Jangling keys – that’s how a Corn Buntng sounds. Here are examples of jangling keys from across Europe. Here’s one from Oropesa, Spain: …and another Spanish bird from Tarifa; …and one from Yorkshire, UK; There is a single pair of Corn Buntings in Northamptonshire, I gather. I used to see them in several places, but…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
131 years of Little Owls
Today is the anniversary of the first Little Owl nest nest to be found in the UK. Little Owls were successfully introduced into the UK at Lilford Hall, just down the road from me here in east Northants, by the 4th Baron Lilford: in 1889, on St George’s Day, his gamekeeper found a Little Owl…
Bird song (38) – House Sparrow
The song of the House Sparrow seems to be pretty much like its call – cheep! But you can see a male House Sparrow, sitting by a nest box or opening on the edge of a roof, going ‘cheep!’ time after time after time. If it were any other bird then we’d call it a…
RSPB press release – Lots of Cranes
UK Crane population reaches its highest level for over 400 years Latest common crane survey reveals a record-breaking 56 pairs of cranes in 2019, bringing the total population to an estimated 200 birds. Cranes became extinct in the UK around four hundred years ago but following the natural recolonisation of a few birds and extensive…
Bird song (37) – Dunlin
Dunlin are familiar shorebirds on estuaries in winter and as passage migrants in Spring and Autumn but they nest with us too – up on the hills, in remote peatbogs the song of the Dunlin is heard. And it’s a pretty good song too. Delivered from the ground as pictured above but often in a…
Bird song (36) – Black-tailed Godwit
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This is a very localised breeding bird in the UK; its main stronghold is the Nene Washes near Peterborough where c90% of the UK population is found, mostly on land managed by the RSPB which also has nesting Cranes and Corncrakes (and Snipe, Lapwing and Oystercatcher – the previous three blogs on song in this…
Bird song (35) – Snipe
The song of the Snipe is made by two vibrating feathers in its tail, captured brilliantly by Tim Melling in the image above. And Tim wrote of the discovery of this phenomenon in a blog a couple of years ago: During the early years of the twentieth century debate raged as to whether this sound…
Bird song (34) – Lapwing
A farmland bird which has declined greatly due to agricultural changes – notably the switch from spring-sown to autumn-sown cereals, drainage of wetlands and the move from hay to silage. In southern England at least, Lapwings have become, as breeding birds, much more concentrated on nature reserves. But there you will still hear the peee-wit…
The Lockdown Nature-writing Challenge – a reminder
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Entries are beginning to trickle in for this Nature-writing Challenge. Thank you for those, and the promises of more, but you have plenty of time, 10 days, to add to the number. Across the world, people are experiencing a shared concern for themselves and their loved ones and many are enduring a period of social…
Lockdown garden bird list – the first four weeks
I’ve been in my garden a lot in the last four weeks. I can make phone calls, read things and think – I can’t easily write – but I can also watch birds. And so I have 22 complete bird lists out of 28 days (they are complete in the sense that I made a…