One day in October 2021 I made a visit to a local woodland, Farningham Woods, but was distracted before I got there by large numbers of Ring-necked Parakeets feeding on sunflower heads along the entrance road to the woods. The sunflowers were grown as a wildlife boundary crop in a strip a few metres wide [...]
Posts Tagged ‘bird ecology’
Brent Geese Arrive | British Birding
One of my personal key indicators of the onset of autumn is the mass arrival of Brent Geese to the North Kent coast. As early as September small numbers of these migratory geese arrive in dribs and drabs, seemingly disappearing as soon as they arrive and then suddenly large numbers of Brent Geese can be [...]
Finding Common Grasshopper Warbler | British Birding
Common Grasshopper Warbler, Locusteall naevia, is the bird that is usually simply known as “Grasshopper Warbler” throughout Europe. This bird is just one of a group of similar species in the family LocustellidaeĀ that are found in many parts of the world and generally these birds are skulking and hard to see. However, when they arrive [...]
Dunlin Rhynchokinesis | British Birding
Feeding niche and bill evolution specific to prey was shown by Charles Darwin to be an extemely important factor in speciation in birds and this is seldom so obvious than in shorebirds. The wide range of bill sizes and shapes in shorebirds is an obvious indicator to the different feeding techniques they employ and the [...]
Blackcap Warblers in Spring | British Birding
Most birders in southern England will have become used to the fact that this species has changed its status from being exclusively a summer visitor to a bird that winters in UK in small numbers. It has been discovered that these Blackcaps that winter in Britain migrate to UK from Central Europe and Scandinavia (check [...]
Eurasian Skylark Song Flights in Early Spring | British Birding
Early this morning I opened the window to the sound of Skylarks singing in the early morning sunshine. With grassy fields and arable land right in front of the hosue this is a very familiar sound to me but through the autumn and winter, although skylarks do sing, I rarely hear them sustaining long song [...]
Eurasian Oystercatcher Spectacular | British Birding
Eurasian Oystercatcher is one of the most recognisable shorebirds in Europe, within the region its black and white plumage and bright orange bill make it unmistakeable. One Oystercatcher is a smart bird, something that stands out in the crowd, while a small flock is even more interesting to watch because of the noisy, bickering interactions [...]