Birdwatch

Birdwatch magazine is the UK’s number one bird watching magazine for keen birders, featuring the latest rarity reports, ID guides, optics reviews and birding holidays, plus features and news from across the world.

Birdwatch

Editor’s Note

Bonus digital content!

Wader on the upturn

Where eagles dare • Frank Hawkins was enjoying a bumper movement of Red Kites on his Cornish patch when he locked eyes on a truly mega raptor.

Crowned jewels • The stunning discovery of Ireland’s first Yellow-crowned Night Heron came in a remote village in Co Mayo.

The miracle on Holy Island • Marc Read was rewarded with the find of a lifetime while birding on the Northumberland coast during a family holiday in May.

Backyard bolt from the blue • Peter Bell describes the sensational discovery of a North American mega in his back garden in mid-May.

Monster May! • An incredible month for rarities produced firsts for Britain and Ireland, as well as a suite of other goodies and a deluge of drift migrants.

Scandi sensations • Denmark enjoyed a superb month, with Finland, Iceland and Norway also making headlines, as Sam Viles reports.

Danish dynamite • Mikkel Høegh Post describes his discovery of an extraordinary first for the Western Palearctic.

Every Birdwatch at your fingertips • BirdGuides’ new Ultimate PLUS membership gives you digital access to 32 years’ worth of Britain’s best birding magazine.

DAVID CAMPBELL Happy campers • After a night wild camping in Finland with nightjars and mosquitos for company, our columnist ponders the pros and cons of tent-based birding.

MARK AVERY Time to vote • With a general election imminent, our columnist reminds you of the power of your vote.

The delights of Dungeness • Sitting at the tip of a shingle promontory that juts out into the English Channel in south-east Kent, Dungeness Bird Observatory is well positioned to intercept migration, as David Walker explains.

Going Green • Ken Smith, Mike Reed and Barry Trevis have been trapping and ringing Green Sandpipers for more than 40 years. Their protracted study has revealed fascinating and unexpected facts about these waders.

Gone with the wind • From Masked Booby to Trindade Petrel, Luke Nash profiles frustrating encounters with potential seabird rarities that so far have got away and are still awaiting admission to the British and Irish lists.

Tackling the ‘L3 Challenge’ • Long summer days herald the start of autumn migration for some wader species. Mark Golley has been closely studying Black-tailed Godwits for more than three decades and here looks at separating the subtle-looking nominate form limosa – a scarce visitor from the Continent and one of the UK’s rarest breeders – from brightly coloured Icelandic birds.

A tern for the better • Always a species to get the pulse racing, Caspian Tern has been seen with greater frequency in Britain in recent years. But what is driving this rise in records? Josh Jones takes a closer look.

Storm force nine • Bob Flood reports on an astonishing seabirding expedition in the eastern Pacific, from Chile to Panama, where he encountered some of the world’s least-known tubenoses and an incredible nine taxa of storm petrels in one day.

Light and bright • To complete the suite in the popular Prominar series, Kowa launches its newly upgraded 55-mm compact scope – and it looks set to be a winner, says Mike Alibone.

Fighting for birds

Home is a hedge

Micro magic

Birds on a cliff edge

Recording birds at sea

Chimping

Common Tern

Welcome the insects

No rest for the wicked

Itinerant breeders

Solitary bees

Dupont’s Larks defend territory according to...