BTO - British Trust for Ornithology - Birds and people

Staff voices

Wetlands are some of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, from lakes, rivers and peatlands to estuaries, mangroves and saltpans. They have huge social, cultural and economic significance for people everywhere. Not all of us rely directly on wetlands for our livelihoods, food and water, but we still benefit indirectly from wetland’s amazing capacity to mitigate floods, sequester carbon and protect us from storm surges.

In the UK, wetlands support some of our most threatened bird species, like Bewick’s Swan, Lapwing and Yellow Wagtail. But in today’s blog, we wanted to reflect on the value of wetlands for our own well-being – specifically, our mental health and our feeling of being ‘connected’ to nature.

With so many stories about the climate and biodiversity crises, immersing ourselves in nature gives us a sense of optimism and hope, and helps us to continue our work to secure the future of birds in the UK.

With so many stories about the climate and biodiversity crises, immersing ourselves in nature gives us a sense of optimism and hope.

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Katharine Bowgen – Research Ecologist, BTO Cymru

I only really came to understand what ‘proper’ wetlands were a few years after I started my career in ornithology. It happened when I was still a lowly field assistant, wandering through these amazing environments – where the water and land meet and overlap into each other, providing habitats for all sorts of species.

Being a wader ecologist now, I fully appreciate how important these areas are and what they can bring to the ecosystems around my own study species, like Curlew. But for me personally, there is something quite comforting and enveloping about being in the middle of a saltmarsh in the early morning, lying down low to the ground (well waterproofed up!), listening to the stunning array of sounds and species moving around me.

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My mental health gets a little boost at times like these, knowing that the natural world is around and teeming with life. It is easy to find yourself feeling low from the constant worries about what is happening to our world, so it is important to appreciate moments like these to remind yourself of what ‘nature’ is.

The concept of ‘forest bathing’ to improve your well-being is one that I feel can be moved to any landscape that holds importance for you and is full of wildlife. I try and keep little mental images for when I need them the most – when I’m feeling stressed or down, or in need of some peace.

This is the image I’m immersing myself in today: “crouching on the edge of a mudflat, between the sea and the saltmarsh as hundreds of small waders fly and swoop overhead, looking for a good spot to settle ... the sound of their wings is almost as loud as their piping calls, and with the fresh air buffeting both them and me, I feel alive. ”

Crouching on the edge of a mudflat, between the sea and the saltmarsh ... with the fresh air buffeting me, I feel alive. Katharine Bowgen – Research Ecologist, BTO Cymru

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Steve Willis – Development and Engagement Coordinator, BTO Scotland

As a keen canoeist, I’m lucky to have numerous lochs and rivers on my doorstep here in Perthshire. I try and get out as often as I reasonably can, year-round.

A canoe is a fantastic means to explore watery landscapes. You can glide through shallows, bounce your way down easy rapids (and hopefully not take on too much water!) and silently make your way along wooded waterways, always looking and listening for some wildlife along the way.

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I’ve shared the water with the occasional Otter, noisy and conspicuous birds like Dipper and Grey Heron. The real prize is the Kingfisher, most often given away by its loud, sharp call.

In a growing number of catchments that I frequent, there are signs of a new animal in the area – the Beaver! Finding their feeding signs is easy: chewed stumps and clean, neatly stripped branches often line the banks, and in places, you can pass by a sizeable lodge where the Beavers live. These wetland architects seem likely to bring numerous benefits to our wetland invertebrates and birds.

Canoes are very human-friendly too. With an experienced person in the back, you can introduce people young and old to the wonders of wetlands. Some of my most favoured memories are of being out on a river in summer with friends and their kids. Everyone is in and out of different boats, swimming, and generally larking about.

We all know about the biodiversity benefits of wetlands, and that they can help reduce flooding, that they can store carbon and clean water, but they’re good for our souls as well. So if you’ve got a wetland near you, go and sit by it. Take in the sights and the sounds and the smells and simply enjoy it.

We know about the biodiversity benefits of wetlands, and that they can help reduce flooding, store carbon and clean water, but they’re good for our souls as well. Steve Willis – Development and Engagement Coordinator, BTO Scotland

Our research on wetlands and wetland birds

From bird monitoring projects to peer-reviewed scientific publications and case studies, browse our work on wetlands and the birds that live in these special habitats.

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Learn more about World Wetlands Day

World Wetlands Day is a United Nations International Day, organised by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Secretariat. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands across the globe.

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February 2024

World Wetlands Day is celebrated each year on 2 February, to raise awareness about wetland habitats across the globe. This year, World Wetlands Day focuses on ‘Wetlands and Human Well-being’, highlighting how interconnected wetlands and human life are.

02 Feb 2024 no

BTO’s Youth Engagement: nothing about us, without us

WEBSITEEDITOR — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 11:27:44 +0000

Former BTO Youth Representative Keir writes about what BTO Youth has meant to him. No

Keir Chauhan Independent researcher Keir Chauhan is an independent researcher currently studying History at UCL. A former BTO Youth Rep, he is passionate about conservation, birds, and getting people out in nature.

How to take part in WinGS

The difference we make

Youth voices

My BTO journey has been so intricately linked to my personal growth that it feels remiss to mention it merely through descriptions of what I did and what I achieved. I know my experience is not unique. The connections made between both volunteers and young people who engage with BTO Youth are substantial in shaping people’s lives. It was one of the many reasons why I loved volunteering with BTO Youth.

So, when I agreed to write this blog, the dilemma remained about how to sum up BTO Youth. I decided I would spotlight what I loved about it.

Teamwork and collaboration

As a community, BTO Youth empowers everyone through a shared love of birds. It is built on teamwork and mutual respect. The principle of “nothing about us, without us” could not be more clearly demonstrated than in my time at BTO.

BTO Youth gave me the chance to work collaboratively with peers to implement and deliver the youth engagement strategies of the organisation — in the process, changing me as much as it changed the lives of the wonderful young people who engage with the organisation every day.

Empowering everyone

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BTO’s journey to inclusivity is a lifetime mission, and inclusivity will continue to be a challenge to reckon with across conservation and environmental science organisations. Yet BTO Youth has made significant strides to increase inclusivity and accessibility of youth engagement for all young people.

What this means in practice is reducing the barriers facing young people getting interested in birding — running bird ID training courses, demystifying the sector in Nature Natter talks, and running the Equipment Donation Scheme.

Celebrating unique connections to birds

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On a personal level, the confidence BTO Youth has provided me and others has been invaluable. I want to emphasise confidence because, by allowing people the space to grow and develop their skills, BTO Youth helps both volunteers and young people celebrate their unique connections to birds. People’s relationships with nature have similarities through shared cultures, but also some profound differences.

Individual encounters between people and birds are laced with meaning. Whether it was the common bird that got you interested in birding, or finally seeing a rare bird of almost mythical proportions, these encounters matter. By providing opportunities for young people to learn more about birds both online and in person, greater connections between people and birds can be developed.

Sharing nature’s value for mental and physical health

On a fundamental level, if more young people are connected to nature, more young people can understand its value for both mental and physical health. For me, the effects have been profound, and birding has become an important source for finding mindfulness.

As BTO moves on in 2024, I hope that it will continue to develop and engage more young people in innovative and unusual ways. But I thought I would end this short blog by highlighting what attracted me to BTO Youth in the first place. This was to engage more young people in the natural world so they too could see the benefits of nature for their mental and physical health.

Waxwings, by Edmund Fellowes / BTO

What I wish

to be a part of the

birdwatchers after sunrise,

Looking for birds today,

Seeking the unknown,

A hidden world,

Here I stand and it is freezing.

Yet, watching lapwings in the snow,

Keeps my heart soaring.

Never let go of that …

Exhilaration.

Oh, birdwatchers before sunset,

Looking out for a surprise

In the hope of something feathery feeding

Nobody told these birds to come here,

Yet the birds keep coming.

Even as the day draws near.

The simplicity of birding provides the vision.

To project on bird’s greater glories

Deeper meanings

Feeding the rational into a place of dreaming for the irrational

Birds cut the cage that keeps my soul.

Trapped and out of reach.

Helps me breathe and helps me speak.

To live life in the presence of birds

Oh, birdwatchers are up late at night.

Listening out for the birds

Migrating in starlight

Never expected to see birds I have seen.

In my local park, but now I know.

Even cities are full of life.

Makes me, me.

Oh, birdwatchers up at sunrise.

Who will be the first up and the first to rise?

For the waxwings arrived last night.

Get involved in BTO Youth

Visit the BTO Youth hub to explore news, events and blogs as well as updates from the Youth Advisory Panel and our Youth Representatives.

BTO Youth Hub

1 January 2024

How do I even begin to sum up what BTO Youth has meant for me? This was the question I immediately asked myself when I promised I would write this blog for BTO Youth Engagement Manager Faye Vogely.

19 Jan 2024

BTO Youth

Sharing our gull tracking expertise in a study of Dublin’s ‘noisy neighbours’

WEBSITEEDITOR — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 10:40:29 +0000

PhD student Jon Willans takes us through his fascination with gulls and his fieldwork, which was supported by our scientists. No

Jon Willans PhD student at University College Dublin

Jon has been studying and working with birds for the past 16 years in his native Canada, as well as in Ireland, the USA, Costa Rica, Uzbekistan and the UK.

These are just some of the comments I have heard after people learn that I am a PhD student studying the movement ecology of urban gulls. It turns out that, apparently, not everyone likes gulls or finds them as interesting as I do.

Here in Dublin, like in many coastal cities around Ireland and the UK, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of nesting gulls over the past 30 years. Unfortunately for the gulls, they haven’t been universally welcomed with open arms.

Some human residents feel that the addition of gulls to urban areas should be looked at as a cause for concern and outrage, rather than celebrated as a boost to gull populations — despite drastic declines in gull numbers that have led to some species being listed as of significant conservation concern in Ireland. And human–gull conflict is a growing issue in some cities, where officials are increasingly being pressured into action to control bird numbers by means such as egg oiling, nest removal and even culling.

But, as urban-nesting gulls are a relatively new phenomenon, little is known about how these birds are using these urban environments. Do urban-nesting birds even use the sea? Do they leave the city at all? How does their movement differ from ‘natural’ coastal nesting gulls? Do these coastal-nesting birds generally use the marine habitat for foraging, or do they also spend large amounts of time in the city to find food? The answers to these questions are extremely important when it comes to making any decisions about gull population management.

Urban nesting gulls are a relatively new phenomenon, so little is known about how these birds are using their environment.

An introduction to our research

It was these questions which brought our team, consisting of researchers from University College Dublin (UCD), BirdWatch Ireland, the Irish Midlands Ringing Group and the British Trust for Ornithology, to Ireland at the end of May, to try and shed some light on the movement of locally breeding Herring Gulls.

Specifically, in this study, we wanted to investigate whether there is a difference in the movement ecology — how birds navigate through habitats, and where they go — between birds nesting in urban spaces and on islands around the coast. To determine this, we needed to find both an inland colony and a coastal colony of nesting gulls, and attach GPS units to individual birds. We could then analyse data from birds in the two colony locations to see if or how these birds differ in their use of Dublin’s urban landscape.

Tracking urban gulls ...

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The UCD campus hosts several roof-nesting groups of gulls.

The first stop for the team was the UCD campus in south Dublin — our urban study site — where a small but increasing community of Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls can be found nesting on many of the rooftops around the university. While this type of environment is not traditionally associated with ideal habitat for nesting gulls, when you look closer you notice that the campus has everything that the gulls might require.

The tall buildings act as cliffs, where gulls can make their nests with an unobstructed view of their environment, safe from most predators. The many ponds and sports fields on and around the campus provide an ample amount of water and natural feeding opportunities.

A plentiful supply of food is also provided by the thousands of students and staff that make the daily trip onto the campus. On any given day, particularly when the sun is shining, hundreds of people can be found sitting outside eating. Gulls are often fed by these people, but they are also known to snatch food from unsuspecting diners when their hints for a snack are not being met accordingly. The gulls also feast on the mess that is left behind after people have moved on, which sometimes includes pulling rubbish from bins in search of a quick meal. Indeed, some may say this is an urban sanctuary for these birds.

The goal of our team was to catch some of the local birds and attach lightweight GPS units to them, which would give us some information about how these birds are using their environments.

The goal of our team was to catch some of the local birds and attach lightweight GPS units to them, which would give us some information about how these birds are using their urban environments. Over the next two days, working on four different rooftops and spending a considerable amount of time waiting for the unsuspecting birds to walk into the carefully placed, specialist traps, we managed to catch six breeding Herring Gulls.

Once we had taken the birds safely out of the traps, the team went into action. The birds were weighed, and we collected morphometric data like wing, bill and head length. Then we attached uniquely coded rings to their legs and fitted them with their solar-powered GPS units. These units gather and transmit data about the birds’ location and movement speed, which we can use to identify the birds’ behaviours — such as foraging, feeding or resting — as the birds navigate around the landscape.

With six tags deployed and each one actively collecting data, stage one of this mission was complete. We had tagged our urban birds.

... and coastal gulls

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Jon conducting fieldwork on Dalkey Island, the coastal study site.

Stage two involved moving operations to Dalkey Island, some 10 km to the south-east of UCD as the gull flies.

Although the island is only separated from the mainland by approximately 350 m, after getting off the ferry it felt like stepping into another world. From the herd of Old Irish goats that stopped their grazing to observe us as we arrived on their island, to the sound of the breeding gulls and the buzzing Arctic Terns that nest there, it couldn't have been further removed from the university campus.

Dalkey Island is a more traditional place to find breeding gulls: a rocky coastal area with some scrubby turf and thrift, and plenty of nooks and ledges to make a scrape-like nest. The island has large nesting colonies of Herring, Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and when we visited, pairs were scattered all across the island’s east side. Segregated zones marked the presence of the different species: while the massive and intimidating Great Black-backs watched from up high on the grassy slopes, the Herring Gulls were lower down and mainly confined to the rocky areas near the shore and the Lesser Black-backs were scattered at the north end of the colony.

We set more traps and over the next two days, seven more Herring Gulls were caught and selected to collect data for us, fitted with GPS units and sent on their way. Now we had our coastal nesting birds as well. Job done! Well, almost ...

What will we learn about Dublin’s ‘noisy neighbours’?

Early data returns from the GPS units show that there may well be differences in the way these groups of birds behave and use the urban landscape.

Over the next two years, all the GPS tags that the team has worked so hard, and suffered so many bitten fingers, to deploy will be transmitting data back to us and revealing just exactly how the gulls spend their time as they move around this country and perhaps even further afield.

The next step in the research involves analysing all this information. Early data returns from the GPS units show that there may well be differences in the way the urban- and coastal-nesting birds behave and use the urban landscape. As expected, both groups of birds spend a great deal of time inland, visiting the downtown core and the suburbs around the city. However, one initial difference appears to be the birds’ use of the sea: coastal nesting birds make frequent feeding trips out to sea, while the urban nesting birds seldom use this resource and appear to be full-time city dwellers.

Map showing tracks of 13 GPS-tagged Herring Gulls from UCD Campus (yellow square) and Dalkey Island (pink square) between 25–30 May 2023.

Is the sea in ‘seagull’ even applicable to all of these birds? As the data they have unknowingly collected are analysed, all will be revealed — and I for one cannot wait.

The tags deployed over this week of fieldwork will continue to record the movements of these gulls until the specially-designed harnesses break apart and relieve the birds of their GPS units.

What secrets will these data reveal? Is the sea in ‘seagull’ even applicable to all of these birds? These secrets will remain with our gulls for the meantime, but soon, as these birds move around on their daily adventures and the data they have unknowingly collected are analysed, all will be revealed — and I for one cannot wait.

Help us monitor gulls this winter

If you are confident identifying the six main species of gull found in the UK in winter — Herring, Lesser Black-backed, Great Black-backed, Black-headed, Common and Mediterranean — you could join our Winter Gull Survey.

Volunteers will only need to make a small number of visits to gull roosts between 2023 and 2025, but their contributions will help us fill in vital gaps in our understanding of these Amber- and Red-listed species.

PhD student Jon Willans takes us through his fascination with gulls and his fieldwork, which was supported by our scientists.

1 December 2023

“Why would you want to study seagulls?”
“Those birds are pests — they don’t even belong in cities.”
“They are so noisy!”

15 Dec 2023

Ireland

BirdTrack migration blog (27 October–2 November)

SCMAYSON — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 09:12:56 +0000

Storm Babet battered much of the country at the end of last week, bringing high winds, torrential rain and flooding to many areas. These same high winds did produce a good number of seabirds along the eastern coasts, though, especially in Scotland and northern England. No

BirdTrack Organiser

Scott’s role includes the day-to-day running of BirdTrack: updating the application, assisting county recorders by checking records and corresponding with observers.

BirdTrack

Leach’s Petrel, a small thrush-sized seabird that spends almost its entire life out over the open ocean, was particularly well-reported. Several locations recorded multiple birds, with Fife and Lothian seeing the bulk of the higher counts; reports from around Edinburgh were particularly notable, with 70 birds seen past South Queensferry and 34 off Musselburgh.

Good numbers of Little Gulls were seen along the east coast, often in small mixed-age flocks, with their dark underwing helping their identification. The highest counts for this species in the last week included 1,600 reported past Sheringham, Norfolk on 21 October.

The Shag is a close relative of the more familiar Cormorant but is found almost exclusively along rocky coastlines, with far fewer inland, riverine records. During the last week, several places along the east coast have seen large numbers of Shags moving south and unusually some of these have turned up inland, in very odd places – inside buildings, swimming down rivers, and even sitting on farm machinery at the edge of fields. Storms such as Babet can displace migrating birds quite significantly; those exhausted by the weather often hunker down in unusual spots to recover before moving on.

Storms such as Babet can displace migrating birds quite significantly; those exhausted by the weather often hunker down in unusual spots to recover before moving on.

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Storm Babet pushed several Grey Phalaropes close to shore as birds sought shelter from the high winds.

A surge in Grey Phalarope reports also followed Storm Babet as migrating birds were pushed from the open ocean towards the coast. A count of 12 of these lovely birds at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland, must have made for a fantastic sight.

Grey Phalaropes breed across the Arctic and, unusually for a wader species, spend the winter in large gatherings at sea, off the coasts of western Africa, South America, and the southern United States. Ocean upwellings in these tropical and subtropical regions bring food to the surface of the sea, ideal conditions for the phalaropes’ feeding strategy: these dainty waders swim rapidly in tight circles, generating a whirlpool and plucking small invertebrates caught up by this movement from the edge of the vortex.

Wildfowl continued to arrive, with the northerly winds during the first part of last weekend providing ideal conditions for their movements. Flocks of Pink-footed, European White-fronted, Dark-bellied Brent and Barnacle Geese were reported up and down the east coast as birds heading south from northern Europe arrived. Goldeneye, Scaup, and Long-tailed Duck numbers typically build from the end of October and through into November, and during the last week sightings for all three species increased; again, the majority of birds were reported along the east coast. Long-tailed Ducks in particular have a preference for coastal waters, but, like Goldeneye and Scaup, can also be found on freshwater lakes.

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Coal Tits of the subspecies Periparus ater ater have a bluish tone to the mantle and a slight crest.

Back in early October, huge numbers of Coal Tits were recorded moving south across northern and western Europe. Among the most astonishing records was a report of 69,000 individuals passing through Hanko Bird Observatory in southern Finland on 1 October. This ‘irruption’ involves Coal Tits of the Continental subspecies Periparus ater ater; they have a bluish-grey mantle and a very slight crest compared to birds of the British and Irish subspecies P. ater britannicus.

The irruption has recently moved westward, bringing more of these delightful birds to our shores. Coal Tits are a rare find in Shetland, but during the past week over 100 have been recorded from the archipelago; this mass arrival has been a highlight of the autumn for many resident birders.

Continental Coal Tits aren’t the only birds to have arrived from further east: there have also been scattered records of ‘Northern’ Treecreepers (the Certhia familiaris familiaris subspecies) and ‘Northern’ Bullfinches (the Pyrrhula pyrrhula pyrrhula subspecies), mainly across northern parts of the UK. Indeed, a Northern Bullfinch was found in the kitchen of a Shetland house during the week!

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The BirdTrack reporting rate for Redwing (green), Fieldfare (purple) and Ring Ouzel (red), based on historical data from 1927–2022. Changes in the reporting rate throughout the year reflect the seasonal presence of these species in Britain and Ireland and their different autumnal arrival times.

The calmer weather in the wake of Storm Babet also allowed a good mix of other passerines to arrive from further east, or continue pushing south across the country. At some migration hotspots, it was difficult to know where to look with a steady stream of many different species passing overhead.

Finch species including Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Lesser Repoll, Siskin and Brambling all saw an increase in reports. Other species on the move were Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Reed Bunting, and Pied Wagtail. As is typical for this time of year, there was an increase in reports of thrush species: Blackbird, Redwing, Fieldfare, Ring Ouzel, and Mistle Thrush arrived in ever-growing numbers from Fennoscandia. Reports of both Robin and Dunnock also increased; both are species we don’t typically think of as migrants, but Continental birds do arrive here each autumn to escape the coldest of the European winters.

The high-pitched call of the Goldcrest has been a common sound in the last week too, with hundreds of these birds arriving from across the North Sea, taking advantage of the same easterly winds that brought the flocks of thrushes. These remarkable little sprites will feed almost anywhere when they arrive, with birds seen foraging in small patches of weeds and seemingly just as at home as when they are flitting through tall pine trees.

Top spots on the rarities list have to go to the Western Olivaceous Warbler – the first British record – and a Red-headed Bunting, which gave those tasked with confirming its identity quite a challenge.

As well as the more usual species, birdwatchers were delighted to see the past week produce a couple of standout rarities. Top of the list has to go to the Western Olivaceous Warbler that was found in Shetland, stayed around for a couple of days, and represents the first British record of this species. Given that this species breeds as near as southern Spain, it is surprising that it hasn’t occurred in the UK before.

A Red-headed Bunting – possibly only the second record for Britain – was spotted at Flamborough, causing some head-scratching from those who were tasked with confirming its identity. This was a challenge given how similar the species is to the closely related Black-headed Bunting, and the still-evolving criteria used to separate the two.

Looking ahead

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Large numbers of Shags have been seen moving south recently, with some turning up in unlikely locations; keep an eye out for these reptilian birds on lakes and reservoirs.

The end of October is often considered to coincide with the end of the autumn migration period, the last roll of the dice to find a rare vagrant. In recent years, though, this window of opportunity has been pushed further into November – so there are still a few weeks remaining for you to see a range of species on the move, before winter establishes itself and birds become more sedentary.

Given the movement of birds seen last week, now would be a good time to look for Shags, especially if you live near a reservoir or large body of fresh water. Shags are slightly smaller than Cormorants and have a thinner neck and a slimmer bill that they tend to hold slightly raised, especially when swimming. Feeding birds leap out of the water to dive for fish, whereas Cormorants do this less often, preferring to just slink below the surface. You can learn more about how to separate these species in our Cormorant and Shag Bird ID video.

The weather for the coming weekend looks to be split across the country, with mixed conditions for migration. A low-pressure system will bring south-westerly winds for southern and western regions, and easterly and north-easterly winds for much of northern England and Scotland, all accompanied by frequent spells of rain.

Clearer skies, shorter days, and colder temperatures in north-western Europe will continue to signal to birds that it’s time to head south for winter – expect to see more Redwings and Fieldfares as well as finches like Bramblings, and look out for unusual passerines like Siberian Chiffchaffs.

Scotland and northern England will likely receive the majority of migrant birds from north-western Europe as clearer skies, shorter days, and colder temperatures in that region continue to signal to birds that it’s time to head south for winter. Expect another arrival of Redwings and Fieldfares, as well as more Goldcrests, and finches such as Bramblings.

Any Chiffchaff you see at this time of year is worth scrutinising: it could be a Siberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis. This subspecies of the Chiffchaff breeds, as its name suggests, across the Siberian taiga, and is paler in appearance than our ‘usual’ Chiffchaff, P. collybita. Key identification features include its plumage, which is a buff colour over much of the body, the legs and bill, which are strikingly dark, and the supercilium (stripe over the eye), which lacks any yellowish tones. The Siberian Chiffchaff’s call is a short, weak “peep” that is squeakier in tone than a Chiffchaff’s more fluting, ascending “swiit”.

Common Chiffchaff call

Siberian Chiffchaff call

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Starlings from all across north-eastern Europe spend the winter in Britain and Ireland. Flocks can often be seen coming in off the sea at this time of the year.

Each winter, our resident population of Starlings is joined by thousands of birds that fly across the North Sea from Continental Europe. Flocks of Starlings coming in low over the sea are a familiar sight for many seawatchers, but can be a bit of a surprise when first witnessed.

The main breeding grounds of the Starlings that migrate to Britain and Ireland lie approximately east-north-east, with birds coming from Norway, the Low Countries, north Germany, north Poland, and northern Russia. Many of these Continental birds will stay here until March or April before they complete their annual migration cycle and head westward.

Look out for Starling murmurations in the coming weeks – these large, swirling flocks are indubitably a spectacle of nature in winter, and can in fact contain birds from all across northern Europe!

Any calmer spells of weather during the next week should see the rest of passerine migration continue, with finches and thrushes again making up the bulk of the birds on the move. You don’t need to go far to witness this, as birds will be mobile across a wide front. It’s also worth listening out for the calls of birds overhead, as many announce their presence this way.

Sitting in the garden with a cup of tea could result in watching a nice variety of species flying over; why not see how many you can record in 20 minutes?

Send us your records with BirdTrack

Help us track the departures and arrivals of migrating birds by submitting your sightings to BirdTrack.

It’s quick and easy, and signing up to BirdTrack also allows you to explore trends, reports and recent records in your area.

2 October 2023

Coal Tit, by Liz Cutting / BTO

27 Oct 2023

BirdTrack migration blog (20–26 October)

SCMAYSON — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:14:27 +0000

With a chill to the morning air, bushes laden with fruit, and the rich colours of autumn leaves, October is a feast for the senses – and as the autumnal equinox recedes, migration takes on a distinctly wintery feel. Yes

BirdTrack Organiser

Scott’s role includes the day-to-day running of BirdTrack: updating the application, assisting county recorders by checking records and corresponding with observers.

BirdTrack

Staff voices

The last of the summer migrants have yet to depart, but their numbers are diminishing by the week as they move south. Swallows and House Martins are still being recorded, but it won’t be long before most have flown from our shores (although in 2022, up to 12 Swallows were recorded through the winter months in southerly regions of the UK).

Much to the delight of birders on the east coast, a spell of stronger easterly winds during the middle of the past week saw a variety of passage seabirds reported: Leach’s Petrels, Sabine’s Gulls, Sooty Shearwaters, Little Gulls and several skua species were seen from a number of watchpoints.

Winter migrants have started arriving in large numbers, escaping the colder temperatures further north and east. As with summer migrants arriving in the spring, certain species typically arrive earlier than others.

Teal and Wigeon numbers began to increase in September and earlier in October, and in recent weeks they have been joined by Pink-footed Geese from Iceland and eastern Greenland, Light-bellied Brent Geese from the Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Svalbard, and Dark-bellied Brent Geese from Siberia.

Tufted Duck numbers have been increasing as resident birds (those that spend all year in the UK) are joined by those from breeding grounds as far away as Iceland and arctic Russia. These flocks are always worth checking as they may contain other diving duck species such as Scaup, Goldeneye, or even Ring-necked Duck from North and Central America. Over a dozen of these rare but regular vagrants have been spotted in both Britain and Ireland in recent weeks, with some ‘regulars’ returning to their preferred wintering grounds which they visit every year.

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The BirdTrack reporting rate for Whooper Swan shows that arrivals this year are earlier than expected.

Reports of Whooper Swans have been greater than expected for this time of year. Birds may have taken advantage of the southerly tailwinds in the last week; these are favourable for this species’ migration, during which birds fly virtually non-stop from their Icelandic breeding grounds to Britain and Ireland. The tailwind greatly reduces the energy required to make this journey.

The Whooper Swan arrives roughly a month before its smaller ‘wild swan’ cousin, the Bewick’s Swan, which breeds further east in arctic Russia.

Redwings arrived in huge numbers earlier this month, with sightings of over 30,000 individuals in a single day at some migration hot spots on the east coast. More recently, the first pulse of Fieldfares also began to arrive; this species tends to arrive three to four weeks after the main arrival of Redwings. The Fieldfares’ chacking “blackjack” call could be heard as small groups arrived off the North Sea, having made the crossing from Fennoscandia.

Although Mistle Thrush might not spring to mind as a migratory species, breeding populations across much of north-eastern Europe also desert these freezing regions in winter and head south and west to warmer climes. Birds from these populations arrive in the UK during September and October in small groups of up to 10 birds, unlike the vast flocks of Redwing and Fieldfare that reach our shores.

Identifying winter thrushes: Redwing and Fieldfare

Redwing and Fieldfare may look similar at first glance, but with practice, it’s easy to tell them apart by appearance and by call.

The calmer, brighter days over the last week also resulted in widespread reports of Siskin, Chaffinch, redpolls (both Lesser and Common), and Goldfinches heading south in mixed flocks, some of which contained the occasional Hawfinch and Brambling.

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Will 2023/24 be a ‘Waxwing winter’? We'll have to wait and see.

For many, a flush of Waxwing sightings was enough to raise the question of whether we are in for a ‘Waxwing winter’ – a term used by birdwatchers to describe a year in which a particularly large arrival or ‘irruption’ of Waxwings reaches our shores. This magnificent punk rocker of the bird world is a firm favourite amongst birdwatchers, not only because of its beautiful plumage but also because it has a habit of turning up in residential areas where the relatively confiding birds feast on the berries of ornamental trees and shrubs.

Waxwings – the magnificent punk rockers of the bird world – are a firm favourite amongst birdwatchers, with beautiful plumage and a confiding habit.

The majority of recent sightings have come from Shetland, Orkney, the Outer Hebrides and mainland northern Scotland, but a few birds have made it as far west as Galway and as far south as North Norfolk. While reports aren’t above the historical average, it is encouraging to see birds arriving this early in the autumn.

A similar pattern occurred during the last big ‘irruption year’ in 2012; let us hope more arrive in the coming weeks. You can watch the live reports of Waxwing movements on EuroBirdPortal, and compare them to previous years. The movements of Waxwing in 2012 are particularly impressive.

October has always had the reputation of producing its fair share of rare and mega-rare species, and so far, the month has not disappointed. A Short-toed Treecreeper, a Continental relative of our more familiar Treecreeper, was seen in Kent, and an Upland Sandpiper made it all the way across the Atlantic to pitch in County Cork.

The second American Yellow Warbler of the year for Shetland graced gardens around Hoswick, while a Black-and-white Warbler entertained slightly smaller but no less appreciative crowds in Galway. This is the second record this year for Ireland, and incredibly, up to eight have been seen this autumn in Britain and Ireland. This makes 2023 the single best year for this species; the previous highest annual total was of four birds, in 1996.

Looking ahead

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Look out for ‘autumn sprites’ in the coming week: Goldcrests (pictured), Firecrests, Yellow-browed Warbler and Pallas’s Warbler.

Easterly winds look set to extend into the weekend as a band of low-pressure moves across the southern half of the country towards the North Sea. Heavy showers and strong winds could ground migrant birds arriving from Fennoscandia along our eastern coasts as birds seek out cover from the weather. Seawatching on the North Sea should be productive if you can find some shelter from the weather; Pomarine Skua, Leach’s Petrel , Grey Phalarope, Sooty Shearwater, and Sabine’s Gull are all worth looking out for.

As the low pressure pulls away on Sunday, finer weather should follow. This will be a good time to check bushes for any passerine migrants that may have made landfall during the storm conditions.

Goldcrests, although small, are surprisingly tough: despite weighing only around 5 grams – the same as a 20 pence coin – thousands of these feisty birds migrate from Fennoscandia across the North Sea and to the UK each autumn. It was once believed that these birds hitched a ride on the back of migrating Woodcock, which made the same journey at a similar time of year. Any areas of scrub or woodland will be worth checking from Sunday; listen out for the calls of foraging tit flocks, which Goldcrests will often join.

These tit flocks are also worth checking for other ‘autumn sprites’: Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warbler may well be mixed in too, and you could even score something rarer like a Pallas’s Warbler. You can brush up on your ID skills in preparation for the commoner species with our Goldcrest and Firecrest Bird ID Video.

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Brambling are lovely birds – learn their call to help you distinguish them from Chaffinches.

The number of Brambling migrating to the UK each year can vary, but generally, next week is considered the start of their main arrival period. The conditions over the early part of the weekend could see good numbers of these lovely birds. Listen out for their buzzing “tswairk” call, and keep an eye out for their white rump when they are in flight – both these features will help you distinguish them from the Chaffinches that will also be arriving.

So far this autumn, good numbers of Stonechats have been reported. These birds will be a mix of the hibernans race that breeds across Britain, Ireland and south-western Europe, and some rubicola race birds that breed in central and western Europe. These races can be difficult to tell apart during the autumn, but it is worth checking any Stonechat at this time of year to see if it is, in fact, a rarer relative: Siberian Stonechat and Amur Stonechat (formally known as Stejneger’s Stonechat) are both generally paler in colour than ‘our’ Stonechat and have a peachy wash to the rump.

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Short-eared Owls can be distinguished from Long-eared Owls by their yellow eyes, which are orange in the latter species.

Both Short-eared and Long-eared Owls arriving from the near-Continent can be seen during daylight hours in October, and are often seen flying out to sea, looking for a suitable place to make landfall. Corvids, especially Carrion Crows, Rooks and Jackdaws, frequently mob these owls, and busy groups of these birds can be a good way of locating an arriving owl.

As we move into next week, there will be a return to westerlies and rain as low-pressure systems arrive from the Atlantic. The heavy, more persistent bands of rain across much of Britain and Ireland will slow migration for a while, but it will still be worth looking out for migrants such as Golden Plover. Numbers will be building throughout October, and flocks can be found not only at coastal locations and estuaries but also on arable land, where they will often join Lapwing in large flocks. Their spangled winter plumage is duller than their striking summer finery: a mix of grey-brown feathering with only the wing, mantle, and tail feathers edged in golden yellow. This can make them difficult to spot in ploughed fields, and frequently, flocks are only noticed when they take flight to move from field to field. Again, these flocks are worth checking for rarer American and Pacific Golden Plovers; both these species are slightly smaller and longer-legged, and at this time of year, tend to be greyer in plumage with a more prominent stripe over the eye.

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Siberian Rubythroats found in the UK are not often in their namesake plumage – although sometimes, as on this bird, a few red feathers are visible.

South-easterly winds look set to reach Shetland and Orkney at the start of the week, and this could be a recipe for a few exciting birds – maybe a Siberian Rubythroat, Siberian Blue Robin, or Rufous-tailed Robin will have a few people heading north.

By the middle of the week, low pressure will still be in charge of the weather, and at present, it looks like a spell of south and south-westerlies is forecast. If the winds stay light and the rain stays away, these will be good ‘visible migration’ conditions with finches being the main species group on the move. Siskin, redpolls (both Lesser and Common, although they are hard to separate when seen flying overhead), Chaffinch, and Goldfinch will make up the bulk of these birds, but look out for Brambling, Greenfinch, and, with luck, the occasional Hawfinch.

Possible rarities arriving on these winds include Pallid Swift, for which the majority of historical UK records are in late October and early November.

Send us your records with BirdTrack

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2 October 2023

Waxwing, by Liz Cutting / BTO

20 Oct 2023

Arctic Skua migration: stories from the field

WEBSITEEDITOR — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:18:50 +0000

Where do Arctic Skuas go when they are not in Scotland? Helen and David Aiton take us through their fieldwork seasons for BTO’s Arctic Skua tracking project, which has followed these fascinating birds across both hemispheres and back. No

Helen and David Aiton

Helen and David Aiton have been members of BTO for over 40 years. Over this period, they have contributed to many BTO surveys and currently have a Breeding Bird Survey site on Rousay.

We were drawn to these beautiful birds by their plaintive calls, their stunning range of plumages and – sadly – their rapid population decline. In 1991, there were 122 pairs in our study area along with thousands of Arctic Terns. Now, in 2023, there are only 17 Arctic Skua pairs and a mere handful of breeding Arctic Terns. This trend reflects that of the UK breeding population more broadly, which is restricted to north and west Scotland and has declined by 70% since 2000.

Our fieldwork site is a triangular area of coastal moorland approximately 2 km by 1.5 km and varies from 5–115 m above sea level. We also research Great Skuas in our study area – but that is a story for another time! The aim of our long-term study is to monitor how both skua species are faring in these turbulent times.

This year, 2023, was the 10th season of our Arctic Skua productivity study, which measures the breeding success of the colony. We collect information about the number of eggs, chicks and fledged young every breeding season. Over the past 10 years, our colony has fledged 96 juvenile birds.

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A newly hatched Arctic Skua chick with its ‘egg tooth’, a sharp point on its beak that helps the chick to break the eggshell from the inside when it is ready to hatch. The egg tooth falls off the beak around a day after hatching.

Fieldwork on Rousay

Each year we visit the study area at least eight times, an effort of 16 days minimum. The island can be reached by a 30-minute ferry trip, crossing the beautiful Eynhallow Sound. Our fieldwork is made more comfortable in our old VW Campervan for overnight stays.

We locate nests at the start of each breeding season from vantage points at least 200 metres away: one person remains at the vantage point and directs the other using radios, to as many as five nests at a time. Arctic Skua nests are well hidden, so we have to use sightlines and surrounding vegetation to memorise their positions, so we can monitor them throughout the season.

Arctic Skua nests are well hidden, so we have to use sightlines and surrounding vegetation to memorise their positions.

We also use our two highly-trained German Shorthaired Pointers to increase the efficiency of finding chicks which have become more mobile and might have wandered away from the nest. It’s very important that we only undertake nest and chick finding in dry, warm weather to avoid the risk of causing any harm due to chilling.

The Arctic Skua tracking project

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Helen holding an adult bird ready for release. The geolocator is attached to the uniquely-coded orange ring on the Arctic Skua’s left leg.

Liz Humphreys from BTO Scotland contacted us in 2018, having heard about our well-established study. BTO’s scientists were keen to use geolocators to track the adult Arctic Skuas, to find out where they spent their winters, and to learn more about their migration routes. This information would help inform conservation efforts to protect this species. The work on Rousay would build on the study of Fair Isle breeding Arctic Skuas, which BTO began in 2017, and offer a comparator site. Fair Isle is roughly 30 miles from Orkney.

BTO’s Senior Research Ecologist John Callandine joined us for a week on Rousay, arriving in late May 2018. Luckily for John, we had a week of hot, dry and still weather, almost unknown in Orkney – highly suitable conditions for checking nests and catching adult birds for tagging. He was delighted that we had already located the nesting birds.

Luckily, we had a week of hot, dry and still weather, almost unknown in Orkney – highly suitable conditions for checking nests and catching adult birds for tagging.

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John (left) and David (right) place a walk-in trap over dummy eggs in the nest cup. The real eggs are safely stored in the box John is holding.

For the tagging project, we chose mostly well-established pairs of adult birds. Over the next few days, we watched the birds and waited for them to lay a full clutch of eggs. We then prepared the walk-in traps – safe structures for catching the adult birds – and left them for a couple of days near the nests, to habituate the birds to them.

Eventually, we placed the traps over the nests, to catch the adults as they walked onto the nest to incubate the eggs. To keep the eggs safe from predators while we tagged the adults, we removed them temporarily and replaced them with dummy eggs before putting the walk-in trap over the nest.

John had honed the techniques for catching birds on Fair Isle the year before, so we were a slick team! We caught 10 individual birds, two of which were a pair. As soon as the tagging was finished we replaced the real eggs. The whole process never took more than an hour.

John then left Rousay to go to Fair Isle to catch more birds, and we continued our study for the rest of the summer. It was reassuring that the birds with geolocators continued to behave normally, with most of them rearing chicks successfully that year.

Collecting the geolocator data

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Arctic Skua plumage falls broadly into two ‘phases’: pale phase (as in the bird in the top photograph) and dark phase (as in the bird in the bottom photograph). Plumage which is intermediate between these phases can also occur in some birds.

Using geolocators as a tool to understand migration routes does not provide instant gratification. To collect the data from the geolocators, they have to be retrieved from the birds, which meant we had to catch the tagged birds again to get any information at all! Innocent of the wiles and intelligence of Arctic Skuas we returned to Rousay in late spring 2019, keenly anticipating retrieving the geolocators and continuing our productivity study.

John joined us again in early June to begin the retrieval process and repeat the procedure using the walk-in traps. However, of the 10 birds we caught in 2018, only eight birds had returned, and one of the birds that did return tried to breed, but her nest failed before we had a chance to try to recapture her with the walk-in traps – down to seven birds.

Arctic Skuas share incubation duties, with both the male and the female sitting on eggs. Because individual Arctic Skuas can occur in one of two plumage types – birds are either ‘dark’ or ‘pale’ phase – we could tell the male and female apart if they had different phase plumage, what we called a ‘dark-pale phase pair combination’. But for a dark-dark phase pair combination, where only one of the pair was carrying a geolocator, we had to take extra care to ensure we were catching the right bird.

The first bird we tried to catch, a female pale-phase bird, walked straight into the walk-in trap and onto the dummy eggs – hurrah – Geolocator Number 1. After this, we thought – this was going to be easy! Alas not. That was the only geolocator retrieved during John’s visit, despite trying for the remaining six birds who all refused to go back into a walk-in trap.

Later in June, we tried mist-netting one pair that had a young chick. A mist net is a fine mesh held taut between two vertical poles, which we can use to safely catch birds by encouraging them to fly or walk into it (in this case, by placing a stuffed predator close by to the net in the hope that the adult birds would fly into the net while mobbing it) but the adults very cleverly called the chick away from the net instead. Sigh!

We were fortunate that one pair – which had had a single egg predated by a neighbouring Arctic Skua (quite common in the skua colonies) – re-laid, and had a young chick less than a week old in late July. With both adults close to their nest, we had the opportunity to try recatching them, and this time both threw themselves into the mist net at the same time! Geolocator Number 2 retrieved.

As in 2018, the colony went on to successfully fledge chicks, including that late chick.

A brief hiatus ...

Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, we were not able to return to Rousay until early July, by which time the chicks were too old for us to try to catch the adults with a mist net. Again, though, it was a good year for the Arctic Skuas and they fledged at least 10 chicks.

... before fieldwork resumed

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John (left) and David (right) relaxing on the Rousay pier after fieldwork was complete.

In 2021, three years after putting the geolocators on the birds, John joined us again in glorious weather in early June. There were still four birds with geolocators breeding in the colony. We successfully mist-netted a female using dummy eggs and a stuffed predator, which she duly mobbed and entered the mist net – Geolocator Number 3 retrieved.

John and David worked very hard to retrieve the remaining three geolocators, but the birds refused to engage with the walk-in traps or the mist nets. Later in June, we tried again with the dark-phase male mate of the first pale-phase bird we retrapped in 2019 – and success! – he eventually walked into the trap and settled on the dummy eggs – Geolocator Number 4. We hoped at the very least that the birds we recaught to retrieve the geolocators this year would give us two years’ worth of migration information.

Finally, after approximately 200 hours of effort, we had four geolocators retrieved, along with six geolocators from John’s work on Fair Isle. The BTO team could set about retrieving the data from the geolocators and plotting the migration routes of the 10 Arctic Skuas. It is no exaggeration that we were all thrilled to see the results.

Migration stories revealed

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Circles show the different wintering locations of individual Arctic Skuas, each of which is represented by a different colour. Two circles of the same colour represent the wintering locations of the same bird in consecutive winters. Different birds from the same breeding colony spent our winter months off the coast of north-west Africa, south-west Africa, or the east coast of South America. The triangle shows the location of Rousay, Orkney, where the Arctic Skuas breed.

The data showed that all the Arctic Skuas travelled south via the North Sea and English Channel. Then down past France, Spain and Portugal to the coast of north-west Africa and on to their wintering grounds.

Individual Arctic Skuas wintered in different locations: off the coast of north-west Africa, the coast of south-west Africa or the east coast of South America. The accuracy of the data is roughly to the nearest 200 km so the birds are not actually on land, as can appear in the maps of the location points – they overwinter at sea. The birds that had data over two winters went back to the same area each year. Astonishingly, our pair of birds that both had geolocators went to different continents!

The work we did in Scotland will also be part of a multi-colony study of Arctic Skua wintering and migration movement involving colonies right across their north-east Atlantic breeding range – some of which was presented by BTO Senior Research Ecologist Nina O’Hanlon to the International Seabird Group Conference in Cork in September 2022 and has now been submitted for peer review. You can read more about the project’s findings in Nina’s blog.

It is rewarding to see the work we contributed to being part of a published international study. Even two years after the maps were produced, it is still deeply satisfying to be able to visualise the journeys of the Arctic Skuas when they are not on Rousay.

Since the Arctic Skua research programme was established in 2017, BTO donors have donated more than £225,000 to fund the work. We are enormously grateful for this very generous support from a small number of committed individuals. The research could not have been delivered without this funding. We would also like to thank the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club for annual grants that cover the cost of the productivity study on Rousay.

World Migratory Bird Day 2023

This blog post was created to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2023, a global event which increases the level of awareness about the threats that migratory birds are facing.

The theme of WMBD 2023 is Water, which highlights the importance of this resource for migrating birds – including for species like the Arctic Skua, which spends most of its life at sea and migrates thousands of kilometres over the ocean and across both hemispheres every year.

BTO’s Arctic Skua tracking project aims to understand where these birds spend their time when they’re not at their breeding colonies, so we can better inform global efforts to protect this species.

Discover more about Rousay’s Arctic Skuas and their astonishing migration in our other blog for WMBD 2023, written by BTO Senior Research Ecologist Nina O’Hanlon.

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Helen and David Aiton take us through their fieldwork seasons for BTO’s Arctic Skua tracking project.

1 October 2023

Where do Arctic Skuas go when they are not here?

For us, ‘here’ is Rousay, an island which lies off the West Mainland of Orkney. We have been measuring the breeding success of Arctic Skuas since 2014, and working with BTO to help track the adult birds’ migration since 2018.

13 Oct 2023

Scotland

BirdTrack migration blog (29 September–5 October)

SCMAYSON — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 15:24:54 +0000

The volume and variety of American birds found up and down the west coast over the past week have been nothing short of mind-blowing. No

BirdTrack Organiser

Scott’s role includes the day-to-day running of BirdTrack: updating the application, assisting county recorders by checking records and corresponding with observers.

BirdTrack

Over 50 individuals of some 15 species were reported over the course of the week. These included a new species for Britain in the form of a Canada Warbler in Pembrokeshire. There was also a Tennessee Warbler at Inishbofin, which was only the second record for Ireland. Other notable species included the second Bay-breasted Warbler and Philadelphia Vireo records for Britain, the third and fourth Magnolia Warbler records, and a Blackburnian Warbler in Shetland – the second record for the archipelago – and, on the Isles of Scilly, the first Northern Parula reported in Britain since 2010. Amazingly, three of the four Black-and-white Warblers reported were found on Bardsey Island, around Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory. The birds were all caught safely, ringed and released, so we can be sure there were three individuals.

This autumn will, without doubt, go down in birding folklore and be talked about for years to come. Whether you saw any of these birds or not, the sheer number, variety, and intensity of the past week from a birdwatching perspective is truly staggering.

The run of westerly winds also saw the numbers of common migrants build as birds congregated near the coast, waiting for the winds to drop or change direction before continuing migration. Both Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs continued to be seen in good numbers; it seemed every stretch of hedge or scrub hosted a Chiffchaff in some areas, with many birds still singing. These birds probably moved on as the wind began to drop in the south and east during the later part of the week, but were likely replaced by birds from further north, which will continue to filter down the UK in the next couple of weeks.

Each August, reports of Skylark fall away; when the birds stop singing they become less obvious and harder to find. However, as autumn progresses, we see reports increase again as birds disperse away from their breeding areas. Last week saw the first push of these birds as they took advantage of the clear skies and a drop in the wind, with small groups heard giving their trilling flight call as they passed overhead. Skylark flocks often join other species which are also moving south, such as Meadow Pipits and even the occasional Woodlark.

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The drop in the BirdTrack reporting rate for Skylark that is seen in August reflects the species’ reduced visibility at this time of year, when birds are no longer singing but not yet on migration. Reports rise again in September when Skylark migration begins.

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An astonishing 36,600 migrating Coal Tits were recorded in southern Finland on Monday.

Gadwall and Pintail typically arrive a bit later in the autumn, but are already joining the increasing numbers of Teal and Wigeon as birds arrive from Iceland, arctic Russia and Fennoscandia. Records of Pink-footed and Brent Geese are also climbing, and the first small arrival of Whooper Swans was noted last week with family groups arriving from Iceland.

Jay reports continued to increase as birds stockpiled acorns ahead of the coming winter. Their distinctive flight, white rump, and raucous call make them a conspicuous species throughout the year, but they are even more noticeable during the autumn months when their foraging activity increases.

Further afield, an astonishing migration of Coal Tit was seen in southern Finland, where over 36,600 were counted on Monday. We don’t often think of this species as migrating, but many of the members of the tit family are in fact partial migrants and will move south from Fennoscandia to avoid the colder temperatures of winter. Coal Tits from Continental Europe are reported each autumn in the UK; these birds are of the European subspecies Periparus ater ater (the British subspecies of Coal Tit is Periparus ater britannica) and can be distinguished from their British counterparts by a slight crest as well as bluish-grey on the back and wings.

Looking ahead

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Grey Plover passage peaks in late September and early October. Flying birds show a distinctive black armpit.

Over the coming weekend, a spell of south-westerlies will be followed by a band of rain across much of Ireland and the northern half of Britain. Most small migratory birds such as warblers will likely keep their heads down during such inclement weather, but waders and seabirds often carry on migrating and feeding regardless. Visiting coastal headlands in the south-west is likely to prove productive for seawatching; look out for Sooty, Great, Balearic, and Cory’s Shearwaters. With luck, the occasional Sabine’s Gull, Leach’s Petrel, or Grey Phalarope will also be in the mix. A visit to an estuary should provide a nice mix of waders, with Grey Plover, Turnstone, and Snipe all on the move at this time of year. Snipe are best looked for around the reedy edges of pools, and you may even score with a Jack Snipe. Look out for their bobbing feeding behaviour.

Yellow-browed Warblers have a reputation for turning up anywhere – getting familiar with their call will help you identify this lovely species.

Much of next week is forecast to be dominated by southerlies and westerlies of varying strengths. If the winds are light enough, birds will try to continue on their migration, especially if they have been held up in one area for a few days. Look out for flocks of Siskin, Redpoll, and Skylark on clear mornings; amongst these will be the occasional Pied and Grey Wagtail. Flocks of larks and pipits are always worth searching for rarer species, especially those which are feeding, as this affords the best views. A Lapland Bunting, Woodlark, or maybe even a Richard’s Pipit or Short-toed Lark are all possible additions to these flocks. With the good arrival of Yellow-browed Warblers a couple of weeks ago, we can also expect to see many of these birds filtering south, potentially turning up anywhere with trees or larger shrubs. Listen out for their distinctive “tchu-wee” call.

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With the last Sora recorded in the UK in 2020, will we see another this autumn?

Late September into early October is the peak arrival time for Dark-bellied Brent Goose; this species’ core wintering range in Britain extends south and west from the Humber Estuary as far as Dorset. Around 135,000 birds (of both Light-bellied and Dark-bellied subspecies) winter in the UK and are most often found at coastal locations and estuaries. Flocks of Brent Geese are made up of family groups, with this year’s offspring accompanying their parents. The juvenile birds’ light wing bars and dark neck, which lacks the adult birds’ unmistakable white neck patch, make them easy to recognise.

Whooper Swans will continue to arrive from Iceland, although we will probably have to wait a few more weeks for reports of their close relatives, the Bewick ’s Swan, which breeds in arctic Russia. Like Brent Geese, Whooper Swans often travel as a family group, with the young birds identifiable by their dark head and neck feathering and paler bills. These groups will stay together until the spring and can form large flocks or herds during the winter months.

If rarities are your thing, then you probably need to look to other American vagrants which may be swept across the Atlantic. Wilson’s Phalarope and Spotted Sandpiper are the most likely, given the time of year. Laughing or Bonaparte’s Gull must also be on the cards, but if we want to go even rarer, how about another Sora or Rose-breasted Grosbeak?

Send us your records with BirdTrack

Help us track migration amidst an outbreak of avian influenza.

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2 September 2023

The volume and variety of American birds found up and down the west coast over the past week have been nothing short of mind-blowing.

Pintail, by Sarah Kelman / BTO

29 Sep 2023

Donate to the BTO Youth Appeal today

Learning to lead: stories from the Young Leaders Course 2023

WEBSITEEDITOR — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 10:14:40 +0000

BTO Youth speak to attendees of the 2023 Young Leaders Course about their experiences.

BTO Youth Visit the BTO Youth Hub BTO Youth’s vision is of a diverse, vibrant community of young birders supported by BTO, with accessible, youth-led opportunities inspiring young people to engage with nature and science.

Lilia, James and Jasmine spoke to us about their experience of the course, and how it helped them grow as budding conservation leaders.

Lilia (she/her), 18

“I applied for the BTO Young Leaders Course as the qualities of being a leader and having to confidently assert myself were not things I’d previously had a lot of opportunity to practice. I was excited to spend time in the beautiful New Forest but slightly apprehensive about putting myself outside of my comfort zone. However, I am so glad I went as I had such an amazing time with really lovely people and have taken away a lot!

The four-day course was jam-packed with so many really great sessions that it’s hard to choose a favourite: talks given by the lovely Jack Baker (creator of Pangolin: The Conservation Podcast) and the inspirational Dr Anjana Khatwa (Earth Scientist, presenter, advocate and author), practising debating an environmental issue with Richard Benwell (Chief Executive at Wildlife and Countryside Link) acting as an MP, and running our own guided walks while being kept on our toes by seeing how we would react to unexpected scenarios – someone pretending to talk really loudly on a call, run off, or even have a heart attack!

I now feel much more confident within myself, and being surrounded by other enthusiastic young people already studying or working in different interesting areas has made me really hopeful and excited for the future.”

I now feel much more confident within myself, and being surrounded by other enthusiastic young people ... has made me really hopeful and excited for the future.Lilia

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James (he/him), 22

“The BTO Young Leaders Course came at a perfect time for me, as I’m just starting my second year at university, taking on a new role in its Ecological Society, and getting involved with other local projects.

I signed up for the course with the intention of developing my public interaction and communication skills, to become more comfortable leading walks and talks. It’s fair to say I left having gained so much more!

My fellow course members were massively welcoming ... it was an unforgettable few days, and a privilege to meet and learn from so many other people who care about the natural world.James

The range of guest speakers was excellent, and they covered fascinating topics and skills that, up until then, I had no previous experience with. Personal highlights included ending up in a simulated Whitehall testing my environmental negotiation skills, and spotting Crossbills whilst learning how to plan and run a guided walk in the forest!

For someone who, at times, struggles to interact with big groups of people, the staff and my fellow course members were massively welcoming, and coupled with the guest sessions, this really helped me build my self-confidence. It was an unforgettable few days, and a privilege to meet and learn from so many other people who care about the natural world.”

The highlight of the course was planning and leading my own 15-minute activity ... everyone in the group was so supportive and engaged, and even though I was nervous beforehand I really enjoyed delivering the session and would love to do it again.Jasmine

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Jasmine (she/her), 21

“I had an amazing time at the BTO Young Leaders Course this summer – it was so exciting to meet other young leaders in conservation and hear their stories.

We also got to experience workshops run by some fantastic speakers and explore brand-new topics. And of course, getting to spend the course in the New Forest was a treat!

The highlight of the course for me was planning and leading my own 15-minute activity, which all of the participants got to do. Everyone in the group was so supportive and engaged, and even though I was nervous beforehand I really enjoyed delivering the session and would love to do it again.

Overall, the course really helped me push myself to interact with new people, ask and answer questions from the speakers and helped me feel more confident in myself and my abilities.”

Young people are the future of BTO

Partners and support

The Young Leaders Course is supported by the following organisations:

Cameron Bespolka Trust

The generous support of the Cameron Bespolka Trust made the course and its contents possible.

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Raptor Aid

Funding from Raptor Aid supported the provision of travel bursaries for young people travelling to the course.

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2 September 2023

At this year’s Young Leaders Course in the beautiful New Forest, 11 dedicated young people and five inspirational lecturers joined forces to share and learn from each other’s experiences in leadership.

26 Sep 2023

BTO Youth

Leaving a legacy: how you can support BTO in your Will

WEBSITEEDITOR — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:00:44 +0000

BTO’s Sam Rider talks about her journey into legacy work with BTO, and about the power of leaving the organisation a gift in your Will. Yes

Sam Rider Legacy Manager Sam deals with legacy administration and marketing, in memory giving, and communications with the families of deceased supporters.

Staff voices

I knew very little about BTO back then and was slightly bemused, early on, when lots of pagers went off in the office, alerting everyone to a rare bird in Cornwall. Several excited staff bundled into a car for a whistle-stop trip to see a Little Bustard on The Lizard.

BTO, and the world, were very different places in 1996; pagers are no more but the passion of the staff and all of our supporters for science, birds and the natural world is just as great. Support is exactly what BTO members and volunteers do, from giving valuable time to monitor and ring birds, to paying membership subscriptions, making donations or bequeathing gifts in Wills.

My journey into legacy administration

I’ve worked as part of the Fundraising Team since 2000, originally supporting our former Director of Communications Graham Appleton, when the ‘Team’ was just the two of us. I had very much a ‘thanking’ role when it came to legacies and didn’t find out there was so much to learn until 2019 when I became much more involved thanks to Susan Hughes, our Head of Fundraising at that time.

We don’t always know each person’s motivations for giving, but there are often really lovely stories behind why they chose BTO to benefit from a part of their Estate.

Bequests given to any charity have to be properly administered, in accordance with Charity Commission regulations. We also have to adhere to guidelines set out by Institute of Legacy Management (ILM) and the Fundraising Regulator, and of course answer to the BTO Board and our auditors!

For me, it was a steep learning curve but a rewarding one, involving studying for a year and successfully passing the ILM/Law Society Certificate in Legacy Administration. Legacy administration must be done with the utmost respect and care for the families left behind and the individual who has passed away. Every gift we receive sadly means we have lost a member of the BTO family and emotional phone conversations with bereft loved ones can be incredibly upsetting.

Respect and care for everyone’s stories

Pamela Joy and PJ

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Pamela Joy’s gift to BTO allowed us to tag the wonderful Cuckoo PJ, named in Pamela Joy’s memory by her family. PJ contributed hugely to our understanding of Cuckoo migration, and engaged the public across the world with our Cuckoo research.

We don’t always know each person’s motivations for giving but there are often really lovely stories behind why they chose BTO to benefit from a part of their Estate.

The common theme for many is obviously a life-long love of birds. Pamela Rhodes is a recent example of just that: she left a gift to BTO in her Will to help us kick-start work on the 2027 Bird Atlas.

Pamela Joy Miller passed on her enthusiasm for the natural world to her family, who commemorated Pamela Joy by making a Deed of Variation to her Will, to fund two Cuckoo satellite tags in her memory. One of these tags was placed on the Cuckoo PJ, who became a record-breaking bird in our Cuckoo Tracking Project and collected data for six years.

Individuals approach the subject of Wills very differently. I have spoken to pragmatic supporters who are more than happy to talk about their wish to support BTO’s work after their death, having had a lifetime’s pleasure from birds. Others choose not to discuss their plans and feel this is an intensely private matter.

I empathise with this reticence. My own elderly parents had to update their Wills recently. During the first COVID-19 lockdown, I was nominated by my older siblings to ask our mum and dad if their affairs were in order. I found myself on the doorstep delivering their weekly shopping, clad in mask and gloves, asking the dreaded question. Having made Wills back in the 1990s, the eventual answer was “no”, as everything was out of date.

Why it’s important to create a Will

Anyone who owns assets should have a Will...without one, the Probate Court will deal with your Estate and adhere to a strict line of inheritance, meaning that none of your closest friends or the charities you are passionate about can benefit.

An out-of-date Will is almost as bad as having no Will at all. My mum, in particular, found the whole process very upsetting because, being in her late 70s, she felt it signalled that her life was now over. Despite this, my parents both acknowledged that organising their affairs was the sensible thing to do, so that we, their children, won’t have to worry about whether we are doing what they would have wanted.

Anyone who owns assets – such as savings or property – should have a Will. This is especially the case if you have children under 18, because a Will (or accompanying Letter of Wishes) is how you specify who would be their guardians if anything were to happen to you. If there is no Will (which is called intestacy), the Probate Court deals with your Estate – all the money or property you own – and adheres to a strict line of inheritance, meaning that none of your closest friends or the charities you are passionate about can benefit.

There’s also the prickly issue of tax. For larger estates that are eligible for inheritance tax, a solicitor can give advice on how to handle your affairs. In simple terms, leaving 10% of your net estate to charity could reduce the inheritance tax rate for the chargeable part of your estate from 40% to 36%, so friends and family due to receive gifts could benefit from that reduction.

How your gift can help BTO

A gift for the next generation

Frances Hurst is an inspirational volunteer and former BTO Trustee who has kindly decided to remember BTO in her Will.

Listen to her story of how she became interested in ornithology, and how watching woodpeckers with her grandmother ignited a life-long passion for birds.

BTO received just over £1.4 million pounds from gifts in Wills in 2021/22 – 63% of our total fundraised income for that year. We are incredibly grateful to those individuals who chose to remember BTO in their Wills. These gifts, alongside donations, grants, subscriptions and contract income, help fund BTO to do what it does best – high-quality ornithological research, bird monitoring in all its forms, and training.

Although we have been fortunate to receive some incredibly generous gifts in Wills from supporters with large estates, a gift of any size is appreciated; even giving a small percentage of a residuary estate (1%), after remembering those important people in your life, can make a real difference.

We appreciate, though, that leaving a cash gift is not something that all of our supporters are able to do. Giving good-quality optical equipment or bird identification guides as a specific gift for our Equipment Donation Scheme (EDS) is something you could consider. The EDS supports young people who want to be out birdwatching and learn more about the natural world, but don’t have the means to buy their own binoculars, scopes or bird ID guides; through the gifts of our fantastic EDS donors, we have helped over 2,300 young people to enjoy nature, learn more about the birds in their local patch and kick-start a lifelong passion for birds.

Many BTO supporters will have invested in our work for many years and be keen to secure the future of birds and nature on our troubled planet. As Legacy Manager, I am happy to chat about how you can make a difference.

Together, we can help to provide for BTO’s future, by passing on monitoring and scientific expertise to new generations, encouraging more people to get involved with ornithology and conservation and providing evidence to inform and influence policy. This is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

Help us to secure a brighter future for the UK’s birds.

By remembering us in your Will, you’ll be helping safeguard our wonderful birds and their environment for future generations to enjoy – a truly valuable gift.

Learn more about leaving a gift in your Will

You can also contact us with any questions at legacies [at] bto.org – we’d love to hear from you.

September 2023 Leaving a legacy: how you can support BTO in your Will

When I first walked through the front doors of BTO on 16 September 1996, I could not have imagined that I would still be working for this amazing organisation 27 years later.

Engagement

11 Sep 2023 no

BirdTrack migration blog (1–7 September)

SCMAYSON — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 12:48:12 +0000

With September rapidly approaching, migration has picked up speed as the nights begin to shorten and the mornings take on an autumnal air. No

BirdTrack Organiser

Scott’s role includes the day-to-day running of BirdTrack: updating the application, assisting county recorders by checking records and corresponding with observers.

BirdTrack

Autumn’s approach is heralded by groups of Swallows gathering on overhead wires. Over the last couple of weeks, flocks of these birds have been building as adults and this year’s young feed up ahead of their migration. During warmer days when there was a lull in the wind, a steady movement of Swallows and House Martins has also been noted from several locations, both inland and at the coast.

Meadow Pipit passage has started to increase, as birds disperse away from their breeding areas. Their short, thin ‘ist’ call – given when flying – is one to learn and can help pick out this species as birds pass overhead, sometimes in loose flocks.

Numbers will continue to build throughout September as more birds arrive from Fennoscandia to either winter in Britain or pass through on their way to North Africa.

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Meadow Pipit numbers have increased over the last week.

Similarly, reports of Wheatear have been building during the last week; most of these birds will be Fennoscandian breeders, but some will have bred in Britain or Iceland. Those that breed or were hatched in Iceland tend to pass through Ireland and some western counties of Britain, while those from regions in north-west Europe take a more eastern route through the country. In the coming weeks, these Wheatears – of the nominate race oenanthe – will be joined by the slightly larger Greenland race birds, leucorhoa.

Both Chiffchaff and Blackcap continued to be seen in good numbers, as in previous weeks, and will mostly be birds from north-western Europe that use Britain and Ireland as a stopping point on their migration routes. Some of both species will stay for the winter, but the majority will continue southward.

Last week also saw more Teal arrive ahead of the winter, and small flocks were noted heading down the North Sea as numbers built up on freshwater lakes and ponds. The males will soon be moulting out of their drab eclipse plumage into their ‘typical’ plumage with a rufous head and a green blaze stretching back behind the eyes.

A few rarities were seen during the week, with the top spot going to the surreal occurrence of two booby species being seen together on Bishops Rock off the Isles of Scilly. The Red-footed Booby that’s been present since early August was joined by a Brown Booby on a couple of dates, much to the delight of a boatload of twitchers.

Looking ahead

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Easterly winds from Fennoscandia and the Baltic Sea should bring species like Whinchat to our east coast next week.

After some rain in the early part of this weekend, the weather will become fairly settled as high pressure builds. During the week, the wind direction is forecast to swirl around at pretty much every point of the compass, which can be a good thing for finding migrant birds; a prolonged period of unidirectional wind can result in fewer birds arriving on our shores.

The most productive days for birdwatching look to be from Tuesday onward, as easterly winds funnel in from Fennoscandia and the Baltic Sea. These should bring a fresh arrival of Yellow Wagtails, Swallows, House Martins, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, and Whinchats. Both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers are likely to arrive too, with a chance of seeing the two species side-by-side.

Waders will also take advantage of lighter winds and settled conditions, and this time of year is good for Ruff, Sanderling, and Curlew Sandpiper, as well as increasing numbers of commoner waders such as Dunlin, Knot, and Redshank.

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September is one of the best months to watch Fulmars offshore; unlike most cliff-nesting seabirds, Fulmars return to their breeding cliffs in November or December.

If you can get to the east coast towards the middle of next week, seawatching – with a stiff easterly wind – could be rewarding. The number of Fulmars seen offshore peaks in September, as birds leave their breeding cliffs for a few weeks before returning in November and December.

Skuas will also be on the move; although Artic Skuas are usually the most common species, it is also possible to see Long-tailed, Pomarine, and Great Skua in early autumn. Separating juvenile Long-tailed, Arctic, and Pomarine Skua can be difficult, and there is no substitute for hours spent watching them at this time of year, viewing them not only in different light conditions but also at varying distances, and learning how their flight styles change according to the wind strength.

If you are new to seawatching, head to well-known locations such as Flamborough Head or Spurn Point, and take the opportunity to learn from other more experienced observers – don’t be afraid to ask for help identifying a bird! Other species which might make it onto seawatching lists next week include Sooty Shearwater, Kittiwake, and maybe the odd Cory’s and Great Shearwater.

If you are new to seawatching, head to well-known locations such as Flamborough or Spurn, and take the opportunity to learn from other more experienced observers – don’t be afraid to ask for help identifying a bird!

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Wryneck is likely to feature for many birdwatchers on the east coast next week.

These same easterly winds are likely to bring a few scarce passage migrants along the east coast, including Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike, Barred and Greenish Warbler.

Any tern flocks will also be worth checking, not only for Black or Roseate Terns but also for White-winged Black Terns, a couple of which have been seen during the last few days.

If you’re not able to get out and about, sitting in your garden or local park can be productive, especially early in the morning: look and listen out for Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, Swallow, House Martin, Siskin, or maybe even a Woodlark passing over.

Send us your records with BirdTrack

Help us track migration amidst an outbreak of avian influenza.

Submitting your sightings to BirdTrack is quick and easy, and gives us vital information about our breeding and migrating birds.

September 2023

With September rapidly approaching, migration has picked up speed as the nights begin to shorten and the mornings take on an autumnal air.

Sanderling, by Allan Drewitt / BTO

01 Sep 2023