Tag Archives: birding

Little tern courtship behaviour

16 Saturday May 2026

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The only time I get to see Little terns is when I visit Weymouth, in Dorset, during late spring and summer, as these stunning little birds spend their winters in west Africa and only return to Britain between April and August to breed. Chesil Beach is the furthest south west Little terns breed in England and is home to the Chesil Little Tern Project, which aims to monitor and protect the Little tern colony during their breeding season. A temporary electric fence is erected around the breeding area, and over 60 volunteers assist RSPB staff in engaging with and educating the public about the birds, and protecting the colony from predators, people and their dogs.

I didn’t visit the breeding colony itself – I figure the fewer people who go near them the better – but the birds can be seen flying over and fishing in the waters of the Fleet lagoon from the roadside at Ferrybridge so I found a handy boulder and plonked myself down to watch. And it was fascinating!

What I saw was the Little terns’ courtship behaviour. The male bird catches a fish and flies around calling, in the hope of attracting a female; I presume the fish is his way of advertising his ability to provide for his mate and any chicks they might have. If the female likes the look of him, she will chase and fly with him before both birds descend to the beach, or, in this case, the small buoys in the water. If the female accepts the fish the male offers then the courtship has been successful, and the breeding process gets underway. Do I detect a rather smug look on the male’s face in this last photo?

Sunning

11 Monday May 2026

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It’s an interesting way to get yourself clean but I’m sure you’ve all seen birds sunning themselves like this Blackbird, head up and beak open as if panting with the heat, body close to the ground with wings outspread. The BTO website gives two reasons for this behaviour:

It helps oil from the ‘preen gland’ to spread across the feathers, keeping them healthy and in good condition. It also drives parasites out from within the plumage. Some of these parasites feed on the feathers themselves, degrading their quality and function, and all are highly specialised, with many only found on a single species of bird.

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The Fox and the crow

02 Saturday May 2026

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.