Lapwing

23 Monday Feb 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lapwing, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, Peewit, RSPB Lodmoor, Vanellus vanellus

Very occasionally small numbers of Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) are seen alighting briefly in local farm fields or are spotted passing overhead by keen-eyed birders but, generally speaking, Lapwings are a rarity in my part of south Wales. Which is a great shame because they are stunning looking birds, and their evocative call, the Peewit sound that has given them one of their many common names, is wonderful to hear.

So, you can probably imagine my delight when, on the first afternoon of my most recent Dorset trip, I made my first visit to RSPB Lodmoor and immediately saw and heard large numbers of Lapwings. Sporting the largest crest of any British bird and plumage that flashes with a metallic sheen in the sunshine, Lapwings are very handsome birds.

Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn’t the harvesting of their feathers that caused the Lapwing population to crash in previous centuries; according to Fauna Britannica, the declines were caused by people plundering Lapwing nests for their eggs, which were considered a delicacy. The book cites an example where ‘280 dozen lapwing eggs were taken annually in the 1860s’ from just one estate near Thetford.

Lapwings recovered well after this practice was made illegal in the Lapwing Act of 1926 but numbers are once again declining, this time due to changes in agricultural practices; the birds require fallow fields in which to feed during the winter but the majority of farmers now sow their fields twice each year, in spring and again in autumn. According to the British Trust for Ornithology’s publication Into the Red, the Lapwing population in Wales and southern England has declined by 80 per cent since the 1970s meaning the species is now classified as red-listed. It was a privilege to spend time watching these beautiful birds during my four visits to Lodmoor last week.

Avocet

21 Saturday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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Avocet, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, Recurvirostra avosetta, RSPB Lodmoor, winter birding

I’ve just returned from my first little holiday since last September, a four-night break in Weymouth, a location that’s now a firm favourite of mine. As has become my habit, after checking in to my guest house, I headed east along the seafront to walk off five hours of train travel with a circuit of Lodmoor Nature Reserve. Though the wetlands were more full of water than usual due to all the recent rain and the paths were, as a result, quite muddy, the birdlife was a delight, and, as expected, the species were quite different from what I’d seen in the summer months. Now, there was an abundance of Teal and Shoveler, Lapwing and Wigeon, the latter two not species I see very often and both new additions to my birding year list. The other new species was a real treat and totally unexpected, this gorgeous Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta). The Avocet is such an elegant bird, crisply clad in classic black and white, with the upwardly curved beak that makes it instantly recognisable. I was entranced and lingered until dusk watching this bird feeding and preening; it was the perfect start to my holiday!

Our celebrity Redshank

19 Thursday Feb 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Peter Redshank, Redshank

If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know about this beautiful bird from my previous posts but, if you’re new, meet local celebrity Peter Redshank! Celebrity because it’s the only ringed Redshank in the area, Peter because it was ringed as an adult on 22 February 2016 at Peterstone Great Wharf, on the coast of the Bristol Channel just north of Cardiff. Peter has been re-sighted many times each year since 2016 and is now well known to those of us who bird the local area, but it’s always a joy to see him/her (we don’t actually know what gender the bird is) in and around Cardiff Bay. I caught up with Peter and took this portrait one day last week.

Three Common sandpipers

17 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff Bay birding, Common sandpiper, over-wintering Common sandpipers

During the past few winters those of us who bird Cardiff Bay have been privileged to enjoy regular sightings of two Common sandpipers that are spending the winter foraging those areas around the water’s edge that might provide the tiny creatures they like to eat: insects, spiders, and small crustaceans.

This year the number of wintering Common sandpipers has increased to three.

As most Common sandpipers simply pass through the Cardiff Bay area, moving to their breeding grounds in the spring, and to over-wintering locations further south in the autumn, I like to think that this third bird is the offspring of the original two, introduced to the concept of spending the winter in our area by its parents … but this is pure speculation.

Delightful doves

14 Saturday Feb 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Collared dove, Columba oenas, Forest Farm Nature Reserve, Stock dove, Streptopelia decaocto

Britain is home to five members of the Pigeon family: Rock dove (which manifests for most of us in the form of the domesticated Feral pigeon, though there are still thought to be wild Rock dove populations in north-west Scotland and the south and west of Ireland), Stock dove, Woodpigeon, Collared dove, and Turtle dove. Though I haven’t seen wild Rock doves, I have been lucky enough to have seen all these species, including, just once, the very rare Turtle dove.

The Stock dove (Columba oenas) is not that easy to see in my area. According to my RSPB bird book, the historic expansion of their population was a benefit of the expansion of arable farming but the use of chemical seed dressings in the 1950s and 1960s led to a huge decline in the Stock dove’s population, a decline the species is still recovering from. Fortunately for those of us who want to see these handsome birds, at Forest Farm Nature Reserve in north Cardiff there are at least two Stock doves that have taken advantage of the food people leave for the local birds and are now quite confiding, if you’re careful.

Back in April 2017, I explained in my blog post, Genetic mutation leads to immigration, about the arrival in Britain in the 1950s of the Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto). Now they’re a common sight in my local area, and, I think, a lovely addition to Britain’s avian population. They seem to have set territories, and the bird shown here is one of a pair I see quite often when I’m walking by the River Taff in Cardiff.

Moorhen mimic

12 Thursday Feb 2026

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bird behaviour, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Moorhen, Moorhen behaviour

I’m sure you all know I love birds. My passion for them is not just because they’re beautiful creatures – I also find them endlessly fascinating. Take these two Moorhens, for example.

They were poking around the grassy slope in front of one of the bird hides at Forest Farm Nature Reserve, hoping to discover a morsel or two of the seeds, nuts and assorted bird food that people had thrown through the hide’s windows to help bring in the birds. As I watched the second bird began to mimic exactly the movements of the leading bird. It resembled a kind of land-based synchronised swimming, or perhaps a dance. Was this some kind of pre-mating behaviour, a way of reinforcing their pair bond? I’d never seen this type of behaviour before, and it only lasted a few minutes but it’s experiences like this that keep me watching, and listening, and learning.

And, let’s face it, Moorhens are also very handsome birds.

Firecrests galore!

10 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Firecrest, winter birding

I’m lucky if I see one Firecrest each year, as they tend only to be seen in my area during the winter months and can be extremely elusive. So, when one of our expert local birders let me know that he’d seen five (!) in a nearby park, I was optimistic – surely, I could find at least one. Four park visits later, with zero Firecrest sightings, I was beginning to despair but I figured I’d give it just one more try before I gave up. And I’m so glad I did as that one day I saw four Firecrests, two in one area and two on the other side of the park, more than I’ve ever seen in one day before.

Getting good photographs of the Firecrests was another matter. These are tiny birds, and very active, flitting constantly through the vegetation in search of food. I did actually manage images of all four birds, most blurry, two with only partial views of the birds, but one, the one shown above, where you can actually see the whole bird and recognise it. Phew!

Paddling Black-headed gull

07 Saturday Feb 2026

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birding, birdwatching, Black-headed gull, Black-headed gull paddling for worms, British birds, gull feeding techniques, paddling for earthworms

Having written just three days ago, in my post Paddling Herring gull, that I’d not seen a Black-headed gull paddling on the grass, imitating the effect of heavy rain hitting the ground in order to encourage earthworms to rise to the ground surface, the very next day I watched this bird doing just that. The video is just 30 seconds long but I watched the bird for about 5 minutes and, though, as you’ll see, the gull has a moment of being somewhat uncoordinated, it was mostly paddling quite forcefully. I didn’t see it have any success in that time. Mind you, I didn’t see any of the surrounding flock of Black-headed gulls, foraging conventionally, find any worms either.

Paddling Herring gull

04 Wednesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds

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bird behaviour, bird intelligence, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Herring gull, Herring gull paddling for earthworms, paddling for earthworms, paddling Herring gull

On a steep grassy bank above a children’s playground, I often see a pair of Herring gulls paddling for earthworms. It’s fascinating behaviour; sometime somewhere one very smart Herring gull realised that earthworms rise to the surface of the soil when it rains and it could fool earthworms into thinking it was raining by stamping its feet rapidly on the ground, thus imitating the sounds and vibrations caused by rain hitting the ground. Other Herring gulls saw how effective this was and learned to do the same. And I’ve also seen Lesser black-backed gulls using this technique, though not Black-headed gulls – perhaps they’re not smart enough to learn, or maybe their bodyweight isn’t sufficient to have the desired effect. And if you’re wondering whether or not the behaviour is effective, in this one-minute video you’ll see the Herring gull nabs three juicy earthworms.

Wintering Blackcaps

03 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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birding, birdwatching, Blackcap, British birds, migrating birds, over-wintering birds, overwintering Blackcaps

Even in my short time living here in Wales, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of Blackcaps spending the winter in our parks and gardens rather than making the relatively long flight to the south of the Iberian peninsula and northern parts of Africa.

This change in migratory behaviour is, no doubt, due in part to the changing climate, the warmer temperatures meaning locally bred birds can find enough food to survive, particularly in south-western Britain. As an article on the Bird Guides website points out, ‘since the end of the Second World War we have been creating a winter feast for Blackcaps by planting berry bushes in our parks and gardens and keeping our bird tables well stocked’.

Scientific research and ringing recoveries have also shown that many of the Blackcaps found in Britain in winter hail from parts of central Europe. (The BTO website has a pdf with a map showing the various directions of Blackcap migration and movement, to and from Britain, Europe and North Africa, and within Europe itself.)

In my local area I know of more than five Blackcaps that are spending the winter hereabouts, three of which I’ve seen and photographed (the first on 9 January, the second on the 19th and the third, the female, on the 30th) and two others that I’ve heard making their characteristic ticking sound but that I didn’t actually manage to locate in dense vegetation. I’m already looking forward to seeing more of these birds when those that did migrate further south return to our shores in the spring.