Hugh’s News – 21 June 2025

This report focuses on our breeding birds. Hopefully the mainly settled weather we have been enjoying will result in a good breeding season for the birds. There are certainly plenty of fledged birds around.

Last month I photographed Blue Tits busily feeding a brood in a nest box at BMW. They should have fledged by now, joining other local young Blue Tits.

I don’t know if it’s the same pair of Mandarin Ducks I saw in the woods in Arrowe Park in May but there was a family group on the lake there. Interestingly, there were 2 males along with the female and 3 ducklings seemingly all together.

Martyn updated us on what he was up to the other day. “A crofter up on North Uist wanted to spread fertilizer on his machair strip, growing silage for his cattle. He knew terns (arctic and little) were nesting, so asked would someone be available to walk in front of the tractor to look for nests and chicks. I volunteered, and did indeed find nests and young little terns crouched down on the sand – virtually impossible to see.

The photo is a ringed plover nest.

Crofters/farmers often say they can spot the nests from the cab and avoid them. They must have remarkable eyesight! That might have been the case years ago when trundling along on an old grey Fergie (Hugh: I’m guessing this is what farmers affectionally call a Ferguson tractor!), but not the huge fast modern tractors”.

Ellie twitched a popular Woodchat Shrike near Daresbury. This is not a British breeding bird, but one that overshot its normal migration path from Africa into mainland Europe, and drifted across the channel into England. The second photo shows a tasty grub in the bill.

They are smart birds, don’t you think?

Thank you to everyone for your contributions and photographs.

Hugh