Cetti’s warblers

27 Friday Mar 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cetti's warbler, Cettia cetti, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, RSPB Lodmoor

To label this bird a warbler is something of a misnomer, I think, as, really, they shout, loudly and raucously at this time of year, ‘Hey, girl! Look at me, look at me, look at me!’.

Meet the Cetti’s warbler (pronounced ‘chetty’ ) (Cettia cetti), named after the 18th-century Italian ornithologist Francesco Cetti, who first described it. It’s a bird that can usually be found near water, in the shrubs and reed beds that surround swamps and lakes or line the edges of rivers and streams.

Most of the year, the Cetti’s warbler is more of a skulker, producing its call from within dense vegetation, but, in the springtime, motivated by the need to find a mate, the males are much more visible.

They usually hold a small territory and, within that area, have favourite singing podiums/perches where they sit and call. And I find they follow the same route as they move around their patch so, if you spend a little time watching and listening, you can often catch them at one of their perches, as I managed to do with these two at RSPB Lodmoor last week.

Black-tailed godwits fighting

25 Wednesday Mar 2026

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birding, birdwatching, Black-tailed godwit, Black-tailed godwits fighting, British birds, Limosa limosa, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, RSPB Lodmoor

The vibrant russet-coloured summer plumage of the Black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) is simply stunning, so it was a real treat to see several of these handsome birds in their breeding regalia on three separate days last week at RSPB Lodmoor. The first time I spotted them, they were quite distant but, on the second occasion, last Thursday 19 March, the godwits were feeding much closer to the path, and I managed to get some reasonable photos.

You’ll notice that not all the birds have moulted in to summer plumage; those that haven’t may be juvenile birds or perhaps non-breeding adults. During my visit to Lodmoor last Saturday, the 21st, I was enjoying watching one of those birds busily probing for food very near me when another Black-tailed godwit flew in.

Immediately, the peace was shattered. For some unknown reason, this interloper was spoiling for a fight, and it attacked the other bird. The situation turned dramatic very quickly. Beaks and claws were used as weapons, wings flapped violently; they really looked like they might hurt each other.

Though it seemed much longer, after no more than a minute had passed, the interloper flew off and the first bird started feeding again. But then, back came the second bird, clearly in the mood for a scrap. I should’ve switched to video but was so caught up in watching them that I didn’t think to do that, so I’ve made a short slideshow of the photos I took that weren’t a complete blur. You’ll be pleased to know that the interloper once again flew off after just a minute or two, and neither bird appeared to be hurt.

Singing from every tree top

24 Tuesday Mar 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, spring

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Greenfinch, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, RSPB Lodmoor

The first thing I noticed, the first birds I heard as I approached RSPB Lodmoor on the first visit (last Monday afternoon, 16 March) of my most recent visit to Weymouth was the male Greenfinches that seemed to be singing from every tree top and tall shrub.

Singing Greenfinches may not sound too exciting to many of you but these birds were in serious trouble until very recently, and they are still red-listed in the UK, their population numbers plummeting due to the disease trichomonosis, which causes lesions in a bird’s throat and gullet, eventually leading to the bird not being able to feed and ultimately to its death. The disease is often more prevalent in garden birds because many people who feed their local birds don’t wash the feeders often enough, leading to the disease being passed on through contact with contaminated surfaces.

Fortunately, the Lodmoor Greenfinches have no need to visit the gardens of the houses that line one side of the reserve as they seem able to source enough food from the local vegetation; I spotted them picking out any remaining Hawthorn berries for the seeds within, and also picking at Blackthorn blossom, presumably for the newly forming fruit within.

I often find Greenfinches to be flighty birds but these males were so busy singing for mates and feeding up that I was able to get what are probably my best photos of them, and you can easily see why they are called Greenfinches.

A Shelduck or two

28 Saturday Feb 2026

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, RSPB Lodmoor, Shelduck, Tadorna tadorna

I’ve blogged about our local Shelducks (Tadorna tadorna) before, in How many Shelducks?, 9 October 2019 and Hoovering Shelduck, 25 February 2025. They’re stunning waterfowl that look a bit like a cross between a duck and a goose, coloured by an enthusiast child with bright paints and a vivid imagination.

It’s only occasionally that I manage close views of them, as the Cardiff Bay birds spend most of their local visiting time on the distant mud flats between the Barrage and the Bristol Channel, so I appreciate all the more the times when I can sit on a bench and watch them going about their day, as happened last week at RSPB Lodmoor.

Wigeon

24 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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Anas penelope, birding, birdwatching, British birds, Lodmoor Nature Reserve, RSPB Lodmoor, Wigeon

Like Lapwing, the Wigeon (Anas penelope) is another bird I don’t see very often in my home environment. We get a few occasional Wigeon drop in at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park but they don’t usually remain very long. And, having seen them spending a lot of time grazing in very shallow water and on low grassy areas adjacent to the water at RSPB Lodmoor, I can understand why – Cosmeston simply doesn’t have undisturbed areas where the hundreds of local dogs wouldn’t be able to get to them.

So, as with the Lapwing, it was a real treat to see so many of these handsome birds at Lodmoor. The rich chestnut head and grey upper body of the male Wigeon is a particularly attractive colour combination.

I don’t recall hearing them make any noise (though that may be because their sound was drowned out by the other birds) but the name Wigeon is thought to have been derived from their whistling call. Other vernacular names – whew duck (Northumberland); whewer, whim, whistler (eastern England) – are also imitative of their call, according to Buczacki in Fauna Britannica. Here’s a link to their call on the RSPB website, if you fancy a listen.

Lapwing

23 Monday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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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!

Sandwich terns

19 Friday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, British terns, Ferrybridge birding, RSPB Lodmoor, Sandwich tern, tern species

These beauties are the last of the birds I’ll share from my recent trip to Weymouth: Sandwich terns (Sterna sandvicensis). Though some tern species can be tricky to tell apart (Common and Arctic, in particular), with their yellow-tipped black beaks, black legs and black-capped heads, Sandwich terns are a bit more straight forward to identify.

~ Sandwich terns seen here with mostly Mediterranean gulls, Dunlin & Ringed plover

As you can perhaps see in my photos, the black cap on its head is not a permanent feature; it is fully black at the beginning of the breeding season but then quickly begins to develop white speckles above the eyes and, by the end of the summer, the whole of the forehead is white, making the ‘hair do’ resemble more of a monk’s tonsure. I guess the stress of raising young will do that, even to terns!

I didn’t know much about these birds but my guide book tells me that Sandwich terns breed in northern Europe (including in colonies around the coast of Britain), Russia and North America, then move south, which is when they can be seen in southern Britain, on passage to their wintering locations, mostly on the west coast of Africa.

If you’re wondering, as I was, about the origin of its name, in Fauna Britannica, Stefan Buczacki tells that ‘Its association with the town of Sandwich on the Kent coast dates back to 1785, when the naturalist John Latham was sent specimens collected from there by some local boys’.

Reddening Glasswort

14 Sunday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, wildflowers

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autumn colour, Glasswort, reddening plant, RSPB Lodmoor, Salicornia species, saltmarsh plants, seaside plants

You may have noticed, in a couple of yesterday’s Ruff photos – as in the photo below (which includes Lapwings, Starlings, a Cormorant drying its wings, with a Grey heron lurking in the background) – the birds are moving around amongst a reddish-coloured plant.

This is Glasswort, one of the Salicornia species, though I don’t which of several species this might be. For one thing, due to the watery environment in which Glassworts thrive, I couldn’t get close to any of the plants, but also these plants can be tricky to distinguish one from the other. If you see Glasswort and want to give it a try, the Wildflower Society website has a downloadable pdf ‘A Guide to the Identification of the Glassworts of the British Isles’.

The Glassworts are plants of seasides and saltmarshes, and are common all around the British coastline. Until this latest visit to RSPB Lodmoor, I hadn’t particularly noticed these plants but this time, as the season is changing from summer to autumn, the Glassworts begin to change colour, and, I think, look stunning. I’m sure the photographers amongst you will also appreciate what a wonderful backdrop this colour provides for images of the local birds.

Ruffing it

13 Saturday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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autumn migration, birding, birdwatching, British birds, female Ruff, Philomachus pugnax, Reeve, RSPB Lodmoor, Ruff

I’ve just returned from another few days on England’s south coast, in Weymouth and on the Isle of Portland, this time, due to its being migration season and the often inclement weather, mostly birding. And, despite the blasting westerly winds and the frequent heavy rain, it was wonderful!

After arriving mid afternoon on Monday, I took myself on a walk – to stretch my old body after five hours’ train travel and to get some fresh air in my lungs – to RSPB Lodmoor. It’s such a convenient distance from Weymouth town centre and always has something to delight my birding senses. And Monday’s visit did not disappoint, providing my first sighting this year of Ruff (Philomachus pugnax).

The story of the Ruff in Britain is a sad one. My guide book recounts that Ruff became extinct as a breeding bird in Britain around 1850, though it managed to re-establish itself in East Anglia for a time in the 1960s. Now, few if any young are raised in Britain, with the bird’s main breeding grounds ranging from Scandinavia as far east as Siberia, and south as far as the Netherlands. Though some Ruff are present throughout the year in Britain, and several hundred over-winter here, most are seen during autumn migration when the birds pass through on their way to Africa, some flying as far as South Africa.

The Ruff is red-listed in Britain and is globally threatened, as its population has declined dramatically and its breeding and non-breeding ranges have also declined. The two birds I saw are female (though the species name is Ruff, the male bird is known as Ruff due to its extraordinary breeding plumage, while the female is known as Reeve). I felt very privileged to enjoy reasonably close sightings of these large waders and spent quite a lot of time watching them feeding up for their long journey south.