BirdwatchApril 2026的目錄

I’ve been a member of the unofficial dog-owning birders’ club for more than five years now. I was initially reluctant when my partner started making the case for bringing a Samoyed into our home. There are obvious challenges: entry to reserves, planning travel and executing effective fieldcraft with a dog in tow. When initially considering the possibility, I realised that, despite being a clear minority among the community, a somewhat surprising number of birders own a dog and make the situation work for them. A crucial consideration was making sure that Bentham, named after the philosopher and social reformer, did not cause disturbance to birds and other wildlife. A number of studies show that dogs out of close control can be detrimental to birds, with researchers in Spain showing that…

Birders from southern and eastern England may be familiar with the bolt of energy and excitement that accompanies the first powerful burst of Common Nightingale song emanating from a patch of scrub or woodland some time in early April. For me, nightingale is one of those species – along with Common Cuckoo – that, when heard for the first time in spring, evokes that feeling of ‘thank God, we’re almost there!’ I’m lucky enough to live close to multiple nightingale territories, so that on a still May evening I can stand in my garden and listen to the combined chorus of perhaps three males singing simultaneously. It is quite simply joyous. I can only imagine the relief our ancestors must have felt at this point in the year, having quite…

Josh Jones My father was a keen birder when I was young, and I was taken on countless forays into the field as a toddler. It was the gravel pits around my home village of Langtoft which lit the birding fire for me – a place Dad would take me to all those years ago which remains my patch to this day. Winter has always been a time for watching wildfowl in these parts and the prize among the duck was always Smew. Dad and I would go looking for them on cold January days, peering over a tall hedge into the most mature and secluded lakes, where with luck a glorious ‘white nun’ would be glowing Persil-white against the dark waters. Only on looking closer would the handful of…

This month’s panel: Keith Betton, Kit Day, Josh Jones and Sam Viles OM System M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-600 mm F5.0-6.3 IS lens A 150-600mm lens that is f6.3 at the long end is an understandably popular option for bird photography. You get a very healthy 600 mm of reach, a reasonable maximum aperture of f6.3 for low-light performance, a portable package and a palatable price tag compared to a prime 600-mm lens. This M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-600 mm f5-6.3 from OM System is a 600-mm zoom with a difference. That’s due to the Micro Four Thirds (M4/3) format cameras for which it is designed. An M4/3 sensor is smaller, adding a 2x crop factor, which means an effective focal length/field of view equivalent to 300-1,200 mm. This is the longest…

THE WILDGuides series has a well-earned reputation for producing practical and informative photographic field guides, and Dragonflies of Britain and Ireland is no exception. This, the fully updated fifth edition, includes a refreshed photo gallery and revised species accounts and distribution maps for all 58 resident, migrant and former breeding species of Odonata recorded in Britain and Ireland, as well as sections on potential vagrants and even exotic introduced species. Seven years on from the previous issue, the heavily revised distribution maps and tables are particularly pertinent. The spread of several species has increased exponentially in the last decade, rapidly leaving older publications out of date. The inclusion of potential future vagrants yet to be recorded in Britain and Ireland – such as Western Clubtail and Blue-eye – further future-proofs…

Sometimes taking a shortcut can lead to the discovery of a lifetime. At least that was the case for Yurgen Vega on a July afternoon in 2022. Vega, a researcher working with SELVA, ProCAT Colombia and World Parrot Trust, was hiking home after completing a series of ornithological surveys in a remote part of northern Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The trail out of the mountains made long arcing switchbacks as it descended and, at the edge of one particularly large curve, Vega decided to try a shortcut. Rather than following the main trail as it skirted around a forested gorge, he took an inconspicuous path that cut directly across the gorge. The path dropped down to a forested stream, and Vega paused to rest before starting up the…

Britain and Ireland February 2026 FEBRUARY kicked on where January left off, with persistent easterly winds and cold temperatures seeing further arrivals of Tundra Bean and especially Russian White-fronted Geese during the first half of the month (see page 9). It resulted in one of the best winter showings of both species for many years, with most regions recording at least some. A Cackling Goose with Barnacle Geese on the Lincolnshire coast north of Mablethorpe was almost certainly associated with the wider grey-goose influx. The species has a self-sustaining breeding population in the Netherlands, where birds regularly hybridise with Barnacle Geese. Several such hybrids were also logged, notably five inland in Lincolnshire and one in Northumberland. Eight Cackling Geese of presumed Nearctic origin were split between Scotland and Ireland, with…

Iam writing this column following the Gorton and Denton by-election, where the Green Party of England and Wales won comfortably, with Reform second and Labour third. This result has sent shockwaves through British politics and makes the future look very uncertain. We live in interesting, and potentially dangerous, times. It’s tempting to think that a vote for the Greens is a vote for the environment, but we all need something solid in the way of policies before we can be sure of that. The charismatic Green leader, Zack Polanski, is a good communicator and campaigner, and he is also a Green member of the London Assembly, so he has knocked about as a leftist environmentalist for quite a while. But does he have a pair of Wellington boots? Does he…

NIGEL Cleere has done more to put nightjars on the map than anyone and this new volume is the latest revision from Helm of previously published monographs – in this case Nightjars: A Guide to Nightjars and related birds (Pica Press, 1998) which contained many of the same colour plates by Dave Nurney. More than a decade later he produced the photo guide Nightjars of the World: Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird, and Owlet-nightjars (WildGuides, 2010). That book was light on text but took full advantage of the advances in photography. This new book combines an updated version of the 1998 text with both new and original plates, and a wealth of great photography. The first two books included frogmouths, potoos and owlet-nightjars because of their close affinities, but this new production is…

DIPPER is a remarkable aquatic songbird that is known for underwater foraging, which is unique among British passerines. The species is also unique in having solid bones, rather than hollow ones as in other bird species, to help the bird ‘walk’ along the riverbed. A declining British population is restricted to fast-flowing waterways in the north and west. This limited range and quirky behaviour make it attractive for any would-be observers to seek out, and with some patience and fieldcraft good views can be achieved. Both sexes can sing, though males do so more regularly. The plumage is distinctive, being dark brown above and sporting an obvious white ‘bib’. There is much regional variation, with the British subspecies gularis showing a rich rufous-brown upper belly and brown head, while the…

ESTONIA is the smallest of the three Baltic States and also the most northerly, with the Baltic Sea to the north and Gulf of Riga to the west. It is a flat country and unless you travel to the south-east you will rarely rise above 50 m above sea level. Although there are private areas with no access, Estonians are proud of their ‘right to roam’ principle, so most forests are open for you to explore. Indeed, more than half of the country is covered in forests and wetlands, and almost everywhere in the interior is blanketed in pine and spruce. There are two different travel opportunities in Estonia. In late winter it provides the only realistic opportunity to see Steller’s Eider in Europe, and in spring there are displaying…

■ Rise of the birding machines From smart-ID apps to rarity prediction models, artificial intelligence is reshaping how we find, identify and record birds. But, Simon Breeze asks, will technology enhance field-craft – or erode it? ■ The spring that had it all Thirty-six years on, Robin Chittenden revisits the legendary season of 1990, when overshoots, mega finds and iconic rarities set birding pulses racing across Britain. ■ Churring time The BTO’s Jon Carter assesses the latest data to paint a contemporary picture of the population of Eurasian Nightjar in Britain, from heathland management to climate changes shaping its strongholds in the country. ■ Common Buttonquail on the edge With a tiny population clinging on in North Africa, the iconic ‘Andalusian Hemipode’ maintains a precarious toehold in the Western Palearctic.…

Report Grey goose influx, widely across Britain, February 2026 AFTER an excellent arrival of Russian White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese during the Christmas period, persistent easterly winds delivered another huge influx during the first week of February – this time primarily involving the former species. It was quickly clear something special was happening on 5th with early reports of three-figure flocks of white-fronts on the move in Norfolk, but it was the large congregations as far west as Anglesey that day that were the clearest indication that a wide-scale arrival had occurred. Over the following few days white-front numbers must have been pushing five figures, with the bulk of the arrival occurring across central and northern England, where peak counts included 1,000 at Holkham Freshmarsh, Norfolk, 900 at Cayton Carrs,…

“Wow! That would be a first record for North America–and on your first day in Cape May. Brilliant!” On 1 July 1993 visiting compatriot Steve Duffield caught me on the stairway of our house in New Jersey and nonchalantly said: “I just had what could only have been a Whiskered Tern.” Steve’s no slouch in the birding department, but my incredulous response and the pregnant pause that followed failed to elicit further discussion. To my surprise, he continued past me up the stairs, leaving the enormity of his claim hanging in the hot summer air. Cape May beginning A week later, isolated reports from locals of a ‘moulting Black Tern’ and an‘oiled Common Tern’ aroused my suspicions that a Whiskered Tern was hiding in plain sight. I ‘Avengers-assembled’ our ragtag…

KAREN R Jones is a name that will likely to be familiar to plenty of Birdwatch readers, having contributed to the magazine on numerous occasions. In Beastly Britain, published last year, she explores the life histories of several of our most familiar creatures, from hedgehogs and foxes to stag beetles and the humble Feral Pigeon, and takes a closer look at the connections between these beasts and ourselves, and how they have become so entwined in our cultural identity. As a professor of environmental and cultural history, Jones is perfectly placed to knit together science and human history, creating this extraordinary book which is so packed with facts that it is positively bursting at the seams. Jones writes in an enthusiastic and upbeat style, which complements the vast volume of…

In January, I witnessed my first Mystery Bird Competition – or MyBiCo, as the Dutch call it. Picture 20 very good birders gathered around a large television, pens and paper poised, as BBRC Secretary Paul French flashes up obscure photographs or plays brief snippets of bird sounds from across the Western Palearctic. It’s late. Everyone is merry. The television casts a faint purple hue over proceedings, and the rapid-fire images have participants of a certain age reaching for their spectacles. There was much huffing and puffing, and not a little abuse directed at poor Paul. I wisely chose not to take part – in the quiz, at least; I did join in with the abuse. This was my first proper MyBiCo and my bird-identification knowledge beyond the UK is not…