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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…

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…

I keep listening to politicians on the radio (rarely watching them on TV) and am amazed, in some ways, that they don’t clear the air and apologise for having cocked some things up in their handling of the coronavirus outbreak. It would be surprising if everything had been perfect so why not admit it. There…

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…

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…