Category Archives: birds

May curlew

27 Thursday Apr 2023

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I seem to have a habit of biannual posts about the local Whimbrel migration – see Whimbrel passing, 3 May 2021 – so, today, rather than the migration, let’s talk about some of the names for the Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), courtesy of the writing and research of Stefan Buczacki in his massive publication Fauna Britannica.

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Some of the vernacular names reflect the time of year these birds pass through on migration: May curlew, May fowl, May whaap (Ireland) and May bird (East Anglia); others their resemblance to their cousin, the Curlew: Curlew Jack (Yorkshire), Curlew knave (Cumberland), Curlew knot (Lincolnshire), and Half curlew (Norfolk, Suffolk).

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The name Whimbrel itself comes from the bird’s call, something of a whimper. Another version of this is, in fact, ‘Whimperel’, a name once used in Durham. Whatever you want to call it, this is a beautiful bird well worth spending time watching if you get the chance.

Reeling Grasshopper warbler

25 Tuesday Apr 2023

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I might have stubby legs but they can move quite quickly when the need arises. And, when I got a message that there was a reeling Grasshopper warbler at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park while I was walking along the local coastal path, the need to move quickly was strong. Luckily, I made it in time to hear, and even more luckily, see this visibly unostentatious little bird (the typical ‘little brown job’), though, as you can see from my photo, it was always partly obscured behind foliage.

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If you’ve never heard a Grasshopper warbler reeling, I made a little recording of this one. The reason for the bird’s name will immediately become obvious. And, something I discovered while watching this one, while its mouth was gaping wide uttering its unique song, its tail was quivering in time to the reeling.

Welcome, Whitethroats!

22 Saturday Apr 2023

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I love this time of year, when our migrating birds wing their way back to our shores for the breeding season. The latest migrant to arrive locally has been the Whitethroat (Common whitethroat, if you prefer) (Sylvia communis). I heard my first four days ago, on the 18th. It showed briefly, on a tree branch, but fairly quickly ducked back down into the scrub below. Then, yesterday, I heard three Whitethroats during my five-mile walk – they will continue to arrive for a few weeks yet, some passing through to other areas, some remaining to breed locally. The handsome little chap in my photo seemed to have found his happy place, a large area of impenetrable (to humans) trees and scrub. He was singing and songflighting, both claiming this location for himself and announcing his presence and many impressive qualities to any passing females. If I’d been a female Whitethroat, I’d certainly have been interested.

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Two Jays

20 Thursday Apr 2023

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I was just leaving the local country park yesterday when these two Jays flew across my path and in to the trees and scrub behind the boundary fence.

Surprisingly, they weren’t bothered about my presence, continuing to flit about the branches and ferret about in the undergrowth. As they had a somewhat frantic air about them, I suspect they were searching for titbits to feed young ones nearby.

Arctic tern

17 Monday Apr 2023

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Terns of any description rarely visit Cardiff Bay but, if they’re ever going to, now, on Spring passage, is the time of year for it to happen … and it did, for two days at the end of last week. (Terns do sometimes pop in on Autumn passage as well, depending on the weather.) The Bay has some very keen and knowledgeable resident birders so when one of those, Gareth, put out the word that he’d seen a tern in the Bay, thought it was an Arctic tern but didn’t have his ‘scope with him, other locals quickly headed down with their equipment to check it out. Arctic tern it was! (Common and Arctic terns can be tricky to tell apart, and the term ‘commic’, a combination of their names, is used by birders when uncertain.)

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Unfortunately, I couldn’t get there that afternoon so imagine my delight when word came through from Gareth again the next day that the tern was still showing. Though rain threatened and did, in fact, interrupt play a couple of times, I managed to find the tern. Sadly, it wasn’t giving the close views it had the day before and was mostly a small dot on the other side of the water until, when it decided to fly onwards, it flew almost directly over my head. A head-terning moment!

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Spiralling ever upwards

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Was there ever a more aptly named bird? The Treecreeper does exactly what its name implies: it uses its long claws to creep expertly up trees, poking and probing into every nook and cranny in its constant search for niblits. If its name could be improved, ever so slightly, it would be with the addition of the word spiral, thus Spiralling treecreeper, as anyone would agree who has ever tried to watch or photograph one of these busy birds and been led a merry dance round and round a tree in an attempt to follow the bird.

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Changing colours

01 Saturday Apr 2023

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There hasn’t been a lot of Turnstone activity around Cardiff Bay this winter, perhaps because the milder weather has allowed them to forage and rest in more exposed locations, so it was delightful to see a flock of 13 birds on the River Ely embankment on Thursday. Several were showing signs of the colour changes, those splodges of rusty red that come as they moult into their breeding plumage.

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Judging by previous years, these superb little waders will be heading north to their breeding sites in the next few weeks and I won’t see them again until sometime in August, when they and their fledged youngsters will return to our shores.

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A line-up of Wheatears

30 Thursday Mar 2023

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Another birder reported seeing two Wheatears in this particular field so I went for a look. And lo and behold, there weren’t just two Wheatears but three, happily lined up along the fenceposts (when they weren’t flitting down into the grass on either side, grabbing any insects they spotted).

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And then, blow me down, I spotted a fourth bird lurking on top of the bushes in the background – only a blurry photo of that one, so here’s the line-up again from a different angle, from when they flitted up to the top of the field. Birding magic!

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