The Standlake Birder -

Posts

Ring Ouzels on the Malvern Hills and back to the Wyre Forest

I started off another spring days birding at Wyre forest this week. The plan was to spend the first couple of hours after dawn looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers again. After last weeks visit I decided to adopt a different strategy. Rather than chase the drumming, when the bird has often moved on before you can get there, I decided to stay put near some promising drumming trees in a known territory and see what happened. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers drum on dead trees primarily to communicate, using the hollow dry wood to create a resonant loud sound that travels far. This behaviour is used to establish territory boundaries and attract mates, acting as a substitute for birdsong. This was partially successful as I heard a lot of drumming which I didn’t chase and was treated to two brief views. Again, I didn’t get any photos worthy of keeping. So here is the best I’ve achieved in the Wyre Forest from a few years back. Drumming mostly occurs in the hour afte...

The Wyre Forest in early Spring and on the phylogeny of the Dipper family

I took advantage of the lovely spring weather last week and visited my local happy place, the Wyre forest just 30 minutes from home. I arrived just after dawn and was greeted by a glorious dawn chorus in full swing. It was very obvious that the Chiffchaffs had arrived back from Africa on mass as they were very vocal. Some people find their Chiff-Chaff song monotonous but I love it (!), it almost feels to me that they are shouting “spring is here!” I spent the first couple of hours looking for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. To cut a long story short, I heard drilling and was treated to one very brief view that did not trouble my camera. Not to worry, that’s better than nothing and I will almost certainly be back very soon! Around mid-morning I relocated to Dowles Brook to look for Dippers and immediately spotted one looking very chilled out and inactive on a branch over the stream. Dippers are small, chunky, stout, short-tailed, short-winged, strong-legged...

A March visit to Thursley Common in Surrey for Dartford Warblers and Woodlarks

I like to try and find a sunny still day in March to go looking for two heathland specialists, Dartford Warbler and Woodlark. My go to place for this is Thursley Common in Surrey, a 325 hectares National Nature Reserve featuring extensive areas of open dry heathland, peat bogs, pine, and deciduous woodlands. It is famous as the summer residence until a few years back of Colin the incredibly confiding Cuckoo. The site is extremely well managed by Nature England and is perfect for heathland specialists. I’ve always found it a very peaceful, and in the midweek when I go at least, a comparatively quiet spot for Dartford’s. This year, however, I decided to try another site first in Berkshire which had the advantage of being 40 miles closer to home. I spent a couple of hours at this new site for me on a sunny but cold morning this week. While there were lots of Stonechats and a few Woodlarks there I failed to either hear or see Dartford’s. To be h...

On the science of iridescence in Hummingbirds, my bogey bird falls at last and the bizarre properties of the Photon

My recent experiences with the hummingbirds of Costa Rica led me to ponder the why and how of the dazzling phenomena of Iridescence. As a recap, look at the two pictures of the Fiery-throated Hummingbird above. From sideways on this Hummingbird appears emerald green but front on it is truly transformed into a veritable artists pallet of colours. To see the Fiery throat you have to be essentially face on, a few degrees either side and the fiery iridescence disappears. You would certainly be forgiven for thinking these were two entirely different birds. I guess it’s fairly obvious that the colouration is not your run of the mill pigment colouration. In fact Hummingbirds are coloured by what’s known as structural colouration. This is a similar effect to how a prism splits light into its constituent colours. The Hummingbirds feathers have specialised pancake microscopic structures called melanosomes. These contain little air bubbles that refract the light...

Costa Rica 2025 – the conclusion on 70 not out

Fiery-throated Hummingbird Now if you asked me when I was, say 18, if I would make it to three score years and ten on the 17 th of November 2025 I would probably have laughed in your face and said of course not. But here I was celebrating hitting the milestone in some style at the end of my wonderful Costa Rican adventure. We had planned a leisurely departure from the Savegre complex before a day’s birding on the way back to the capital for our flight home on the next day. Our plans, however, were thrown into the air when we discovered that the only long winding road out of the complex was going to be shut for the day for road works! We hence had a hurried breakfast and departure before we were trapped for the day the wrong side of the road works. After passing the road works we all relaxed a little and looked forward to our final full days birding in paradise. We stopped at the lovely Miriam’s Café where we enjoyed the hummingbird feeders whi...