVE TO FIND IN NOVEMBER

1 TWITE The Twite is a hugely understated bird (if you will forgive the oxymoron). The upland equivalent of the Linnet, this little finch, like larger birds of its breeding range (think Merlins, Hen Harriers or Short-eared Owls), heads to the lowland coastal areas out of the breeding season. In fact, a surprising 100,000 to 150,000 Twite winter in the UK and Ireland (numbers boosted by continental visitors), mainly in the north (especially Scotland), as well as coastal north-west England and north Wales and the east coast of England. Like a Linnet, but with a peachy buff face and yellowish bill, lacking grey and pink on the head and breast (but males can show a pink rump) they feed in flocks on seeds on the ground. 2 SHAG Though actually…

3 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

Beach wader prints

The damp areas of tidal beaches or mudflats can be great places to look for wader footprints. Usually, it is not possible to identify the footprints to a particular species. However, a few key points can be noted. Firstly, most wader footprints are three-toed, but in some species the fourth short rear toe will also make a mark. Most are symmetrical or near symmetrical (for instance there is a slight asymmetry with small plovers such as Ringed Plover). Many (especially the smaller species) are completely unwebbed. Others have small amounts of webbing (eg Tringa sandpipers, Oystercatcher, godwits and curlews); while others have slightly more extensive webbing eg Avocet. Size charts are available showing the expected range of the length of, for example, the middle toe print, which can assist in…

BIRD 1 There really is not much to look at in this all-action shot, as the bird is almost completely masked by water spray. One thing that is strictly circumstantial is that the surrounding water has ripples and reflections, suggesting that it is more than a shallow puddle; so maybe this is a bird which is comfortable in open water – perhaps it is a waterbird. What we can see of the bird appears plump bodied with a smallish head. And everything looks black except for the bill. This is short and peg-like and ivory-white. And this white bill is continuous with an extra bit, which looks like a facial shield. All this is pointing to it being the only British bird which is all black(ish) with a white bill…

5 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

In your garden this month...

• Garden berries, such as blackberries, elderberries, rosehips, haws and sloes, provide a feast for many birds, especially Song and Mistle Thrushes, and Blackbirds, although rarer species, such as Waxwings will also be attracted to them. But, as the weather gets colder, and your garden’s stock of berries becomes depleted, be prepared to supplement it by putting out-of-date fruit out onto your lawn or back yard. • Looking ahead to future years, you can plant a fruiting hedge, which will provide birds with many of the resources they’d find in a traditional countryside hedge. Mix the likes of native roses, Elder and Hawthorn, and you could add a gooseberry or bramble if you have room. If you have a large garden, try growing Hazel for its nuts. November is a…

Lésvos, located in the northeastern Aegean Sea and the third-largest Greek island after Crete and Évvia, is the birthplace of the ancient bards Sappho, Aesop, Arion and – more recently – primitive artist Theophilos and Nobel Laureate poet Odysseus Elytis. Despite these artistic associations, the island may not initially strike one as particularly beautiful or interesting: much of the landscape is rocky, volcanic terrain, encompassing vast grain fields, saltpans or even near desert. But there are also oak and pine forests as well as endless olive groves, some more than five centuries old. With its balmy climate and suggestive contours, Lésvos tends to grow on one with prolonged exposure. Lovers of medieval and Ottoman architecture certainly won’t be disappointed, and castles survive at Mytilíni Town, Mólyvos, Eressós, Sígri and near…

7 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

Birding in ANDALUCIA, SPAIN

The last time I was in Andalucía was 30 years ago. My dear wife Jo and I had just started ‘courting’, to use an old fashioned expression, and we were travelling around Spain. Having done the Alhambra in Granada, we fancied a trip out into the Sierra Nevada, and ‘buddied up’ with an American couple to hire a car and explore. The only things I remember from the road trip were that the American chap did all the driving and (being used to automatics) refused to use the clutch peddle, making a terrible racket, and once had one wheel over a precipice when driving to the top of the mountains. Oh, and we saw Rock Thrush on the way (the driver refused to stop) and Alpine Accentor at the moon-landscaped…

5 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

Welcome

As the end of 2018 looms, my #My200BirdYear list still lacks Tawny Owl. In the past they’ve called just outside the house, but this year, nothing, and I realise now I’ll have to look further afield. All the more reason to find a few ‘bonus ticks’, and the charismatic Great Grey Shrike (see page 20), could be just the job. Read Ian Parsons’ feature to find out how you could see this scarce, but predictable, winter visitor. Add in Jack Snipe (Dominic Couzens tracks them down on page 42), and you’re well on the way. If you add foreign birds to your list, then I hope our Bird The World supplement will give you plenty of great ideas for next year, but closer to home, there’s still a lot to…

1 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

RARITY PREDICTOR

NORTHERN HARRIER This is the North American equivalent of the Hen Harrier. There have been about 15 accepted UK records, most around this time of year. Similar to Hen Harrier, but adult males have distinctive patterning (with brown streaking on the breast and on back and wings). First-winters are patterned more like Montagu’s or Pallid Harrier. CRAG MARTIN This common southern European species is a very rare bird in the UK, with only 11 accepted records. A few have been in autumn, including the bird around Chesterfield’s cathedral for nearly two weeks in November 2015. ELEONORA’S FALCON Hardly a year goes by without a claim of Eleonora’s Falcon somewhere in the country. However, of the seven accepted records, only one was found as late as this, or just shy of…

1 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

Discover female finches...

It is easy in birdwatching to be seduced by the pretty colours of male birds and ignore the less spectacular females. If you hear someone say the name of a bird, you may instantly picture the breeding male. But there is much more to birding than just pretty males. To try to redress the balance a little, here, for starters, are a few females of four familiar finch species. All are very toned down compared to the gaudy males of their kind, but just because they are relatively dowdy does not mean they are not worth watching (and their plumages not worth learning). Bullfinch Female Bullfinches share the black cap, black wings and tail and white rump and wing bar and grey back with the males. The main difference is…

Our enthusiastic homestay host Rahman speaks Khinaliq’s village language as a mother tongue, and English is understandably low on his list of lingual priorities. Our bird guide immediately becomes known as The Chicken Book. He is a shepherd, a man of the land who lives and breathes his local wildlife. He takes us onto the roof of his mud-and-stone home and points towards a section of the cloud-swirl peaks. “Hul-eeeet!” he cries, and we grin as the penny drops. Caucasian Snowcock! We hike to 3,000m and immediately we hear their strange curlew-like sounds. Climbing a little further, we’re overjoyed to catch a small group in flight, and as they circle back low, we feel the down-draught of their wings. Late the following afternoon, a lone male patrols his rocky domain,…

1 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

Birding in HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

Do you remember 1996? Let me jog your memory: think Euro 96 (when hosts England lost the semi on penalties to the Germans… again), Three Lions and all that. It was the year of the Spice Girls, Gina G in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the Macarena. Oh, and it was the year of the first American Coot in the UK (at Stodmarsh, Kent in April, remember?). All this stuff passed me by, though (almost). I spent most of 1996 and part of 1997 living and working in Sapporo, western Hokkaido, Japan. I was a postdoctoral research fellow in the zoology department at Hokkaido University. So, I listened to the footie on a short-wave radio, or belatedly watched videos of the England games having avoided the result like the Likely…

10 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

WONDERFUL WIGEON

Ducks are a handsome group of birds. And the Wigeon is handsome even by duck standards, or perhaps that should be drake standards. For though the reddish females (as in the ducks) are prettily shaped (think steep forehead and cute little bill), it is the drakes which hog all the lovely colours. The first thing to grab you is the brick red head with a buffy-yellow forehead onto the crown. This is played off against the pink breast and pale grey body and black rear end. And when the wings open, there is that huge flash of white. This is a handsome drake by any standards. They even make a nice sound, a slurred, whistled ‘weeoo’ , quite unlike the stereotypical duck ‘quack’.…

1 min

Bird Watching |November 2018

ROUGH-LEGGED BUZZARD

The name of the scarce, winter visiting Rough-legged Buzzard is not hard to explain. It is a buzzard of the genus Buteo, to which our familiar Buzzard belongs. And it has feathered tarsi (lower legs), unlike the Buzzard which shows bare, yellow tarsi. The feathering on the lower legs (and feet to some extent) is thought to be an adaptation to the cold, of its Arctic breeding range. This is much the same adaptation as that of the ‘furry’ legs and feet of grouse. This similarity is not lost in the name either, as the scientific name of the Rough-legged Buzzard is Buteo lagopus. Lagopus derives from the Ancient Greek for hare and foot, and is also the name given to the genus of the grouse.…

1 min

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