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Category: Diary

Big Garden Birdwatch

This weekend (the 26 – 28 January) saw the 40th annual Big Garden Birdwatch, run by the RSPB. This is a great citizen science project, where everyone can join in and have a go at spotting and counting the birds in their garden or local green space. I have a little garden, and community green space, where I live. So on Sunday morning, I made myself a cup of tea and spent an hour watching for birds from the kitchen window. 

Taking part is really simple –  I like to do my watch using the traditional method of pen and paper, and then I log into the website to record my sightings!

At first I thought I wouldn’t see much, because I don’t generally see many small birds around this area and we don’t have any bird feeders. But, I was happily surprised after an hour of watching at what I saw. Here are my results:

  • 2 Woodpigeons
  • 5 Herring gulls
  • 2 Blue tits
  • 2 Magpies
  • 1 Blackbird
  • 2 Carrion crows

Sometimes I get a bit disheartened doing the Big Garden Birdwatch, because I can see all these other people on social media getting looooads of birds, and some really rare ones, while I generally (honestly) only get one pigeon! But, what you have to remember, is this is all really important scientific information. So telling the RSPB that you’ve seen one pigeon, or no birds at all, is just as important as telling them if you’ve seen lots. 

The scientists want to build a picture of how our bird populations are doing, and they can only do that if we tell them good quality and reliable information.

I really enjoyed my hour of birdwatching; I saw birds gliding in the wind, hopping along the grass, cawing at eachother, perching in the trees for warmth, and coming down to find some food. I got to watch all of these behaviours as a by product of spending the time searching and counting. I also enjoyed seeing my results and how they compared with everyone else’s – it’s nice to know you have contributed to a real bit of science!

Find out more about the Big Garden Birdwatch and how you can join in next time on the RSPB website. 

Curlews in the City

The curlew is the largest wading bird found in Europe. With a size of 50-60cm in length, and a distinctive long, downwards curving beak, it is a unique and lovely sight for any birder. In the UK it has a red status, according to the Birds of Conservation Concern 4, because of (amongst other reasons) severe declines in its population and range. Usually, I see curlews at estuaries and mudflats, feeding on the shellfish. Given all of this – imagine my surprise when I saw a group of at least 100 curlews, feeding on a school playing field in the middle of Edinburgh!

Such was my surprise, that even though I was walking down a main street, on the way to a park, I stopped to get my camera out and started to take photos of the curlews. In order to do this, I had to raise the camera over a wall – so anyone driving by won’t have been able to see the birds. I will have just looked like a geek taking photos of buildings and playing fields. But, (and this is key to successful urban birding), I didn’t care!

I watched as the birds ambled around the field, probing their long beaks into the mud for worms. That is why they were here – it makes sense I guess, if they can get a tasty worm buffet on this empty field, then why not?

I continued my walk to the park (which was very nice, though a little blustery – I even saw some tufted ducks on the pond) and on the way back I had another look for the curlews. They were still there, but had moved further along the road, to the adjacent playing field – must have eaten all easily available worms in the first one. 

I took a couple more photos, and as I did so another couple of people came over to look over the wall. As I packed my camera away, they asked me about the birds and we had a lovely little chat. One of the questions they asked was: “Are these birds from Scandinavia”. I must confess I didn’t know – we get curlews living here all year round, but I wasn’t sure if more joined from the Scandinavian countries during the winter. When I got home, I looked it up – the answer is: possibly. The UK’s breeding population of curlews move to coastal areas during the winter (so they could be UK birds). Some curlews from colder places like Scandinavia, migrate to the UK for the winter – so they might very well have been Scandinavian!

The UK’s population of curlews is of international importance, and is one of the UK’s priority species for conservation. To find out more about this bird, the threats it faces, and the conservation work being done to protect it, head to the RSPB and WWT websites. 

 

A Christmas Catch Up

One of my favourite things about this time of year is meeting up with friends. As some of you know, I am a Shorewatch volunteer for WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation). This means in my free time, I go to sites along the coast of Scotland and do short scientific watches for whales and dolphins. All the data I collect goes into a big database, which can be used to help with the conservation of these species. Last weekend it was the Shorewatch Christmas Social – so I packed a bag, hopped in the car, and headed up north. 

I was staying with a friend on the Moray coast, so there was lots to do and see over the weekend. In the evenings we kept an eye out for the aurora (Northern Lights) but sadly it didn’t appear – it was quite cloudy so star watching was also out of the question! On the Saturday, we planned to go to join some other Shorewatchers to look out for whales and dolphins. However, we checked the weather and it said it was going to be really windy – this not only makes it very cold for us watchers, but also makes it very hard to spot dolphins. So I have to say….we gave in, and went birdwatching instead. Later on, we caught up with the other watchers, and they had all had a lovely time, watching the waves and eating mince pies. Just goes to show you can never quite predict the weather!

As I say, we went birdwatching and I was really happy to see two species that visit in the winter: redwings and fieldfares. These birds come from colder countries, like Norway, Russia and Iceland, where they spend the summer. I haven’t seen either of these species for years, so it was great to get a glimpse of them through the binoculars. The best thing was, we didn’t even have to get out of the car to see them (although we did have to stop watching sooner than expected, as we had to get out of the way of other drivers!).

Male wigeon © Catherine Leatherland

On the Sunday, we decided to have another go at birdwatching before I needed to travel back home. I like ducks and other water birds, so we headed down to the local estuary. Here we could again watch from the car (parked, with the engine off). This works really well; not only does it keep you warm, but it prevents you from disturbing the wildlife you’re trying to watch. We saw my favourite duck species: wigeon. I watched them through my binoculars, admiring the male’s cute toffee stripe and blue bill, and listening to their equally cute whistles. We also saw teal, black headed gulls, crows and even a little grebe. One of the black headed gulls came really close to the car (probably hoping for some scraps) so we were able to get nice photos of it.

Black headed gull – winter © Catherine Leatherland

We then headed to a local nature reserve – RSPB Loch Spynie. This has a little wooden hide, where you can sit quietly and watch the loch. We see lots more gulls, including a glaucous gull (helpfully pointed out to us by another birdwatcher). Also on the loch were: mute swans, whooper swans, goldeneye, cormorants, and mallards. The other side of the hide looks onto some birdfeeders, and as we checked them a great spotted woodpecker happened to be digging in to the peanuts! I don’t often see woodpeckers, so I was delighted to watch this beautiful little bird, and take a couple of photos. 

Great spotted woodpecker © Catherine Leatherland

All in all we had a brilliant weekend of birding, and socialising with our fellow whale and dolphin watchers. As I travelled back home, I thought about how much I had been outside and how little I had been inside or on my phone; I hadn’t even missed it. The perfect way to have a Christmas catch up – with friends, and my favourite wildlife.

Find out more about WDC and Shorewatch on their website here. 

 

Catching up with the cygnets

Today I took a stroll along to my local park. I go here often when I just want to go on a short walk. It isn’t thriving with wildlife, as it is too well managed – it is used by people for recreation, rather than wildlife spotting. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t wildlife there – you just need to look and listen for it!

The park has a big pond in it, which is great for water birds. Over the spring I saw that the coots, moorhens and mute swans all successfully had nests on this pond. There are also mallard ducks, and black headed gulls on the water. Occasionally I see a different species – for example I saw a female merganser there once (another type of duck). 

As I have been returning to the same park for a year now, I can see the changes in the young coots, moorhens and swans each time I go. My favourite are the swans – so I’ll focus on them here. This year the female was on the nest in May, and I first saw the cygnets on a visit to the park in June. They looked very small, grey, and fluffy; in my eyes the very definition of “cute”.

I would guess that they were already a few weeks old by this point, as the cygnets I saw in 2017 were even smaller and younger than this. Cygnets stay with their parents for around 6 months and during this time learn what they need to learn to survive as an adult swan (such as how to fly!). Their appearance gradually changes – the swans become a mottled brown rather than grey. 

At around 6 months (winter), the cygnets will join a flock, and their parents will return to the breeding territory without them. If the cygnets are a bit reluctant to go, the parents might resort to chasing them away! By the end of their first year the cygnets will be fully white, and they will become mature adult swans when they are 3-4 years old. At this point, they will have found a mate (and yes they do mate for life) and will be ready to have a family of their own. 

Here is what the lovely cygnets, who were born in June, look like now. It is currently November, and it saddens me to think that it won’t be long before I take a stroll to my local park and they will have literally flown the nest!