andrew
Redshanks have an old country name of “Warden on the Marsh” because of their habitat of being one of the first birds to alarm call when they sense danger. They do like to stand on fence posts and keep watch. ﾿...
andrew
The curlew nest I have been monitoring has hatched. Still wading (no pun intended) through a lot of camera footage, but here’s a short video of the new family in the morning sunshine. It’s been a roller coaster ride with near misses by wandering sheep and geese almost trampling the nest, but...
andrew
I am fortunate enough to be staying in a house in Shetland that backs onto rough grassland, marsh and upland areas. The area is so wet in places that even the sheep don’t venture across it. However, this unremarkable area has good botantical interest and has several waders species breeding on it....
andrew
The other day I was fortunate enough to come across a group of summer plumage purple sandpipers on a Shetland beach. The purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) is a medium-sized wader of the sandpiper family Scolopacidae. It is larger, stockier and darker than a dunlin, with a downcurved beak and...
andrew
The Eurasian whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) is the subject of this week’s Wader Wednesday. Here are a few facts about an often overlooked bird.* Often called the May Bird as that is when it passes through UK on migration to northern breeding grounds* UK’s breeding pop restricted to Northern Isles...
andrew
Today is World Curlew Day. Here are a few interesting (and sometimes depressing) facts about curlews. Curlews are called “the whaap” in Shetland dialect Females have longer bills than males Red listed in UK Europe’s largest wading bird 48% decline in breeding birds in UK between 1995 and 2015...
andrew
In anticipation of World Wetlands Day tomorrow, this week’s Wader Wednesday is a few wader chick pictures to remind us all of some of the things we are trying to protect. ﾿ ﾿ Lapwing...
andrew
For Wader Wednesday this week, it’s the incredible bar-tailed godwit. Last autumn one of these birds broke the world record for the longest known recorded continuous migration flight, when a juvenile flew from Alaska to southern Australia in 11 days and one hour. The flight was recorded at a...
andrew
Cold weather and snow might stop ground nesting birds like waders from actually nesting but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will wait for warmer weather to pair up. Here is a pair of oystercatchers I filmed in Moray a few years ago, they are showing courtship behaviour even though it was -7C at...
andrew
The lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), once a common sight across the UK, but now in decline and UK red-listed.Initial declines were due to egg collectors which resulted in the Lapwing Act in 1926 which banned lapwing eggs from being collected, after which the species showed good signs of recovery.Later...
andrew
Getting the chance to compare winter plumage greenshank and redshank together at the same time was a nice treat today. Its not often they are this obliging and stand so close together for photographs. ﾿...
andrew
One of my favourite winter birding trips is a visit to the coast at Embo, near Dornoch. The beach is always a good spot to find wintering waders such as sanderling, turnstone, oystercatcher and ringed plover. A bonus is that the nearby pier usually holds good numbers of purple sandpipers if you...
andrew
The common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) is a summer visitor to the UK, found mainly in upland areas of North of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland you will often see them near fast-flower rivers and burns and around the edges of upland lochs. They have a characteristic...