Articles by Chris Foster - Page 4

I don’t know what unusual super power ‘meadow’ would suggest, but collectively pipits do seem to possess the power of invisibility: the phrase ‘little brown job’ may well have been invented to describe pipits.

Chris Foster gives us his latest in the A to Z of British Birds series. This week… Owls.

The jarring from which they take their name, more commonly referred to as churring – an eerie, mechanical sort of noise that’s straight out of a science fiction film, and possibly the strangest noise I’ve ever heard coming from a bird.

Chris Foster talks about the Mandarin Duck and Mistle Thrush as part of his A to Z of British Birds series.

Not only are they uncommon in much of England and Wales (and absent entirely from Scotland and Ireland), but they’re hard to find even where they do occur, being secretive birds that can range over large areas.

These birds represent Britain’s sole truly ‘native’ stock, and at the Gigrin Farm feeding centre provide one of the best wildlife spectacles in the country.

It’s a woodland species, but will also be found in parks and gardens with mature trees, and is always a welcome sight: indeed, it’s one of the most common species for non-birders to notice and remark on.

Iceland gulls breed in the Arctic, mainly Greenland and northern Canada, and move south during winter to feed away from the worst of the polar winter.

Once seen, never forgotten. Indeed, a sighting of this charismatic raptor would crown any walk in England’s beautiful uplands.