Category Archives: birds

A Stonechat surprise

05 Saturday Jul 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

I’m just home from another mini break away, this time based in Cheltenham, but branching out from there to other places in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, so expect a few blogs in the coming week about my finds. My trip was inspired by a desire to see one particular butterfly species but, of course, I appreciate all the wildlife I see around me, and this young Stonechat that I spotted sitting on a tree in Stroud on Thursday was a wonderful surprise and was definitely the birding highlight of this little adventure.

House martins, home and away

26 Thursday Jun 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Maybe I haven’t been walking in the right locations this summer, but it seems to me that I haven’t seen as many House martins this year. When I was in Weymouth, I was surprised to spot the birds shown below only just starting to build their nests on one of the old mansions along the seafront – that was on 10 June, which seemed rather late.

Last week, once I was back home again, I made a point of walking the streets where I’ve seen nests in the past. Here in the town, I saw only one nest in a street where the ledges on the houses had previously been clustered with little mud cups. Fortunately, the situation was a little better on the houses around the local marina, and I was grinning as I watched the little sweetie shown below.

This House martin had, in fact, already fledged but, rather than hunting for its own food, it was taking short flights from the nest, only to return when its parents returned with food. Sneaky!

The Marbled white and the Skylark

21 Saturday Jun 2025

Posted by in birds, insects

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Today’s blog title puts me in mind of one of Aesop’s fables. I’m sure there was one where the butterfly was tired and asked the bird if it could ride on its back but the bird ended up eating it? Just kidding! Before I sign off from my blogs about my Weymouth trip I just wanted to share two more random moments …

The Marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea), though common in many parts of Britain, is rarely seen in my part of coastal south Wales, so it was a special treat to see three on the wing in Weymouth. The first was a distant blur in a field in the Wildlife Trust reserve Lorton Meadows, an area that looked like it would have good potential for butterflies and wildflowers if it wasn’t for the excessive number of off-lead dogs being allowed to roam everywhere, even into the one dragonfly pond. Fortunately, Portland’s Tout Quarry came up trumps again, and I saw two more Marbled whites there, including this obliging beauty.

Seeing this stunning Skylark up close was another of this trip’s special moments. I was walking back from Portland to Weymouth and had almost reached the information centre at Chesil Beach when I heard Skylark song in front of me. I searched the sky for a couple of minutes before realising that the bird was, in fact, sitting on a bush adjacent to the track directly ahead of me.

Such a singing spot seemed odd but I wondered if there might be a nest in the scrubby area I was walking through and so this male was trying to distract me from going near that. Though I had never intended to move off the path, its tactic certainly focused my attention, and I grabbed a few photos before walking onward.

Sedge warblers

20 Friday Jun 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

I don’t see Sedge warblers very often; if I’m lucky, I might see or, sometimes only hear, one or two as they pass through the local area during Spring and Autumn migration. That’s my excuse for not recognising these two birds, seen on two separate visits to RSPB Radipole in Weymouth. As I could hear Reed warblers singing all around me while I was exploring the reserve, which is jam-packed full of Reed beds, I just assumed these were also Reed warblers.

Wrong! The streaking of dark and light above the eyes is a sure sign of a Sedge warbler. My more expert birding friends think that the first bird, above, is an adult, though I’m not entirely convinced that it isn’t a well-grown youngster, as it was flapping its wings in the way juvenile birds do to get their parents to feed them.

The bird below is definitely a youngster; one of my friends pointed out that you can still see the gape, the yellow fleshy part at the base of its beak that is a characteristic of chicks. And it behaved like a chick: ‘My mum told me to stay right here until she got back so I’m not moving even though you’re coming along the path towards me, getting closer and closer with that black thing in front of your face, and I’m a little bit scared.’

After quickly grabbing a couple of photos, I moved past, then stopped further along the path and watched as one of its parents brought it food, and moved it to a different bush, a bit further away from the main path.

Breeding Common terns

17 Tuesday Jun 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

My afternoon walk to Lodmoor Nature Reserve proved the perfect antidote to my five-hour journey on four different trains to get to Weymouth. And what an absolute delight it was when I arrived at Lodmoor to first hear – very raucous, and then see the Common terns and their Black-headed gull companions breeding in close proximity on two artificial islands near the edge of the lakes. (These islands are ring-fenced and fitted out with some enclosed nesting ‘boxes’ to try to offer the birds better protection during the breeding season.)

Though Common terns can be seen at certain times of year when moving on passage up and down the Bristol Channel, I’ve rarely managed to catch sight of them in my local stomping ground, so seeing them at reasonably close quarters, and with their tiny chicks just beginning to explore the world around them, was another special treat of this holiday.

Terns are magnificent aeronauts. Their skill at manoeuvring their streamlined shape through the thermal airwaves, their ability to twist and turn and plunge and lift – these fliers are a joy to watch, particularly when diving for the tiny fish swimming just below the water’s surface. And, with several tiny chicks to feed, these terns were almost constantly in the air. Many seemed to fly straight out to sea where, presumably, their prey was more bountiful but I also noticed, when walking around Weymouth’s other local nature reserve, Radipole Lakes, that the Common terns were successfully exploiting the fishing opportunities there as well.

Destructive Woodpigeons

13 Friday Jun 2025

Posted by in birds, trees

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Although I am officially on the ground floor in my new home, the site slopes quite steeply so my flat is actually on the middle of three levels and, from my windows, I look out over the small slice of ancient woodland that’s adjacent to this property at the level of the tree tops. This is perfect for watching the antics of the local bird life, from the several species of tits to the larger Carrion crows and Woodpigeons, and I’m noticing behaviour that I couldn’t previously see from ground level.

The Woodpigeons, of which there are many, spend quite a lot of time in the Ash trees. Looking through my binoculars, I’ve noticed that they appear to be carefully inspecting the leaves before pecking at them. Though they are predominantly vegetarian, they are known to eat some small invertebrates so, initially, I thought they were picking off aphids from the leaves. In the process they peck off chunks of leaf matter, which actually causes quite a lot of damage to the foliage. I have now read that they are actually eating the Ash leaves, targeting, in particular the shoots and younger leaves, presumably because those have the most nutrients. This feeding behaviour is really quite destructive – you can see the leaf damage to the right of this pigeon’s head in my photos, and something I was completely unaware of until I moved.

Cygnet cuteness

30 Friday May 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

I had to go in to Cardiff today so I included a walk through ‘Little Venice’, the small network of canals south of the city centre. When I turned the first corner, this lovely family of Mute swans came immediately in to view – two adults and their six adorable cygnets.

Sometimes these canals are full of rubbish but, fortunately for the wildlife, it seemed much cleaner today – perhaps the local river-cleaning volunteer group have been busy.

As the canals have footpaths along both sides and are frequently used by pedestrians, the wildlife gets used to humans, and these adult swans were obviously used to people. They swam over to me, looking for food, and I was happy to oblige with some of the suet pellets I usually carry, though I was pleased to see that the cygnets remained wary and stuck to a vegetarian diet.

Birding news

08 Thursday May 2025

Posted by in birds, spring

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Spring bird migration passed rather quietly this year, presumably because most incoming birds chose to fly straight through to their breeding locations rather than stop off here on the south Wales coast for a breather. And the breeding process is in full swing with the local birds – they’re either shouting from the bush tops about what a great mate they would be, or rushing around trying to find insects to feed hungry chicks.

In view of the breeding madness going on all around it, I was very impressed with how calm and serene this Dunnock was looking. Perhaps it’s too young to breed, or maybe its first attempt at nesting failed and it hasn’t yet tried again.

Sadly, I’m fairly sure this year’s nesting attempt has failed for my Crow family. For a couple of weeks, the male was desperate for food and quite obviously taking it back to one specific location in the woods, either to feed his mate and/or their offspring. But today both the male and female appeared for food and they had reverted to their usual practice of flying off short distances to stash food amongst low vegetation, then coming back for more. That’s the second year their breeding attempts have failed, which is concerning.

When the stress of life and breeding and chicks all gets too much, what’s a bird to do but find a nice puddle and have a good splash! These Goldfinches really looked like they were having fun.

First brood

01 Thursday May 2025

Posted by in birds, spring

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The Moorhens that make their home in the dipping pond at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park are prolific breeders, producing on average three broods of between 5 and 7 chicks each year. The little cutie pictured here is one of this year’s first brood and, though one parent was keeping an eye on this one and its siblings, the other adult was already preparing their next nest. According to the BTO, though the record for Moorhen survival currently stands at over 11 years, their average lifespan is just 3 years, and they begin breeding at age one. With statistics like that, you’d think our waterways would be overrun by Moorhens but their predation rate is high, with both wild and domestic mammals taking their toll, as well as birds like Grey herons and the large gull species feasting on the smaller chicks. This Moorhen chick may be a little sweetie but its life will almost certainly be a tough one.