Category: Biology

A few snaps from a recent, short, but sweet, and hot, camping trip to North Norfolk. Several Turtle Doves, one Cuckoo, lots of Whitethroat, Linnets, Swallows, Swifts, House Martins, several Sedge Warblers, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Common Tern, Dunlin, Knot, the usual gulls (Lesser Black-backed, Black-headed), Mallards, Moorhens, Coots, Avocet, Shelduck, Skylark, Kestrel, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, various geese (Canada, Egyptian, Greylag), Black-tailed Godwit (just one, overhead), and nesting Common Ringed Plover and Oystercatchers.

Common Ringed Plover Sedge Warbler “singing” Juvenile Coot stepping out

Turtle Dover turring up the Wi-Fi
Mallard making a run for it

Last Cuckoo of the Snettisham Summer?

Oystercatcher

Knot

Whitethroat

Avocet

Turtle Dove in a tree

UPDATE: April 2022 A Chiffchaff is currently using the pond. Our full garden ticklist can be found in a more recent article about garden birdwatching here.

UPDATE: Mid-January 2019, we’d been away and the house next door was temporarily empty. We got out of the car, there’s a Goldcrest tweeting away from a bush adjacent to the front garden fence. A first for our garden.

It’s like SpringWatch in our garden sometimes…full birding list for garden can be found here.

Non-avian vertebrates: Common frog, squirrel (grey and black), hedgehog, “pipistrelle” bat, cat, dog.

Apologies if I didn’t tag everyone…

Bird photos here: https://imagingstorm.co.uk/british-birds

UPDATE: Lee Evans (not that one) told me via the UK Bird ID Facebook group that it is likely this is the same GRW that has been sighted a few times over the last few years. According to CamBirds blog there was one at Paxton Pits in 2016, one at Eldernell (RSPB Nene Washes) in 2014. Life expectancy for this species is 1-5 years. So it could be the same male.

If you’re a birder in or around Cambridge, you will know via CamBirds, social media, word-of-mouth and other information routes that there is a vagrant in our midst. He’s been here since about the 15th June and is still posturing and shouting just outside the village of Fen Drayton. We have to assume he’s lost, as he is usually only to be found on mainland Europe and Asia and spends his winters swanning around sub-Saharan Africa. That said, climate change, changes in farming practices, and other environmental concerns are already disrupting bird behaviour, so who knows?

He is a Great Reed Warbler and has been showing well on the southern edge reed beds of Elney Lake at RSPB Fen Drayton.

Acrocephalus arundinaceus to give him his scientific name is the biggest of the diffuse group of birds we call the European warblers. His calling and posturing for a mate are most likely to be entirely in vain as it is very unlikely that a female will have accidentally ended up here too. Anyway, his presence is cause for celebration among local birders who have been out in force since mid-June to catch a glimpse of him and to hear his syrinx in action.

I got some distant shots of him through the summer haze, but it was too warm for that kind of zoom photography. Still, it’s a record shot. Much better is the shot I got of a few of the birders standing patiently gazing through scopes and bins.

I ended up wending my way to the Reedbed Trail at RSPB Ouse Fen again (Over side, as opposed to Needingworth). There were several birders there, monitoring Bittern behaviour and while I was speaking to fellow Geordie ex-pat Dave we saw four taking flight briefly from the reeds. He’d seen at least 7 already in the four hours he’d been watching. His dedication to the cause was echoed in his car registration which (almost) spelt out Bittern. Apparently, they were watching for females dancing chick-to-chick in the reeds as their offspring wander off and the mother attends to each one.

I, on the other hand, had a dog to walk, cattle to avoid and Marsh Harriers to photograph. There were Bearded Tits around making their unmistakable “pew pew” sound in one patch of reeds, but I didn’t see them, sadly. Still, lots of Marsh Harrier around, a couple of Kestrel and Buzzard, Goldfinch, Black-headed Gull, no Common Tern on this visit, Reed Warbler calling and darting about the reeds. A few Reed Bunt and an occasional Whitethroat. A flock of four Little Egret, and the usual Jackdaws, Rooks, Pigeons, Greylag Geese etc.

The Bittern photos didn’t come out well, the one above I snapped at RSPB Minsmere, so here’s a Kestrel instead.

If you live in the South East you are very unlikely to stumble across a Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) unless you venture further afield, heading north, west or into Wales. This bird spends its time on the rocks that litter clear mountain streams and broad rocky rivers rather than any of the deep and cloudy, fast-moving waterways of East Anglia and the counties that surround London. These shots are on the River Usk some way west of the town of Aberhonddu (Brecon), Powys, Wales,

Having not snapped any in Teesdale on another trip, where the upper Tees fits the Dipper’s requirements perfectly, I was pleased to at last photograph this bird, which bobs up and down on its perch, usually with its mouth full of insects, on the River Usk in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales.

The Dipper has a white throat and breast which contrasts with dark body plumage and a ruddy belt.

On a recent trip, our hosts counted perhaps 35 bird species that I had seen; none of them except the Dipper, a lifer .Birds seen on two-day trip: Red Kite, Buzzard, Kestrel, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Starling, Magpie, Rook, Jackdaw, Blue Tit, Wren, Robin, Treecreeper, Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Goldfinch, Linnet, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Heron, Lesser Black-backed Gull, House Martin, Barn Swallow, Swift, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Dipper. A couple of others as yet identified from photos. Tawny Owl heard several times, long before dark.

UPDATE: Rose-coloured Starlings have apparently turned up at The Genome Campus, Hinxton, near Cambridge. It’s private land, so don’t go looking on the site as you’re liable to be arrested. The birds are flocking to and from the village itself and there is a neighbouring paddock they seem to be favouring.

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According to BirdGuides.com: “2018 is poised to produce a huge invasion of Rosy Starlings to the UK”

Many have been seen in record-breaking numbers in recent days across continental Europe with flocks appearing as close as France, says the site. 500 were recorded in Marseille and some in Spain. Fewer than 20 have been reported in the UK so far but that’s more than normal numbers in a seven-day period. The site suggests they could be “harbingers of a much larger arrival”. Sightings have been made in Dorset, Cornwall, Kent, Anglesey, Hampshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk, East Yorkshire, and the Isle of Skye.

Although it is nominally a starling, the rosy starling (Pastor roseus) or rose-coloured pastor is now classed in its own monotype genus as “Pastor” rather than bunched with the starling family, Sturnidae. The split is based on genetics and it is not yet known whether there are other members of the genus yet to be revealed.

The genus name Pastor and its old English name come from the Latin word pastor, meaning “shepherd” (as in pastoral, but also as in a priest). Roseus is Latin for “rose-coloured”, as you probably guessed. You can see from Veronesi’s below why they’re called pastors, it’s nothing to do with looking like a priest, it’s that they look like they’re wearing a sheep’s fleece as a shepherd would.

Not my photo, but if I see one, I will endeavour to snap it:

Older male birds father more illegitimate offspring than younger birds, it seems. When female birds have chicks as the result of an “extra-marital” fling, the fathers are almost always older males. Now, scientists at Imperial College London think they know why.

Many birds form social pair bonds, some of which last a lifetime, but they may also have “illegitimate” offspring. Extra-marital copulation in sparrows seems to favour paternity of older males and there were two possible explanations: older males are better at coercing females into extra-pair affairs, this is the male manipulation hypothesis or that females solicit more sex from older males than from younger males, the female choice hypothesis.

Sparrows are socially monogamous but sexually promiscuous, staying with one partner for the security of raising chicks, but with the males not necessarily raising their own chicks. The team led by the IC scientists observed more than 450 mating attempts by males, and found that older males did not try to make females cheat any more often than younger males, which throws the male manipulation hypothesis into doubt. Instead, they observed that successful affairs were more often solicited by females. However, the females did not choose older males more often than younger males, suggesting the female choice hypothesis may also be wrong.

Team member Antje Girndt explains, “There is a difference between what we observe and what the outcome is: we didn’t observe older males cheating more often than younger males, but they do father more offspring. This suggests there is another factor at work, such as older males having more competitive sperm.” Females can store sperm for weeks before allowing it to fertilise their eggs.

“We found that there is likely to be a biological effect, rather than a behavioural one, for why older males are more successful at siring illegitimate children,” explains research leader Julia Schroeder. “It has been thought that females might choose older males as they are more ‘genetically fit’, but our research casts some doubt on this.”

http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1

It seems I have landed myself the entirely voluntary role of writing the bimonthly Bird Report for our local newsletter – Cottenham News. The column has been expertly and diligently handled until now by local birder Jasper Kay, but times move on and he has handed over the reins to this very amateur birder. Anyway, I’m not going to try and follow in Jasper’s footsteps but will attempt to put together a regular bird column with a sidebar that cites local sightings in, over, and around our patch.

Bird Report 1 – What’s a warbler, anyway?

Seasons come and go and so do many of the birds we see at different times of the year. Those that spend the summer, we call summer visitors. Many of them travel thousands of miles from Southern Africa or elsewhere to be with us during the summer: the cuckoos, swallows, swifts, and house martins. Perhaps less familiar is a group of birds we call the “warblers”. Warbler refers to a very disparate group of small perching birds that are really only united in that you might refer to the songs and call as warbling, although some of them are less melodic than others and more scratchy avant-garde improvisers, that’s probably too unwieldy a name for a type of bird.

Walk along the Cottenham Lode and you might catch a fleeting glimpse of a cackling bird with a white throat, which goes by the rather obvious name the whitethroat (Sylvia communis), you might also see its more furtive cousin the lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca). Among the more avant-garde of the warblers, is the reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), which again rather obviously, as its name suggests, is a warbler that lives among the reeds.

Head into the Rampton Spinney and you might hear the summery and rather more melodic song of its cousin, the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla). A grey bird with, yes, a black cap. Unless it’s the female or a youngster in which case the cap is a chestnut brown. You may well have had blackcaps over-wintering in your garden during the last few years. Tracking of specimens from Eastern Europe would suggest that many get lost when heading back to North Africa and Iberia for the winter and find our bird feeders enticing and that our generally reasonably warm winter climate suits them fine.

During the summer months, you might also hear the regular chiff-chaff call of the chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita). This species looks almost identical to the willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), which, bucking the obvious naming trends, does not only favour willow trees. Both birds are small and variously hued in browns and yellows. The chiffchaff has dark legs whereas those of the willow warbler are pink and the latter has longer wings. However, the most notable difference is in their song, the willow warbler preferring a descending fluting melody over the chiff chaff’s rhythmic cadence. That said, leg colour can vary and some specimens will on rare occasions mimic the other species in their song, so there is rarely 100% certainty in their identification.

It is on local nature reserves rather than farmland that you are more likely to see some of the other warblers including the noisy and melodic Cettis’ warbler, the flighty sedge warbler, and the grasshopper warbler with its talent for mimicking the sound of, you guessed it, grasshoppers. You might have to head to Dunwich Heath if you want to see the troubled Dartford warbler and perhaps even further afield to see a marsh warbler, moustached warbler, Bonelli’s warbler, or the fan-tailed warbler.

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Recent sightings in and around Cottenham Marsh harrier, red kite, buzzard, kestrel, little egret, heron, corn bunting, meadow pipit, skylark, yellowhammer, over and around local farmland and waterways Whitethroat, lesser whitethroat along Cottenham Lode Blackcap, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, willow warbler, chiffchaff, bullfinch in Rampton Spinney Unconfirmed bluethroat (on Brenda Gautrey Way), Turtle Dove along the Lode.
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The title of this post paraphrases Francis Healy in the Travis song “Writing to reach you” where he is presumably having a sly dig at elderstatesmen of BritPop, Oasis and their song “Wonderwall”, presumably with at least a nod of recognition to the 1968 psychedelic film of that name with soundtrack by George Harrison.

Towards the end of February I was lucky enough to catch sight of the Cambridge Peregrines in town and snapped a few shots of the female before the male arrived and mated her. Today, we saw the female preening on the shady side of one of their habitual towers. I got a few low-light shots of her and then spotted feathers cascading down from the sunny side of the tower. It was the male plucking a pigeon high up, basking in the sun as he did so, and once the job was done, he flew off to the nest site and began feeding pickings from the carcass to his two chicks.

It’s astonishing how few people even look up as they walk past these ancient Cambridge buildings. Perhaps they are not interested in the possibility that a pair of large falcons is just above their heads. Nobody even asked what I was zooming in on. Maybe they thought I was simply recording details of the sandstone architecture.

There is another pair just outside town, which I also photographed recently.