birdwatching for beginners

On the edge with peregrine chicks and other birds

2009-06-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

I was watching the Derby peregrine chicks on the webcam the other day when one of the young birds toppled over the side of the ledge and out of view.

I was beside myself – jumping up and shouting at the screen. After what seemed like hours, I was delighted to hear that the young female was fine, having landed on a nearby roof, none the worse for her exciting experience.

I then read about the peregrine chick in Manchester that, on one of its first flights, took a ride on the Wheel of Manchester, hopping from pod to pod and seemingly enjoying itself.

I love our urban peregrines, they add so much to our towns and cities. I know summer is here because I’ve given the RSPB my dates when I will be showing people the peregrines that live on the chimney of the Tate Modern by the Thames.

If any of you find yourselves by the river in Central London between mid July and mid September, come along. We will have the telescopes trained on the top of the tower every day between noon and 7pm. If you do come along, look out for me and say hello.

While urban peregrines seem to be doing well, spare a thought for the UK’s seabird colonies. A recent report has revealed major declines in the numbers of many UK seabirds since the late 1960s.

Populations of at least nine of the UK’s 25 species seabird have decreased dramatically. Overall the report shows the UK’s seabird population has reduced by 9% since 2000, but in Scotland, where the majority of the UK’s seabirds occur, numbers have crashed by nearly one fifth (19%).

If you’ve ever enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of a large seabird colony you will be concerned by this news. It just shows how we urgently need the UK’s Marine and Coastal Access Bill and the Marine (Scotland) Bill which are currently before the UK and Scottish Parliament. If we don’t tackle the issues of climate change by stopping unsustainable fisheries, pollution and development we will lose our seabirds and our coastline will be poorer and quieter.

Alarms, hatching and booming bitterns

2009-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just hate it when the alarm goes off in the morning? Especially when it’s 4am and a little chilly outside. It is at that point when I wonder if I’m mad to have volunteered to lead a dawn chorus walk on Hampstead Heath.

However, once I’m sitting in the car driving through almost deserted streets, I realise just how amazing early morning is at this time of year. Our walk on the Heath, organised by the City of London, was fab. Around 30 people came along which was a real surprise given the early start.

The sights and sounds of Hampstead Heath are amazing at 5am. You walk along listening to the birds and looking at the distant London Eye all lit up and you really feel that two worlds have come together.

And the Hampstead birds didn’t disappoint. The song thrush, wren, blackbird and garden warbler were all in great voice and we enjoyed fantastic views of male kestrel, green woodpecker and treecreeper. But, best of all, I had a group of interested and enthusiastic people to share it with.

It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know each individual birdsong in this great chorus. Just listen and enjoy, it really is one of nature’s spectacles and well worth getting out of bed for!

I think April/May are my favourite months and I’ve been lucky enough to get out and about with my binoculars. We had a fantastic day at Minsmere at the end of April – wandering around in our shorts and enjoying the weather and the birding.

While the UK is in the grip of recession, I think it is fair to say the RSPB is booming – at the least the male bitterns at Minsmere are! Just goes to show how a bird on the brink of extinction can make a come back with hard work and expertise and the support of RSPB members. We sat in the hide looking over the reed bed hearing the booming and watching the marsh harriers and bearded tits. And then, right at the end of the day, just as we had almost given up hope, there it was, a bittern flying over the reeds and dropping into the reedbed almost in front of the hide.

I’ve also been watching birds a little closer to home – from my study to be exact. I’ve not been looking out of the window, but at the computer screen as I follow the progress of the peregrines in Derby via webcam. I watched the female sitting on the eggs for weeks and then it happened. I was in the right place at the right time to see the second of the four eggs hatch! Wow! There are now four white fluffy peregrine chicks in the nest and I’ve been watching the female feed the young. Urban peregrines are doing very well and, if you can manage it without bumping into people, then I suggest you keep an eye on the sky above your town or city – you never know, you might just spot the fastest creature on the planet.

Spring at last!

2009-04-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

As I write this I’m enjoying the tail end of a warm and sunny weekend so I really do feel as if spring is finally with us.
I’m also keeping half an eye on the peregrine webcams from Derby and Worcester and am smiling to myself when I think of the Chichester and Tate peregrines sitting on their eggs.

I saw something else amazing this weekend while I was volunteering for the RSPB at the heronry in Regent’s Park. One of the juvenile herons took its maiden flight and the gasp that went around volunteers and onlookers alike was amazing. Ok, I’ll admit it wasn’t much of a flight – probably more of an exaggerated long hop really, but the bird ended up on a branch above the nest with its siblings looking on in amazement. What really cracked me up was when one of the other youngsters stretched its neck up towards the bird above in what looked like a vain attempt to pull it back into the nest.

Watching this first faltering attempt at flying got me to wondering though. What an amazing leap of faith it must be to just launch yourself into the air never having done it before. I guess it’s no different to a baby getting up on its feet the first time – but at least they are closer to the ground! Those nests are pretty high up in the trees!

It also just reminds you how fraught with peril life is for a young bird. As I enjoy the webcams I can’t help remembering the young female peregrine from the Tate pair last year who unfortunately met with an untimely end after flying into a building. I remember how devastated I felt when I heard the news – let’s hope we don’t have to go through that again. Our birds of prey have enough trouble with gamekeepers, pigeon fanciers and others who wish them harm without that sort of bad luck.

Anyway, I hope you are all taking the chance to get out birding. I’ll be out and about over Easter, hoping to see my first swallows of the year. I’m also counting the days until the swifts come back and I’d love it if you’d let me know when you see your first ones – mainly so I can tell my father-in-law to keep an eye out for the two pairs that nest in the boxes on his house in Rutland.

Spring?

2009-02-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe how much the weather has changed in two and a half weeks. On ‘snow Monday’ all the buses in London stopped and I couldn’t get to work. Today it was 14°C and I was strolling around Tottenham Marshes enjoying a bit of birding on the way to Sainsburys.

It really was wonderful, we saw the local Egyptian goose, had great views of a Goldcrest and Chiffchaff and got very close to a beautiful female Kestrel just sitting on a branch watching the world go by. I think she may be one of the pair that nests underneath the roof of the North Stand at White Hart Lane, the world famous home of the Spurs, clearly a Kestrel with good taste!

But the highlight for me was the Song Thrush sitting high in a tree by the car park, singing away. His repertoire was impressive, switching effortlessly between car alarm and nightingale – all at top volume.

It’s amazing how relaxed you can get, even in under an hour, when you are strolling around in sunshine listening to birdsong and watching Coots fighting. And all this just a couple of hundred metres from a main road.

And I met a really nice bloke out walking his two dogs. As soon as he saw our binoculars he asked what birds there were in this part of the marshes that he might see if he could manage to remember to bring his newly purchased binoculars. When I told him about the Kestrel and that I’d seen a Peregrine Falcon there a week or so ago, he got really enthusiastic as he is a big fan of birds of prey.

And as I was pushing my trolley around Sainsburys looking at all the long faces and dodging the impatient crowds I still found myself smiling. And it struck me that if more people took a little time to look and listen to the wildlife around them they would be more relaxed and the world would be a better place!

After all, in these credit crunch times there can be few better ways of not spending money that walking around in the sun enjoying the birds!

Coming out of hiding into Siberian type conditions

2009-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

As I type I'm looking out of my window and I can hardly believe the number of birds I'm seeing in the garden. This just goes to prove my theory that every bird checks out the RSPB website to see when Big Garden Birdwatch weekend is. They then all make sure they stay out of sight while we all sit there waiting to tick our boxes and submit our results. As soon as the last sighting is entered, out they all come again and go about their daily business. For example, today I saw four wood pigeons - four! Last Saturday, none! And so it goes on.

But, with temperatures dropping to below freezing and flurries of snow swirling in the wind, I really do worry about our smaller birds making it through the night. That is why it is so important to put food out for them, and to make sure that they have a supply of water easily available. That can be the difference between life and death for many species.

For example, we have been enjoying a fantastic pied wagtail roost near where I live in North London. Every evening at around dusk about 80 or more of these wonderful little birds fly into a tree outside our local Somerfield supermarket and settle for the night. Since the cold snap in early January we have seen far fewer and for the last week or so there haven't been any in the tree at all. We are not sure if this means they haven't survived the cold, or if they have picked another place to spend their nights. Watch this space and I'll let you know if we find them.

As well as putting food out for the birds in these cold conditions, you can help birds to survive by being extra careful when you are out birding. Birds do not need to waste vital energy flying away from us if we get too close to their perches or roosts. So, please try very hard not to cause birds to have to fly away from you and find another spot to perch. I was in Dorset at the beginning of January hoping to see a short-eared owl at dusk when a total idiot walked across the field clapping his hands. I presume he was hoping to make the owls fly, but all he succeeded in doing was disturbing lots of other birds on a brutally cold evening - making them waste energy they desperately needed to keep warm.

Finally, back to the Big Garden Birdwatch. I just wanted to say thanks to the volunteers from the City of London who came out to survey birds in city gardens. The rain could not dampen their enthusiasm, and we saw some great birds. It was also a treat to spend time in the gardens of St Paul's Cathedral with one of the gardeners, whose local knowledge was fantastic. It is always worth talking to the locals because you will learn a lot about the birds that are regular visitors and the best places to spot them.

30th birthday, hoodies and Heathrow

2009-01-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

Do you ever find your weekends are too short to fit everything in that you need to get done? I often find myself trying to balance volunteering for the RSPB with birdwatching with the visit to the supermarket with seeing friends and so on.

So, it's not often you'll find me preparing to spend an hour with a cup of tea just sitting looking out into the garden. And I won't be sitting there thinking "is there anything I should be doing?" because I will actually be taking part in the biggest citizen science project in the world.

I will be counting the birds I see in my garden in that hour as part of the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch (BGB) - and sending my results in to be one of the (hopefully) 400,000 records that will be submitted over the weekend.

We are celebrating the 30th year of the BGB and I'm really hoping lots of you come along to the garden party. Because, what we find out from this survey is really important as it allows us to look at long term trends in the population of our garden birds, that are really under pressure from climate change and human activity.

So, put the kettle on, get your pen and paper out and take part for an hour on 24/25 January. To find out what you need to do, click here.

I had two fabulous day's birding on the Isle of Portland in the Weymouth area last weekend when we had great views of peregrine falcons, grebes and divers in Portland Harbour and a magical encounter with a bittern on the RSPB's reserve at Radipole. We also saw the hooded merganser at Radipole, swimming around among the mallards right by the visitor centre. And what a dapper little chap he was.

However, it was really cold, and the birds were having to contend with large expanses of frozen water, in fact our guide told us that even the sea had been frozen for a couple of days. Some of the mallards had become quite adept at the old Torville and Dean routines, but although they looked funny, birds really struggle when everything ices over. And if we don't get to grips with climate change soon, extremes of temperature in both summer and winter will become more common and our birds and other animals will really struggle.

That is why I was so disappointed and angry at the decision to go ahead with the third runway at Heathrow Airport as it will destroy any chance we have of meeting our climate change targets and starting to tackle the problem.

I will be getting involved in the campaign to stop this happening and will also be opposing the Mayor of London's plan to build an airport in the Thames estuary. This is a major flyway for birds, and we saw in New York this week the potential for disaster when planes hit flocks of birds.

So, I think it's going to be a busy year!
17 January 2009

New Year, New List

2009-01-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

January is one of my favourite times of year for birding as it’s time to start a new list for the new year.

I enjoy looking at all birds all the time, but I will admit, January is a bit special because it means I can look at common birds and “tick them” on my new list.

So I find myself actively looking out for robins, wrens, blue tits, blackbirds etc instead of just enjoying them when they cross my path while I’m out and about. And they are worth seeking out.

Anyone who says that common birds are boring is wrong. You never know when you are going to see them doing something unusual. I will never forget sitting in a hide on the South Devon coast in the spring watching a blue tit flying backwards and forwards to its nest with its beak full of wool.

It took a little while to figure out where this wool was coming from and then I spotted the bird sitting on a barbed wire fence surrounding a field full of sheep. It was ‘harvesting’ the wool from the wire and using it to line its nest.

I was telling someone about this and they told me that they often put wool and other nesting material out for the blue tits in the breeding season – something which would never had occurred to me, but I am certainly planning to do the same in 2009.

And that brings me to the other thing about the new year – resolutions! This year my main resolution is to do more to help wildlife in the UK and beyond. I will continue to volunteer for the RSPB and want to step up my support for the albatross campaign, the birds of prey campaign and the RSPB’s efforts to save the Sumatran Rainforest. These are all vitally important and you can find out more here.

My final resolution is to reduce my carbon footprint even more and help save the planet. Find out how you can do your bit by visiting the Stop Climate Chaos coalition website

Finally I’d like to wish you all a happy new year, enjoy your birding and look out for our winter visitors of brent geese, whooper and bewick swans, snow buntings, fieldfare and redwings. And wrap up warm!

How to Birdwatch
January 4 2009