Monday Bird of the Week No.52 – Kittiwake

A change of pace today. After a couple of widespread species I thought we’d look at a few more specialist species. Starting with a coastal specialist, the pretty little Kittiwake.

Aye, aye skipper

A few weeks back I was complaining about the inability of Small Skippers to ever stay still and let me take a photo. Happily that has now changed.

Lost in pollinator paradise

Right now the garden seems to be a haven for all manner of pollinators, more than I have yet had time to identify. So feel free to chip in. Every evening the flowerbed is alive with sound and movement.

Monday Bird of the Week No.51 – Coal Tit

A couple of months back I featured a series of Bird of the Week posts dedicated to our most common birds. Missing off that list was today’s featured species, the Coal Tit.

They grow up so fast, don’t they?

It’s been graduation ceremony week here in York, and that means my peaceful walk around the lake is continuously disrupted by families trying to take photos of their bright young things from every conceivable angle. But there’s a youngster here I do have an interest in…

Invading armies

Earlier in the year it was the Blue Tits eating us out of house and home. But this week it has been Long-tailed Tits instead.

Some thoughts on non-native species

How many non-native species do you think there are in the UK? Ten? Fifty? A few hundred? Keep going upwards…

A tail-less tale

We’ve had a lot of young birds in the garden recently, and they can look a little odd sometimes. So at first we thought this wobbly and tail-less blackbird was just such a story…

Monday Bird of the Week No.50 – Buzzard

Another conservation success story this week, but one that has been more divisive than the Avocet. Persecuted, recovered, and persecuted all over again, it is the Common Buzzard.

A domesticated pochard?

One of the pochard continues to be unusually tame, probably because it’s identified a spot where food regularly gets thrown in the water. 

I say tame, but it terrorises the other waterfowl. Mallards, Moorhens, Coots, even a Greylag Goose, all have been chased by this tiny, dainty croaking psychopath. 

I’m not convinced it’s doing the right thing by its duckling though. Half the time while she is chasing off everything else in sight, the duckling is alone and vulnerable. 
Still, it’s amusing to see a usually timid bird chase something as aggressive as a Coot clear out of the water.