UK Nature Blog

White puffin spotted in the Isles or Scilly

A very rare white Atlantic Puffin has been spotted along with its common black cousins off the Isles of Scilly. The white puffin was once considered to be a mythical bird, but the latests photograph confirms that this is not the case. 

This puffin's strange colouring is caused by something called leucism, where the colour pigments are formed, but are diluted. This differs from the more commonly known albinism where the strong black pigment is not formed at all. Other leucistic birds have been spotted in the UK before and it seems that seeing a white, or partially white, blackbird can be most confusing for a bird spotter.  

So, just when you thought you'd got the hang of what your common garden birds look like bear in mind that nature can still fool us.

Red Kite over St Albans

I've been somewhat surprised to see a Red kite circling over residential St Albans recently. Just the other day I saw it near the hospital, and I have previously seen one over the Waitrose car park. I don't quite understand why they're circling high over residential areas, though perhaps they're after carrion or small birds in our gardens. If nothing else it's good evidence of their continued spread across the country.

Sadly I don't have a particularly good picture of a kite as I always seem to be travelling in a car when I spot them aloft. They also tend to be fairly high, and though large birds they are still just a speck in the view of my lens. The picture above was taken in the fields outside St Albans last May. The silhouette is unmistakable, along with the white patches under the wings and the grey head.

The website linked above is well worth a look by the way, with a particularly good introduction to Red kites. I didn't realise that they are so large (2m wingspan), yet so light (2-3 lbs).

Magpies: not evil

Magpies eat other birds' eggs, and it had been speculated that this had led to a recent major decline in songbird numbers. However the Telegraph reports that a recent study lets them off the hook. It seems that there is a correlation between Magpie and songbird numbers, but not a significant causality - at least not in the direction that people feared. So if numbers of songbirds decline then Magpies may decline also because there are less eggs to eat, but Magpies are not increasing in numbers to the detriment of songbirds - their numbers rise and fall in parallel.

Fussy eaters

This blog post over at the RSPB shows examples of berry-laden bushes that have remained untouched by the wildlife over the winter. Do they just not like them? I don't know, but I too have noticed whole trees smothered in red berries and was surprised that they hadn't been scoffed. Having watched the Pyracantha being systematically stripped by blackbirds and with the bleak winter we've had I'm particularly surprised.

M4 in reverse

Coming back up the M4 from the West, I again kept an eye out for wildlife. Same as on the way out there was only a single Red kite to be seen, though plenty of Buzzards. Most unusual though was what looked like a pair of Red-legged partridge happily pecking along the hard shoulder oblivious to the speeding traffic. They looked fairly exotic, but stubby and small compared to a female pheasant so I'm fairly sure this is what it must have been. I don't believe I've seen them in the flesh before, so I had to guess at what they might be and identify them after the fact from memory.

M4

Travelling along the M4 motorway the other day reminded me what a great journey it is for spotting raptors (the birds not the dinosaurs). I saw lots of Buzzards, sometimes circling in groups of three or four. Unusually I only saw one Red kite, whereas they ate usually liberally sprinkled along the way. A few Kestrels hovering too.

Mating Kingfishers

For most people a glimpse of one Kingfisher is quite special, but two, together, very together in fact, is extremely unusual. So the Telegraph's report and photograph of Kingfishers mating is quite something.

I saw a Kingfisher just yesterday as it happens, which reassures me that the harsh winter hasn't killed them all off. Apparently (and I've now read this in several places, including the article above) very harsh winters past have decimated populations by 90%, and it then takes a long while for them to recover.

Gull camouflage

An arty shot from the archives today. This is a gull blending into the rocks of the Dorset coast, with only a bit of post-processing to convert to black and white and improve the contrast.

Confused weather, confused birds

Another bout of snow for the UK, but head south by a few thousand miles and it's warmer than usual, so birds have been migrating north from Southern Europe and Africa earlier than usual. The linked article mentions this phenomenon in its last couple of paragraphs.

It also states that Bitterns are calling ('booming') for mates and Willow warblers are warbling - both months early. As far as I'm aware Bitterns don't migrate north to the UK for the summer so I don't quite understand that link, or why they reckon that snow means it's April. If you see one be sure to ask it.

Wren

Whenever I see a Wren, more often than not it's flitting about on a riverbank, or similar, amidst the leaf litter and plants. They seldom stay in one spot for more than a second, and are always partially obscured. At least that's the way it seems when I'm trying to get a photo! The picture above is the best I could do, of a Wren right by the water's edge.