Table of contents for April 2016 in Bird Watching

THERE’S A growing realisation that the conservation projects of the future will need to be large-scale and landscape-wide, if we’re to halt the decline of so many bird species, such as our cover star the Puffin (see page 36). Rewilding, a subject we explore in our 16-page centre section, will have to be at the heart of that, and there are already encouraging results from locations such as the Knepp Estate – you can find out more about it inside. But there’s also room for habitat-specific projects, too – when I was young, Marsh Harriers were an ultra-rarity, but recreation of suitable reedbeds and wetlands across the country have seen them bounce back, spectacularly. Above all, effective action will need us all to watch carefully, and keep up pressure on…

April is the month when the bulk spring migration really gets going after the pioneering hardy movers of March. Waders, terns, chats, hirundines and warblers lead the charge. Many arrive while our winterers are still present, making this month of change an exciting time to build a great day list. RARITY RATINGS Common, widely distributed Localised – always a treat Very scarce or rare LITTLE GULL The world’s smallest gull is a far cry from the vulgar beasts who live at the municipal dump or who steal your chips at the seaside. It is a neat and delicate beauty, more like a marsh tern than a larger gull, at least in its behaviour, but also in size. In the spring they pass along our coasts and may cross over land,…

“Young swifts in the nest have to put up with harder conditions than other nestling birds. Adults can be away from their nestlings for many days” THE SEASON OF returning spring migrants is a special time, but I most look forward to seeing my first Swifts. They are here with us for less than a third of the year, but they are different from other birds – speeding black scimitars, more like miniature stealth bombers – and leave a strong and lasting impression during their short stay. Their charged power and fragility is perfectly captured in Ted Hughes’s poem Swifts: “A bolas of three or four wire screams / Jockeying across each other / On their switchback wheel of death / They swat past, hard-fletched”. Not language that could ever…

“Over the weekend, the tiny warbler lost itself with ease in the tangle of grass, frustrating many visiting birdwatchers. But it is still there... and may have been in its chosen area for months” Birds live on bird reserves. Stuff and nonsense. Please don’t fall for the curiously widely-held belief that the place to find, see and watch birds must be bird reserves. It is almost a dangerous belief, which somehow ‘ghettoises’ wildlife, suggesting it only has a proper place in land set aside for it by the grace of Man. Dangerous, I say, because if you can happily think of birds being safe and sound, tucked away in their area of protection, then it becomes relatively easy to ignore their plight (or otherwise) elsewhere. In reality, birds live where…

“Nylon cord, fishing nets and fishing line may make quite good nesting material, but it is equally good for slowly sawing through an entangled leg or gill” The other day, I bought what I thought was an ordinary box of tissues at the supermarket. It turned out, when unpacked from my Ôbag for life’, that there were in fact two smaller boxes with a plastic wrapper holding them together, presumably for some buy-one-get-one-free offer. When unwrapped, with the lid punched in to get at the tissue, I found that the hole is surrounded by a redundant soft plastic inset. While I was at the supermarket, the postman had delivered a padded package containing a book. The book had a protective covering, despite the fact that the envelope was padded with…

You’re among the Neptune Islands, south of Port Lincoln, at the very southern tip of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. And while this adrenalin-fuelled adventure may not be for everybody, there are less alarming ways to enjoy a dip among with the region’s marine wildlife. Anchoring at Seal Cove, on nearby Hopkins Island, you could don a snorkel to join the Australian Sea lions that come tumbling off the beach to cavort in the shallows like puppies. Either way, your boat trip brings plentiful birdlife. Out at sea, Short-tailed Shearwaters, Australian Gannets and the odd Shy Albatross angle past on stiff wings, while back along the rocky shoreline you spy White-bellied Sea Eagles and Ospreys constructing their huge platform nests or soaring high above the water on the lookout for fish.…

There are three species of puffin in the world: our Puffin (also called the Atlantic Puffin), and two northern Pacific species, the Tufted Puffin and the Horned Puffin. There has been a single record of Tufted Puffin in the UK (in the Swale Estuary at Oare Marshes, Kent, on 16 September 2009), and none of the Horned Puffin. TUFTED PUFFIN: With a global population of greater than 3.5 million individuals and a very wide distribution in the North Pacific, this spectacular Puffin is classified as Least Concern. However, the population trend appears to be one of decrease, with particular pressure from predation by invasive species. HORNED PUFFIN: The global population of this species is estimated to be greater than 1.2 million individuals, with a wide distribution across the northern Pacific.…

1 PORTSOY See the White-billed Diver, plus Long-tailed Ducks, Eider and Goldeneye 2 SIGNAL ROCK A pleasant, short walk in an area owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Golden Eagle may be seen in the distance 3 ENNERDALE Timber left lying around attracts Whinchat and Stonechat. Ospreys seen during summer 4 ALKBOROUGH FLATS Britain’s largest managed realignment site – see Avocet, Wigeon, Shoveler and Bearded Tits 5 PENTRE WOOD A variety of birds are here; you may see Red Kite, Grey Heron and Dipper 6 WHITE ROCKS Spend a couple of hours enjoying this area which is frequented by Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers and more 7 SKOMER Watch a wide variety of seabirds here, including Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins. Plus, Manx Shearwater at night 8 FINSBURY PARK This…

“Even in our bleary-eyed state, we were both acutely aware of the 24 hours stretched out ahead of us. The whole of 9th May would be devoted to trying to see or hear as many birds as possible” FROM MIDNIGHT ON April 30, teams taking part in what’s called the Norfolk Bird Race will have 24 hours to list as many bird species as they can in the East Anglia region. Each team member must see or hear the species over the 24-hour period for it to count, so the pressure is on to be alert and seek out the best birding spots. Held in association with The Norfolk Bird and Wildlife Fair, the event aims to raise money and awareness for conservation groups, and this year’s chosen charity is…

OPTICRON DBA VHD 8x42, £579 OPTICRON’S DBA BINOCULARS have long been a popular choice with birders, but this upgraded version promises brighter and sharper optics. It’s hard to argue with Opticron’s claim. The image produced by the HD glass is very bright, and performs extremely well in low light, and it’s sharp, too, with very true-to-life colour. Best of all, the image remains sharp to the edge of the field of view (122m@1000m), and colour-fringing is negligible even against bright light. Focusing is very precise, with the ridged wheel (just over a finger wide) turning smoothly and rather stiffly, taking two anticlockwise turns from close focus to infinity. Close focus, at 2.5m, is good, but not great. The ergonomics are excellent. The eyecups twist up and down to three distinct…

Lee Evans is the UK’s most well-known and fanatical ‘twitcher’, having recorded 585 species in Britain and Ireland, 863 in the wider Western Palearctic and 386 in just one calendar year in the UK. He has written many ornithological publications and runs numerous birding tours throughout the year, including custom-led trips. Visit bbabirding.blogspot.co.uk and uk400clubrarebird alert.blogspot.co.uk NEW YEAR’S DAY resulted in 229 species being recorded in Britain and Ireland and by the end of January 2016, that figure had risen to 242, a very poor total by comparison to recent years; the reason for this being the continuing mild conditions, with very little in the way of snow and ice away from the Highlands of Scotland. Most of Europe was also unseasonally mild, although the Netherlands did very well in…

Wildlife author James Lowen tells you what wildlife to look out for during spring – from plants to butterflies to reptiles! See page 12. Author and bird guide Dominic Couzens throws the spotlight on the colourful and cheeky Chaffinch this month. See page 30. Kirk Parsons says Puffins are on the brink and need our help. He’s put together a special feature for the magazine which starts on page 36. Jack Baddams explains exactly what it’s like to compete in a 24-hour bird race. Could it inspire you to take part in one? See page 62. Urban Birder David Lindo hails London as the birthplace of urban birding – a bold claim you can find out more about on page 70. Gordon Eaglesham is a wildlife journalist and blogger with…

ALPINE ACCENTOR With only 36 accepted British records, this mountain equivalent of the Dunnock is rare, but it has become particularly rare in recent years, with only five records this Millennium. The last was a very brief single-observer record at Holme Bird Observatory, Norfolk, on 26 April 2014, and the previous record, also in Norfolk, at Overstrand a decade earlier. Roughly a fifth of all British records have been in April, and more than a quarter in May. So, now is as a good a time as any to be searching for our next twitchable bird. CALANDRA LARK Of the 18 accepted records of this big chunky southern European lark in the UK, a third have been in April, and most of the rest in May. Most records have come…

Find the location closest to your destination and add or subtract the hours and minutes from the high tide time at London Bridge, below. SOUTH WEST Weston-Super-Mare (+5:05) Barnstaple (+4:30) Newquay (+3:32) Falmouth (+3:30) Plymouth (+4:05) Torquay (+4:40) Bournemouth (-5:09)* Portland (+4:57) St Peter Port (+4:53) Swanage (-5:19)* Portsmouth (-2:29) Southampton (-2:53) SOUTH EAST Ryde (-2:29) Brighton (-2:51) Eastbourne (-2:48) Dungeness (-3:05) Dover (-2:53) Margate (-1:52) Herne Bay (-1:24) Southend-on-sea (-1:22) Clacton-on-sea (-2:00) EAST ANGLIA FelixstowePier (-2:23) Aldeburgh (-2:53) Lowestoft (-4:23) Cromer (+4:56) Hunstanton (+4:44) WALES Colwyn Bay (-2:47) Holyhead (-3:28) Barmouth (-5:45) Aberystwyth (-6:11) Fishguard (+5:44) Swansea (+4:42) Milford Haven (+4:37) Cardiff (+5:15) NORTH WEST Whitehaven (-2:30) Douglas (-2:44) Morecambe (-2:33) Blackpool (-2:50) NORTH EAST Skegness (+4:29) Grimsby (+4:13) Bridlington (+2:58) Whitby (+2:20) Hartlepool (+1:59) Blyth (+1:46) Berwick (+0:54)…

Get in touch with Bird Watching Bird Watching, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk facebook.com/BirdWatchingMag twitter.com/BirdWatchingMag Bittern by Don Davis Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Lens: 300mm Shutter Speed: 1/2000sec Aperture: f8.0 ISO: 500 Brown Pelican by Brian Watson Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II Lens: 90-300mm Shutter Speed: 1/6400 Aperture: f/6.3 ISO: 1000 Jay and Woodpigeon by Terry Hancock Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark III Lens: 50-500mm Shutter Speed: 1/1250 Aperture: f/6.3 ISO: 400 Great Northern Diver by Steve Birt Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II Lens: 500mm Shutter Speed: 1/2500 Aperture: ƒ/6.3 ISO: 500 SPONSORED BY LEICA BIRDING – closer than ever before. Experience nature with unmatched intensity WIN! Send us your best birding/ wildlife photos to birdwatching@bauermedia.co.uk every month to be within a chance of winning…

I have been birdwatching for some 10 years. I started on my own and quickly realised that in general it was a male pursuit, if only by a narrow margin at conferences and local talks. Not much has changed. However, about three years ago my husband of nearly 40 years decided he wanted to come out with me. He knew very little about birds, only the birds seen in the garden over the years. Immediately, I noticed that other male birders always asked him a question first. ‘Much around? Have you seen the Pallid?’ His response was “I’m not sure, just ask the boss,” This has never bothered me, I always end up chatting anyway. My advice to Jenny Jones Cousin (letters page, BW March issue) is please give it…

Amid the filtered light, creeping vegetation and humid, insect hum, you could be deep in the heart of a tropical rainforest. In fact, you are just on the outskirts of cosmopolitan Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory. The city’s rich habitat mosaic – its harbour, mangroves, billabongs, savannah and seasonal wetlands – are home to more than 400 species of bird: a birding paradise within minutes of your downtown hotel. Your first stop this morning was Buffalo Creek, just north of town, where you spied an elusive Chestnut Rail creeping around the muddy mangroves and Red-headed Honeyeaters flitting overhead. Now you’re just along the coast at East Point, where – in addition to your Pitta – other monsoon forest specials include Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove calling from the canopy and Orange-footed Scrubfowl…

WHAT IS THE UK RED LIST? More properly known as Birds of Conservation Concern, it’s a listing of those species considered Threatened in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Assessment is based on the most up-to-date evidence available. Criteria include conservation status at global and European levels and, within the UK: historical decline, trends in population and range, rarity, localised distribution and international importance. Nineteen species were red-listed for the first time in December 2015 due to worsening population status, and one (Merlin) was returned to the Red List. In most cases, this is owing to evidence from monitoring schemes such as the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). WHAT ELSE IS ON THE LIST? Curlew, Nightingale, Merlin, Kittiwake, White-fronted Goose, Long-tailed DuckPied Flycatcher, Whinchat, Grey Wagtail, Mistle Thrush,…

SOUTH WEST Highlights Two long-stayers were the rarest birds, both in Cornwall: the Hudsonian Whimbrel and the Pacific Diver at Marazion and nearby. Additional top rarities included an adult Ross’s Gull off Bass Point, Cornwall and a third-winter American herring Gull at St Just Cornwall. AVON HIGHLIGHTS: A Little Auk at Weston-super-Mare (4th) was the first local record since 2010. PORTISHEAD AND CLEVEDON: Twelve Brent Geese were at the Yeo Estuary (6th), with three (25th). There was an Avocet (7th) and Spotted Redshank (11th). Nine Purple Sandpipers were at Battery Point. An Arctic Skua was seen (30th) and Firecrest (1st). SEVERNSIDE: A Slavonian Grebe (10th-12th) was only the fifth site record and the first since 2010. There was a Little Gull (3rd), 16 Kittiwakes (7th) and a Great Skua (31st).…

GOSHAWKS CONTROLLING GREY SQUIRREL NUMBERS A Goshawk nest monitored by the Forestry Commission and local birdwatchers in Derbyshire showed that 95% of the birds’ diet consisted of Grey Squirrels. Nests in the Midlands and Devon also recorded predation rates of 90% and 68% respectively. Similar trends have been reported in Germany and the Netherlands, where Goshawk is a more common sight. In the Netherlands, it’s seen above open farmland with scattered tree cover, and in Germany it’s gained strongholds in urbanised areas. Remarkably, in Berlin, Goshawk density can be up to 13 pairs per 100sqkm. If a similar increase can be facilitated in Britain, squirrel numbers could soon fall.…

SWAROVSKI OPTIK’S BINOCULARS and spotting scopes have become the preferred choice of many birdwatchers, but how much do you know about the conservation projects the company supports all over the world? Here, you can take a look at some of the birds, mammals and people that have benefited from just some of Swarovski Optik’s many conservation efforts. ONGOING BIRD PROJECTS SOCIABLE LAPWING (Vanellus gregarius) Project partners: BirdLife International, RSPB When BirdLife International launched the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme, Swarovski Optik, as one of the first ‘Species Champions’, chose to support efforts to save the Sociable Lapwing. Its commitment ranges from promoting the work of partners in the breeding grounds in Kazakhstan, to fitting some birds with satellite transmitters to observe their flight paths, to creating the Amazing Journey…

Many birds regurgitate pellets. It is not only owls that produce these compact bundles of indigestible material. Other birds of prey, grebes, gulls, herons, cormorants, kingfishers, corvids, shrikes and even swallows and shorebirds spit out pellets. Pellets can comprise indigestible plant matter, insect skeletons, bones, fur, feathers and so on; anything that the bird finds hard to digest. Owl pellets are the most well known, as they are relatively large, well formed and compact, and often occur in accumulations at regular roosting spots. Such pellets can be ‘dissected’ to reveal what the owl had eaten. In general, larger owl pellets are made up of fur (or feathers), which in turn contains the bones, teeth etc of whatever the owl has eaten. The smaller pellets of Little Owls may also contain…

INVERTEBRATE LADY OF THE WOODS The consummate spring butterfly, the male Orange-tip, hurtles through the British countryside, hellbent on tracking down mates. The female lacks the male’s fiery forewing and is more clandestine, skulking among bushes for hours each day. But when the ‘lady of the woods’ takes to the air, she is similarly purposeful, beating rapidly along hedgelines until she discovers an ample cuckooflower on which to lay eggs. PLANT PASQUEFLOWER In Britain’s floral kingdom, the Pasqueflower is arguably peerless. Six decadently purple petals encase an orb glowing with the vigour of the spring sun. Legend tells that the blooms are nourished by the blood of Vikings, thereby often flowing over the barrows that house the resting places of the Nordic warriors. Named in recognition of its flowering time…

BLUE SKY’S GREEN TRIPS Looking to plan your next birding trip, and wanting to go down a more sustainable route? Blue Sky Wildlife, working in association with Birdfair founder Tim Appleton MBE, has launched its own website for wildlife enthusiasts to search for the perfect trip. Blue Sky Wildlife is committed to sustainable eco-tourism, and is being recognised as a Birdlife Species Champion. For more details check out blueskywildlife.com NIGHTINGALE CELEBRATION A campfire feast at a secret location, with songs and stories linked to the Nightingale, followed by a moonlit walk to listen to the birds themselves; sounds like a good night out! Folk music star Sam Lee and his special guests are offering all of this on selected dates in April and May, to coincide with the return of…

You suggest New Fancy Viewpoint in the Forest of Dean as “possibly the most reliable site in the UK for displaying Goshawks” (February 2016, page 40). While it does offer reliable, albeit distant, views, there is a better site nearby. When I worked as a warden at RSPB Symonds Yat, we had daily views of Goshawk, often close-up, over the adjacent Coppett Hill. Occasionally, a perched bird would be on view. In fact, you can potentially see half of Britain’s breeding raptors from here, including the famous Peregrines. Flyby Ravens are the icing on the cake.…

LEICA AND BIRD WATCHING magazine are offering two readers the chance to explore the wealth of urban wildlife hidden on London’s Hampstead Heath, in the company of one of British birdwatching’s most charismatic figures – Bill Oddie. Hampstead Heath and its environs make up one of London’s oldest and most interesting collection of green spaces, and in April many migrants such as Willow Warbler (pictured) and Chiffchaff can be seen in addition to the more familiar year-round residents. Parliament Hill is one of its high points – both literally and figuratively – and gives a particularly good prospect for getting good views of birds, with the City spread out below. In April, there’s a chance of unusual passage migrants, such as Wheatears or even Ring Ouzels, dropping in to this…

“Their homemade homes are miracles of engineering, nests that take 10 days to make, using more than a thousand pellets of mud, and lined with feathers gathered in the air” THE DAY WAS dull, grey and windy. Not much of a day for birdwatching, I thought (wrongly). The lane opened on to stubble fields, where Swallows were swooping, meteors of sloe-blue, terracotta and ivory, feeding up before the long migration to Africa. House Martins mingled with them, white-rumped, floating and tumbling and twisting, distinctive from their companions the Swallows, whose flight fluttered, dived and flickered. I walked across the wet land to the edge of the wood, and looking up through a lattice of Ash leaves saw, against the light, a Sparrowhawk high over the field. Seeing me, it flew…

LATE SEPTEMBER IS a wonderful time to visit North Wales, with its exciting blend of resident, migrant, winter and summer birds. Add to this the wide variety of habitats and magnificent scenery, ranging from mountains to coast, and you have the perfect mix for a birdwatching break. During the tour, we will look for such exciting species as Red-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Slavonian Grebe, Fulmar, Gannet, Shag, pale-bellied Brent Goose, Red-breasted Merganser, Red Kite, Peregrine, Purple Sandpiper, Black Guillemot, Rock Pipit, Dipper, Stonechat, Chough, and any other migrants and rarities that occur at this great time of year. You can expect to enjoy about 120 species on the tour. Your guides will be the local experts Alan Davies and Ruth Miller (pictured), who have many years’ experience as professional…

THE MOST PERFECT THING Tim Birkhead Bloomsbury, 2016, HBK, BW Bookshop price £15.99 inc P&P if you quote BW097 This book came about due to a debate on just one egg – the Guillemot’s. Does it roll around on a cliff ledge, or is that an illusion? But it’s about a lot more too, and attempts to answer questions such as how many microbes attack each egg, and how the egg defends itself. Colour, shape and size are considered, and there’s a look at the adverse effects of DDT and egg-collectors. There are even stories of some of the individual collectors, before the hobby was made illegal. This is a book to absorb even the most knowledgeable of birdwatchers and make you look at even a hen’s egg in a…

PUFFIN This close-up of a Puffin, taken by Elliot Hook, has been shortlisted in the ‘Attention to Detail’ category of Bird Photographer of the Year 2015. It was taken on Skomer, Pembrokeshire, during an overnight stay; a trip that offers fantastic opportunities for photographing Puffins away from the crowds. Elliot has been photographing UK wildlife and landscapes since 2009. Visit: elliothook.co.uk The BPOTY competition for 2016 will be open for entries in August. Visit the competition website at birdpoty.co.uk  for more information.…

NIGHT HERON Served as a delicacy at medieval banquets before being eaten to extinction, it’s thought to have last bred here at the beginning of the 17th Century. With the threat of persecution now gone and plentiful suitable habitat already in place, this scarce visitor beauties is ideal ! for reintroduction pp.’s SPOONBILL Bred in Britain until 1650, before becoming extinct. In 2010, a colony of six pairs began breeding in Norfolk, rising to nine pairs and 19 young during 2012. Initiatives such as the Great Fen Project, which aims to restore habitat in the lowlands of eastern England to a state last seen 400 years ago, should encourage an expansion of this species. WHITE STORK Last seen breeding here in 1416. It’s thought a combination of persecution and a…