Three weeks ago, we enjoyed Linnets bathing. Today, we have one of a small flock stripping seeds from wildflowers, munching happily with its efficiently designed, seed-cracking beak.
Munch time
26 Monday Sep 2022
Category Archives: birds
Exciting news
24 Saturday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Tags
bird conservation, birding, British birds, Into the Red, red-listed birds, supporting Britain's red-listed birds
I’m finally able to share some exciting news with you all. Back in June I was utterly astonished and hugely delighted to be invited by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to contribute to their forthcoming publication Into the Red, ‘a collection of words and art inspired by Britain’s most vulnerable birds’. The book focuses on Britain’s red-listed birds, each one the subject of an original artwork and a piece of writing, prose or poetry, by 70 artists and 70 writers, some well-known, some not (like me). Profits from the sale of the book will be used to help these birds, to support the work being done to conserve and restore ailing bird populations.
The official publication date is 4 October but you can see examples of the book’s interior pages right now, and pre-order your copies, by clicking on this link to the BTO website. I know times are tough for many people at the moment but, if you can, I urge you to buy the book so that, together, we can try to bring these vulnerable birds back from the edge of extinction. My sincere thanks!
Beach birding, 2
22 Thursday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
As well as the Ringed plovers I blogged about yesterday, my walk along Sully beach produced over 30 Turnstones, my favourite beach birds, pottering along, poking under stones, pulling at piles of seaweed in their never-ending search for tasty invertebrates.
Beach birding, 1
21 Wednesday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Tags
beach birding, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Charadrius hiaticula, Ringed plover, Sully birds
Ringed plovers are not common on my local patch. In fact, the only place I see them is amongst the rocks on Sully beach, and that’s exactly where these 15 were perched, snoozing, preening, balancing on one spindly looking leg, when I walked along the beach last week.
A Wheatear (right, front) shares the limelight with these 2 Ringed plovers.
Though their scientific name, Charadrius hiaticula, is a bit of a tongue-twister, they have, according to my Fauna Britannica, some wonderful vernacular names: bull’s-eye (Ireland); dulwilly and grundling (Lancashire); ringlestone (Yorkshire); sand tripper (County Down); shell-turner (Sussex); and wideawake (Somerset), to list just a few.
Sitting quietly, with a Robin
19 Monday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Today was a very good day to sit quietly in a peaceful spot. And I was blessed with the company of this little Robin that came and spent some time with me. As we silently communed, overhead the air was alive with hundreds, perhaps thousands of Swallows and the occasional House martin, all feeding up before their miraculous migration.
Hungry doves
17 Saturday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Usually Collared doves are easily spooked so, when I rounded the bend in a local footpath that winds between houses and saw these two on the ground in front of me, I expected them to fly off immediately. But no! Someone had sprinkled seed alongside the path and they wanted it. There was no way they were leaving until they’d consumed every tasty niblet. So, I waited, and used the opportunity to get several close photos of these grey beauties.
The days of the Wheatears
16 Friday Sep 2022
I’ve been trying to work out what the optimum conditions are for bird migration, and it seems to be a combination of a clear night followed by a sunny day, with just the right amount of wind – at least, that seems to be what Wheatears like as, both on Wednesday and today, they have been moving through in reasonable numbers, with some stopping off locally en route to their southern over-wintering grounds. These are a few I’ve been privileged to spot in recent days …
A Buzzard worming
14 Wednesday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
When I first saw a Buzzard on the ground like this but couldn’t see any sign of it having caught any prey, I wondered if it might be ill. My fellow birders quickly put me right – the Buzzard was probably worming. I never thought a bird of prey would eat something so tiny as an earthworm but needs must when prey is hard to find, or catch. And, indeed, I could see that the end of this bird’s beak was a bit grubby with soil. It was fascinating to watch, especially as the Magpies sneakily tried to pinch what the Buzzard was finding.
A Kingfisher treat
12 Monday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
As well as the phenomenal Black terns I shared on Saturday, my visit to Parc Tredelerch produced another avian treat, this Kingfisher, at first perching on the edge of the boardwalk, then, later, appearing right in front of us as we searched the skies for the terns. Most of my recent views of Kingfishers have been of a fleeting flash of teal streaking rapidly past, so it was especially nice to have this one sit a short while quite close by.
Phenomenal fliers
10 Saturday Sep 2022
Posted in birds
Phenomenal fliers effortlessly performing awesome aerobatics…. It’s easy to get carried away and, at the same time, difficult to describe adequately in words the flying skills of members of the Tern family. It also proved extremely difficult, even with my new camera, to get good photographs as they swooped and swerved, dipped and dived, feeding on tiny insects both on and above the water.
These are juvenile Black terns (Childonias niger), rare visitors to south Wales, so it’s been a treat for many birders this week to have seen first one, then yesterday a second bird, feeding over the lake in Cardiff’s Parc Tredelerch. I spent several magical hours with a friend at the lake yesterday, watching and marvelling at these thrilling fliers.
earthstar 
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