The Fox and the crow

02 Saturday May 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, British mammals, Carrion crow, fox

I don’t know why this Carrion crow died. It certainly wasn’t the Fox that killed it; it may just have been natural causes. I was alerted to its presence, laying by the woodland edge below my window (I live on the second level of our building, on a steeply sloping site, so I was essentially looking straight down at this scene), by the local Magpies making a lot of noise. Half a dozen of them were standing around the crow, squawking loudly, hopping a little closer, then hopping away again. After about 5 minutes, they seemed to reach a consensus that the crow was dead, and they all flew off to their respective parts of the garden (they’ve paired up now and each pair seems to have established its own territory within the grounds).

Later, in the evening, Mr Fox found the crow and it was interesting to watch his behaviour. He was very gentle, sniffed and nuzzled the bird a few times, presumably making sure it was dead, then sprayed it twice, from different angles, with urine, before trotting off. I’ve since read that this is quite normal behaviour for Foxes; they will spray their prey to mark it as theirs, so that other Foxes leave it alone. The next morning the crow was gone, presumably retrieved by the Fox sometime during the night or in the early morning on its way back to the den.

Cute cootlet

30 Thursday Apr 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Coot, Coot chick

Though I’ve been hearing the hungry cheeping of tiny baby birds in nests obscured deep within dense vegetation, I’ve not seen a lot of chicks yet this year. I did see the first local Moorhen babies three weeks ago, on 8 April, but they were, wisely, mostly hiding amongst the reeds and my photos weren’t share-worthy. So, when I was walking along the boardwalk on the edge of Cosmeston’s east lake on Tuesday and heard a low peeping, I was delighted, when I cleared the dense reeds, to spot this well-grown Coot chick feeding with its parents. And just look at the size of that foot!

Nesting material

28 Tuesday Apr 2026

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bird's nesting material, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Great tit, Great tit with nesting material, nesting material

When, from a distance, I first spotted this Great tit, I wondered what on earth it was doing.

It was plucking constantly and vigorously at something on the ground that it was holding down with its feet.

The bird was so focused on what it was doing that it wasn’t bothered about my approach and I was able to get a series of photos before the bird flew off with its prize.

Reviewing my photos, I realised that the object the tit was plucking at was part of a tennis ball, most probably an old dog’s ball that had fallen apart and been abandoned. At least now it was proving useful to the Great tit as nesting material, and I rather liked the idea that the bird and its nest would be colour-coordinated.

The return of the Willow warblers

23 Thursday Apr 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, spring migration, Willow warbler

Just before I heard my first two Willow warblers this year, I was attacked by a stray Bramble branch that somehow managed to wrap itself around my left ankle without my noticing so, when I kept walking, its grip tightened, and, despite my attempt at some fancy footwork to try to free my foot, I went crashing down hard on to a tarmac path. I was the April Fool, or at least I felt that way!

Fortunately, two passing cyclists helped this old lady up – getting up is the hardest part, I find, as I get older, and I began to hobble home. I’d only taken a few hesitant steps when I heard the birds, belting out their song from vegetation on one side of the path. It was as if Nature was giving me a little present, something to smile about, and a very welcome distraction from my rapidly swelling left knee and the pain that was starting to spread through my body.

Not surprisingly, the photos shown here were not taken that day but a week or so later, when I heard another Willow warbler singing at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, at a spot where a bird – the same bird? – had held a territory during each of the previous few summers. Their distinctive song is one of my favourite signs that the long fine days are returning.

Recent Reed buntings

17 Friday Apr 2026

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birding, birds in reed beds, birdwatching, British birds, Reed bunting

The Reed bunting is a handsome species, beautifully marked in various shades of brown, a bird that I hear more often than I see, except at this time of year, the start of the breeding season, when the males in particular are more evident and more vocal as they search for mates – not that I’ve managed to get any good photos of males lately.

Of course, even when birds do show themselves a little more, they can still be difficult to photograph, obscured by twigs and branches and burgeoning leaves, as happened with the Reed bunting above. I was more lucky with the bird shown below that was feeding on the tiny seeds in the flower heads of a reed species. Now to find a co-operative male!

Chiffchaffs chiffchaffing

04 Saturday Apr 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Chiffchaff, spring bird song, spring migration

Here’s another bird that seems to be singing its onomatopoeic song from every tree at the moment – there’s even one flexing its vocal muscles in the garden as I write this.

With numbers of over-wintering Chiffchaffs increasing, it’s not always easy to tell which birds are new arrivals, though, from social media and the blogs of places like Portland Bird Observatory, I think a lot of the birds now singing have recently completed their inward migration journeys.

The bird above was one of several confiding birds at RSPB Lodmoor, while the fluffed-up bird below was an obliging local.

Bearded tit!!!

03 Friday Apr 2026

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Bearded tit, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Panurus biarmicus, RSPB Lodmoor

Last Sunday 22 March was my last day in Weymouth and Portland, and I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter end to a brilliant week.

During that morning’s circuit of RSPB Lodmoor, I heard an unusual ticking call – a kind of tchoo, tchoo, issuing from the reed beds. (Many people describe this call as a ping, but that’s not what I was hearing. You can make your own mind up by listening to the call on the RSPB website.)

I had an idea about, a hope for what might be producing that sound so I waited and watched.

Then, suddenly, this stunning little male Bearded tit (Panurus biarmicus) popped up right in front of me.

I’d purposely not zoomed in too far with my camera lens because I didn’t know where the bird would appear, if at all.

When the tit did emerge, I was able to zoom in and get what are undoubtedly my best images of a stunning bird I rarely see.

It was simply magical!

A Portland Bill Kestrel

02 Thursday Apr 2026

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birding, birding on the Isle of Portland, birdwatching, British birds, Kestrel, Kestrel at Portland Bill, Portland birding

When I saw this Kestrel sitting on a pole near the Bill on the Isle of Portland last week, I couldn’t help but wonder how long they live. Why? If you look at my Birding at Portland blog from October 2017, about a trip to Portland with my local bird club, you’ll see there’s a very similar photo of a Kestrel sitting on the exact same pole. A quick google tells me the average lifespan for a wild Kestrel is four to five years so I’m guessing the bird I saw last week is a descendant of the 2017 Kestrel and the pole is simply the perfect place for a Kestrel to perch while surveying for prey.

Little owl

31 Tuesday Mar 2026

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Athene noctua, birding, birding on the Isle of Portland, birdwatching, British birds, Little owl, Obs quarry Little owl, Portland Bird Observatory, Portland birding, Portland Little owl

Here’s another bird I never see in my local area in south Wales, a Little Owl (Athene noctua).

Fortunately for me, there’s a resident Little owl in a small abandoned quarry in the field next to Portland Bird Observatory, near Portland Bill, so I walked that way to see if it was at home that day.

I was in luck! I first saw a Little owl in this same quarry on a bird club trip back in October 2017 but, as these birds have a lifespan of just three years on average, the Little owl I saw last week is not that bird but probably one of its descendants.

Distant seabirds

30 Monday Mar 2026

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Alca torda, birding, birding on Portland, birdwatching, British birds, Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, Gannet, Guillemot, Morus bassanus, Razorbill, Uria aalge

During my recent week in Weymouth, I spent two wonderful days wandering the many footpaths on the Isle of Portland, some of the time walking the coastal path along the top of the dramatic, vertigo-inducingly high west cliffs.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to get too close to the edge of those cliffs to enjoy the soaring flights of two of the magnificent seabirds that live along this coast, the Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) and the Gannet (Morus bassanus), though they were still a little distant for my camera to get good photographs. At one point, the Gannets were diving for fish, plunging vertically into the sea, always an amazing sight to watch.

There were also smaller seabirds, floating on the water far below, flying rapidly out and back to and from where the other birds were working the shoals, then landing out of sight on the rocky shore far below. These were Guillemots (Uria aalge) and Razorbills (Alca torda), two species that can be difficult to tell apart, especially when viewed from a distance, but one key feature is the size and shape of their bills: the Guillemot’s bill is fine, sharp and pointed, whereas that of the Razorbill is thicker, more chunky. These are all species I don’t see where I live so it was a real treat to be able to watch them on Portland.