Tag Archives: British birds

Winding down with waders, 2

11 Tuesday Oct 2022

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Sanderlings are stunning small waders, usually hyperactive sand scurriers, though these particular beauties were trying to settle in for a night’s sleep. When splashed by a high wave from the incoming tide, they seemed almost to mutter crossly and fluttered forward to the next dry spot.

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These were my first Sanderling sightings for the year and an absolute joy to be near as they settled to roost, some just closing their eyes and hunching down, others tucking their heads under one wing. Watching these little waders winding down made me feel quite sleepy too.

221011 sanderling (2)

Winding down with waders, 1

10 Monday Oct 2022

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My Saturday was wonderful, a day’s birding along the Vale of Glamorgan coastline with my friend Della, checking clifftops for Choughs (unsuccessfully), stumbling over Stonechats along shorelines, scanning blue skies for Kestrels and Fulmar (the latter also unsuccessfully), hoping for (but not finding) the gold nuggets of Yellowhammers in hedgerows, nabbing a snippet of a Little owl in a crumbing barn roof.

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We wound down by watching waders settling in for the night at Newton Point. Arriving about two hours before high tide, we were able to find a couple of spots amongst the rocks where we could sit quietly, almost obscured from the birds, and watch their antics, listen to their chatter as the encroaching tide pushed the birds closer to us. It was the perfect end to a magical day (and I’ll share more about the birds tomorrow and Wednesday).

Old man, elegant ballerina

06 Thursday Oct 2022

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I’ve had two close encounters with Grey herons in recent days, this first in a tree near the bridge between the lakes at Cosmeston Country Park (which is why I was at eye level with the bird).

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The second was along the canals in Cardiff, the bird this time standing on a log at water level. When I posted this photo on Twitter one of my followers commented that she thought the heron could ‘change from an old man to an elegant ballerina depending on stance’ – thank you, Jane. I think she was absolutely right – the bird above is the elegant ballerina, and below is the grumpy old man.

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Very late, very little

04 Tuesday Oct 2022

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I spotted this gorgeous little Coot chick (I call them Cootlets) during last Wednesday’s walk around Cardiff’s Roath Park Lake. It seemed very late in the breeding season for one so young and I couldn’t help but wonder whether it could survive. But it had the full attention of both its parents, so fingers crossed!

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Great black-backed gulls

01 Saturday Oct 2022

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It’s not unusual to see Great black-backed gulls on the water in Cardiff Bay or on the mudflats outside the Barrage at low tide, so these two adults weren’t a great surprise (though I’ve not seen one sitting on a pontoon before).

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What was a surprise though was seeing this juvenile. Initially, I wasn’t sure what it was – I figured it wasn’t a Herring or Lesser black-backed gull as it was larger, had different markings on body and wings, and a markedly different head shape. I thought perhaps it was a Yellow-legged gull until, most fortuitously, I bumped into a local gull expert who was able to identify the bird from looking at the photos on my camera. My first juvenile Great black-backed gull, I think.

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Beaky Starling

28 Wednesday Sep 2022

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I spotted these two Starlings, perched on a phone line, during a recent walk and, delighting in their beautiful speckled colouring and grateful that they stayed still, took a few photos. It was only when I reviewed the photos later at home that I noticed the juvenile bird, whose head feathers were still a dull brown, had a deformed beak. Fortunately for the bird, the deformity appeared slight so shouldn’t affect its ability to feed.

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Exciting news

24 Saturday Sep 2022

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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.

220924 Into the Red

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!