The Bird Guides Podcast Welcome to the Bird Guides podcast with me, Josh Jones, and today I've got David Campbell with me. Hi, David. Hiya. And Ian Lycett's here too. Hi, Ian. Hi, Josh. How you doing? Very good, thanks. Today we're gonna have a little bit of a chinwag about August birding. What is it that makes August so good for patch birding? Many people laud it as one of the best months of the year, if not the best month of the year for being out on your patch. Um, today we're gonna explore why
that is, some of the species you might be seeing, some of the weather conditions to look out for, and various other shenanigans that might help you out in the field over the coming few weeks. So when I say the word August, what do you think, David? I think so much. I think of gulls, waders, terns, seabirds, uh, and insect-eating passerines that the pack is being shuffled with. Think of looking through mixed flocks, and we'll go on in more depth about some of those aspects later on, I'm sure. But yeah, that's what springs to mind, and yeah, beautiful mornings with fruit in the hedgerows and yeah, beautiful times. Ian? Yeah, likewise. You start to get the feel that migration's beginning to really pick up and kick in. Lots of juveniles that have fledged and are trying to make their way south back to Africa or wherever they're going, and you get that, that feeling that birding and birds are building up to that big exciting autumn period. Be out locally looking at the local patch
and watching for terns, gulls, waders, warblers, just taking it in really. Yeah, ab- absolutely. I think August is a time of bountiful birding. I think that's one of the best words that I can use to describe it. It's, it's just that time of plenty. It's post-breeding season, as Ian says. There's lots of young birds in the hedgerows or wherever you might be. There's lots of birds about. The weather's still good, but you've got that nice mix of warm summer days still, but then it's starting to feel a bit like autumn as well. You're getting the sort of the colors and smells and sounds of autumn as well. So yeah, it's an exciting time, and I just think that transition over the weeks in August from kind of the height of summer through to the excitement of the autumn just i- it's a time that's well worth warranting as much time in the field as you can. There's a real tipping point from the middle weekend of August where you really start to see migration and autumn kick in. Absolutely great. Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is as well, I, I would
say that pretty much any weather conditions in August can be good for birds. It obviously depends exactly where in the country you are and what sort of patch you have. Let's take, for example, easterlies at this i- in, in the month of August. You could get drift migration in full force with generally where there's a prolonged spell of easterlies, you start getting loads of birds appearing on the East Coast, things like pied flycatchers, redstarts, various warblers, and they start filtering through the country on their way south. So it's a good time if you're a patch birder inland. If you see things like pied flys turning up on the coast, you know that they're gonna be in play over the coming week or two, wherever you may be. And then, of course, the opposite is true as well. Like, when the westerlies kick in, you know it's gonna be really good for sea watching or possibly even the odd early American arrival too. There's plenty of scope for exciting finds both locally and nationally at this time of year, I feel. Oh yeah, absolutely. August is, can create some classic fall conditions where migrants, you know, thinking about heading off to Africa from Scandinavia
and further east set off in high pressure, and then they get into that easterly airflow, drives them across the North Sea, and then if they hit an area of wet or low cloud, uh, they don't like it very much. They all drop down onto the coast. Over the years, I've seen some really good falls along the, the North Norfolk coast and Suffolk, big numbers of pipelares, redstarts, and of course, you know, the classic autumn migrant that I like to try and see is reinick, and that's a good one. Turns up sort of last couple of weeks in August if you go out. Even locally, there's a sort of site near me in Epping Forest, Chingford Plain, that is basically looks like it's been designed for reinicks with the sort of ant hills and scrub, hawthorn, rough grass, and that we had, well, at least one last year after many years of trying to find one there. So that was excellent. There was another one near our old office in Wood Green at Ally Pally, which by the cricket pitch there, that had reinick a couple of Augusts in a row actually. So that's a classic autumn bird for me. Reinick's the sort of pin-up bird from the
scarcer bracket, but what w- what would you say in terms of kind of August or early autumn species? Which are the birds that really everybody should be looking out for no matter where they are, David? I think I look back on my times patch watching and it, and now as I carry on, and birds like sedge warbler, wood warbler, basically all the warblers are on the move, as are flycatchers. So whinchat is a classic August bird, but also the same applies for wheatear and spotted flycatcher Tree pipits on the move. Yeah, August really feels like, obviously seabirds aside, it feels like a month when it's all to play for both inland and on the coast. It almost feels more equal in August than any other month in terms of just the general variety of birding. It's just, it, it feels like the pack is being shuffled for everybody. Indeed. I think there's some classic passerines there that you've mentioned, and they're always f- at the forefront of my mind, especially in the second half of the month, which is really when it tends to get going around me here in South Lincolnshire. But
we've already alluded to it on a couple occasions, waders are such a prominent part of August as well. I think about classic species such as wood sandpiper. That's always f- always feels like a textbook August bird to be on the lookout for. You ... Also in August as well, you're usually getting the first juvenile waders. That's always a big moment in the birding calendar, I feel like. I always look forward to seeing the first flush of juvenile waders on their way south, not least because the plumage is always pristine and beautiful, unlike the rather tatty adults at this time of year. But also because they tend to be the showiest of the waders. They've got that kind of naivety about them, and you d- often will end up having some really memorable encounters with juvenile waders on the move this month. And you may well- Yeah ... have been the first person that they've seen in their lives so far. That's the amazing thing about it, isn't it? A bird that's been born on the Arctic tundra somewhere, and it's heading south on its first migration, and it's quite, it's quite humbling really when these kind of things drop off and stay at your patch for a few days, and feed up before they continue their migrations. I think it's really special. In terms of
waders, I think we've got birds such as wood sandpiper earlier in the month, some of the Tringa species. But also later in the year, you start getting the high Arctic birds, of course. It's, it's a time when the first curlew sandpipers and little stints start turning up as well, and they're always a big prize inland in my parts anyway, and it's usually the same across the country. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And things like, things like golden plover, snipe, ruff, they can be really high quality local birds for a lot of people as they leave their breeding grounds. I remember back in Surrey, I used to often encounter my first golden plover of the autumn in early mid-August, going over often still in summer plumage. Yeah, they're always things to look for too. It doesn't have to be these reportable species on a national level. It can be those lower key arrivals. One wader that I really think about when August comes around is wood sandpiper. Don't know about you guys. You probably get that on your patch too every year. Yeah, almost every year. It's a bit of a rare up at the King George V Reservoir, which is my local patch that's on the Lee Valley edge of London/Essex
borders. Yeah, it's sort of concrete edge. That's not exactly ideal wader habitat, but it does draw down wood sandpiper occasionally. And when it does, they're a fantastic wader. Uh, a lovely crisp juvenile, as we said earlier, so that often hasn't seen a human before, so they're usually quite tame, and you can stand there, and they'll regularly wander past at almost point-blank range as they're looking for food on the edge. Yeah, I really like them. Really good. I just love that call. Often the first way I get them in the autumn is hearing that sort of call up in the sky and among the chorus of three or four green sandpipers, and it's a real pivotal moment each late summer, early autumn. Yeah. It's like a ner- nervous laugh, isn't it? I, I, I would actually say Juvenile wood sandpiper is one of the best waders, I really would. And I feel like we've just been through a really bumper spring for the species, and it's one of the few waders that actually is becoming easier to find, dare I say. Definitely. I'd agree with that, yeah. Yeah, seems to be... Yeah. As you said, it was a fantastic spring for them, wasn't it?
They were pretty much everywhere in quite big numbers, and you've got some really good local habitat near you, Josh, so I guess it must be a almost an expected occurrence for you every time you head out in August. Yeah. It's not quite every time, but certainly you usually get a few come through in August and early September. Usually get the first one second half of July. Yeah. I haven't had one yet, but it's imminent surely. 'Cause you've got a bit more of that proper mud that they like. They really like, like Ian says, a concrete bowl isn't really their thing, is it? Yeah. You, you do find that, don't you? Where various waders have their sort of preferred habitats and yeah, those kind of like muddy margins are better for your tringas. Ano- another one that falls into a similar bracket is spotted redshank, which I'd also say is a really nice target bird for August because it's when the juveniles start coming through. So again, mid-August time onwards, it's, yeah, I'm really tuning in for spotted redshank. Always look forward to seeing them 'cause that is genuinely a much scarcer bird these days, so much harder to find and much... Not that a r- wood sandpiper isn't rewarding, but a really nice fresh juvenile
spotted redshank is a real prize. Yeah. And wood sandpiper feels like it can turn up almost anywhere, even if you had a temporary puddle on a, in a farm field, it's plausible that could turn up. Whereas spotted redshank feels a little bit more locked into traditional places, doesn't it? That, that they've always stopped off at. It's not all about these reportable waders either. I quite like looking at my local sites this time of year and you're getting things like green shanks moving through, but you're also getting the juvenile common redshanks, and it's like, "Where have these birds come from? Are they locally born?" 'Cause we do still have a few sites that support breeding redshank locally, but are they local or have they come from, I don't know, the Norfolk Coast, or have they come from somewhere further afield? Have they come from Scandinavia, Iceland? That's part of the fun with waders, isn't it? They're just- they've got various flyways and the bird that pops down in front of you on your local water body, it's a wonderful game trying to guess where it might have come from. Yeah, I love daydreaming about that. And Ian and I both are regular visitors to the
Nordic countries, and we may well have been seeing some of these birds on their breeding grounds back in the summer, and then who knows? Re- crossing paths again August time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, tot- totally. Have you guys ever had any ringed waders on your patches? Uh- Other than black-wheats Uh, I had a, yeah, there was a coloring black-tailed godwit, but you couldn't really work out exactly what the combination was, and it didn't hang around for very long, which was unfortunate. But yeah, they're, they're really great to, to see regardless of whether they've got rings on them or not, to be honest, locally. Just thinking about that concept of tracking where they've come from. I- I've had ruff from Scandinavia- Oh, nice ... uh, turnstone from Iceland, a couple of other things that we weren't able to trace. So yeah, it's quite fun. And obviously in this, in the autumn when you tend to get these juveniles that are a bit showier, they can be a bit, little bit easier to read the codes. But yeah. What other waders stick out to you for, for August? Little stint and curly sandpiper come to mind, but they're neither of those species I ever seem to have particular luck with. I
pick up wood sandpipers with not too much trouble, but little stint and particularly curly sandpiper for me are, are like hen's teeth. Although they do turn up locally, but not found by me. Yeah. The George still gets reasonably good numbers of common sandpipers, and back in the day it used to... green shank used to be quite common as a passage wader in the autumn, but those days are pretty much long gone now, and green shank is a bit of a scarcity up there. You would not guarantee seeing a green shank up there these days, whereas back in the '80s, early '90s, it was a regular occurrence, which is a shame. Yeah. You never know quite what you're gonna get. It's always quite exciting when you get to your local patch and scan along and see a, an obvious wader lurking on the side of the bank or on the causeway, and you think, "Well, what have we got now?" Always gets the adrenaline going a little bit. It's just something about waders as, as patch birds, isn't there? It's, as you say, and it's g- it always sends a flutter of excitement through, through the body, and even if it is something simp- as I say just, but that's not really the right way of saying it, something like a
red shank or a snipe is exciting. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. They did actually drain the George back in 1990. The north basin, they took the level right down, and there was... the whole thing was just an expanse of mud and water and creeks in it. Wow. And it was like- What was that like? Oh, it was incredible. It was like Minsmere for a while. More than 20 species of wader up there. Drained it from late July through to early September, so prime wader time. Um- Wow ... and yeah, it was a free-for-all. It was just great. I think one day counted more than 50 common sandpipers, and there were black-tailed godwits, ruff, green sandpipers, um, double figures of ringed plovers, little ringed plovers, uh, curlew sandpipers. Had a couple of little stints, whimbrel. It w- yeah, it was, it was absolutely superb. Um- The dream. Oh, well, yeah. Oh, yeah. It just shows you how much stuff goes over and doesn't stop. So of course when it is full again, it, it pulls a lot less in, but it does give you an idea of what, what the potential is to drop
in. Yeah. It makes you wish you could control the water levels at this time of year, doesn't it? Oh, it certainly does. They have reduced it a few times over the years where you get a little bit of a muddy edge, and yeah, stuff just goes like a bit of that. Prefer that to concrete. Yeah, indeed. Indeed. Talking about that, that, that idea of what's flying over, we're constantly underestimating. But what, I guess one species that is again quite prominent in August I find is whimbrel. Mm. You often get quite a few of them, and that's a good sort of flyover bird, isn't it? Always quite easy to detect when they start calling. Yeah. It's a great call. That sort of seven-note whistle. Hello. They'll just hear a whimbrel. Then they usually do it again. They go, yeah. And then you scan around for a bit and go, "Yeah, there we go." And you get one or sometimes a small flock come through. Yeah, brilliant. Love it Yeah, I've had them in all sorts of random places that aren't even wetlands. Always on the cards. Could be a garden tick for a lot of people even. I also find, like, the return migration, you're much more likely to get something good as well. Like spring always feels like a bit of a rush. It's adults on their way to
breeding grounds. They don't stop off for very long, or they just keep going straight through. However, in the autumn there's a bit less pressure on birds to get south, and clearly you've got the inexperienced juveniles going south for the first time. So they tend to stop off at random spots like our local patches a bit more readily, and often will linger- Yeah ... won't they, for several days. Things like, you mentioned little stint and curlew sandpiper, they're the birds that I always think of as autumn rather than spring birds. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And looking a sort of level up from those, what would be your scarce targets for August? What would you say people should really be hoping for if they're after something that is a bit more nationally significant? Not necessarily a rarity, just a, a sort of scarce level. Ooh, yeah. Um- On the wader front? Yeah, on the wader front. I suppose peck sand is always a possibility. Yeah, definitely. And, and white-rumped sandpiper appears to have got slightly more regular in recent years. They have almost flocks of them at places like Snettisham last couple of years, haven't they? Oh, on the edge of the wash, yeah. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Frampton, Snettisham, North
Norfolk. Titchwell had a couple. Absolutely. I, I would always go along with pectoral sandpiper. That's kind of the, the bird, you know, we think of it traditionally as a, as a Yank, as a North American bird, but actually we know that they come from both Siberia and North America, and they're regular enough that it's probably a feasible target for just about any patch birder that's got a bit of water and a nice muddy margin in the autumn. I mean, clearly it takes a bit of luck and, you know, it's not gonna happen every year, but it's always on the cards I think, and the day it does happen is a day to celebrate, I would say. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, also on my mind at this time, Vera Temminck's stint and redneck phalarope. Um- Yeah, true. Yeah. True. Yeah. And I've found the odd Temminck's stint and peck sand to date, but yeah, redneck phalarope would be a fine tick for me, so hoping that falls this year. Yeah, found one of those on the George a couple of years ago, I think it was. Oh, nice. That was, that was 1st of September, so not quite August, but near enough to make no odds, so that was good. I have seen a couple of redneck phalaropes up there over the years. So if you've got a
big body of water or reservoir nearby, that is a classic August bird that you could go out and have a look for. Mm. Yeah, indeed. While I think waders are very prominent in August, and I would ... I personally would say that it's my favorite family of birds. I think you'd probably say similar, David. Yeah. It's not all about waders, even though they are a lot of fun to watch. Uh, you know, other waterbirds are worth looking at this time of year as well. For me, it's, as a bit of a gull enthusiast, it's a great time to be looking through flocks of gulls. Yeah, I love heading down to the beach in the evenings in Hastings here and looking for yellow-legged gull is not guaranteed, but it f- it feels like there's a sort of 60, 70% chance each time this time of year of getting one. And a Caspian gull is still a bit more of a prize here. Increasing, but still a bit of a prize. Yeah. And very satisfying to look for. It's August, it's time to be getting the juveniles, isn't it, really? That's the new season, the young birds of the year have fledged, and they start dispersing. And again, like pretty much anywhere that you get congregations of gulls, even just small groups,
are well worth checking for Caspian and yellow-legged gulls on the move. Another one for me is actually a strangely scarce bird in my area, considering there's quite literally thousands of them on the Norfolk coast, is Mediterranean gull. Again, similar vibe, checking post-breeding flocks of gulls, whether they're following the plow in the fields or resting at some of the local gravel pits. It's always worth checking through groups of black-headed gulls looking for species such as Mediterranean gull as well. And that can be another good one for ring reading too. You can get some really good stuff out of them. Yeah, definite- definitely. I think it's probably worth a quick shout-out for flying ant days as well. Always a classic kind of August phenomenon, isn't it? Those hot and still days when the flying ants just go wild, and the gulls are up swarming, catching them. They're always memorable days. I often go through quite long periods of August where there's no gulls at all across my patch, and then suddenly the flying ants get going, and you can suddenly have a flock of 1,000 or more black-headed gulls to go through. So always worth looking out for the flying ants. Yeah, and y- as I say, checking among them for med gull,
but also occasionally a little gull, maybe even black tern getting involved. Yeah, definitely. I mean, black tern's another classic August bird, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You get some, some nice black tern action on the George in August with, uh, the right conditions. Um- Yeah ... sort of fresh easterlies Which are easterly winds. Indeed. Yeah. So, uh, I'll be up there tomorrow hoping for a black tern and a wader or two Yeah, yeah. One recent fond memory of mid-August birding, uh, was 2023 for me, and I had a really lovely flock of 11 black terns on the patch that day. Oh, fantastic. And it was just one of these classic sort of warm August days with easterlies, just quite muggy. L- And the black terns were just there all day flying around calling. I actually waded into the lake with a camera and had them feeding all around me at one point. It was, um- Wow. Oh, wow ... yeah, fond memories. Fond memories. Great stuff. And garganey as well is another one. I know it's turning the page a little bit, but talking about wetland birds, I usually do better for garganey at this time of year than I do in the spring. I find that spring birds in my local area just don't
stick around. I- it's pure luck if I bump into them, but here I can Come August, I can go to any of my local wetlands and feel like there's a fair chance that there's gonna be a garganey among the ducks. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think it's, it's one to search for amongst all the teal, isn't it? You've got big flocks of teal, and you're looking for that slightly larger bird with the slightly more contrasting head pattern. It's quite a good time of year to be learning about the differences in aging and sexing birds, and like garganey's a good example. For example, I think D- Dan Owen wrote something nice about garganey in the August issue of Bird Watch, didn't he? About how- He did, yeah ... how to age and sex garganey. So that's a fun element that you can introduce to your patch birding at this time of year. It's, it is that species that I've got in front of me, but is it a bird that's born this year or is it an adult, and what sex is it? If you can age and sex a bird, that's just a nice fun element to add to your birding at this time of year. Yeah, they're a challenge. It always helps if they flap their wings, the garganey. Indeed. Yeah. Is there anything else that jumps out at you? What about sea watching? I was gonna say, it's a
sea bird, but one that can be in play for inland birders as well, is Sabine's gull seems to turn up inland now and then in, in August. It seems if you're, if you have a big reservoir as a patch, then August is basically the time to look out for Sabine's gull. And of course, at the coast, sea watching, like you say, that's a species that, that becomes something you, you definitely wanna be looking for. And you can ... With the right conditions, you can get nice little flocks of post-breeding birds going past Cornwall and Wales, some western Scotland sometimes. Yeah, I think it's ultimately that August is the best all-round month for sea watching, isn't it? You've still got the kind of what we'd class as early season species showing in good numbers earlier on in the month, things like Wilson's storm-petrel, Cory's and great shearwater. But then as the month progresses, species such as Sabine's gull, as you mentioned, David, come into play. But also your Leach's storm-petrels, gray phalaropes, long-tailed skuas, a- and the like as well. Okay. We'll take a short break, and we'll be back
soon with more August birding chat. Welcome back to the Bird Guides Podcast. Before the break, we were having a little chat about sea watching. Now, of course, not all of us are fortunate to live by the coast, so this isn't a sort of typical pastime for all of us in terms of our local birding. But one thing that anybody can do is look skywards during the month of August, and it's actually a really good month to be on the lookout for raptors, both migrating and post-breeding birds. David, have you got any particular species you'd think about looking for in August? It's been a month that I've encountered migrant ospreys slightly on the early side- Mm ... but roaming adult ospreys going out, and also harriers, I, I think of it, uh, uh, as a, a good month for. So if you're in an area where marsh harriers don't breed, it's That species comes into play in August as juveniles disperse. Even hen harrier I've had on my old patch in London in, in, in August. Yeah,
they're just a few. I have failed to see osprey over my local patch in spite of many years of looking for it. Missed them several times by not very much, which is always great, so I'll, I'm hoping that maybe this is the year and I'll get a juvenile flapping slowly down the Lee Valley towards London. But yeah, things like hobby you always think of whizzing around eating dragonflies and chasing herodians. That's always a good local patch bird. And of course, as you say, harriers are rare in the local area, but they do occasionally go over. Presumably you're looking for things like honey buzzards and the like in your zone, Josh? Not quite. The honey buzzard's still a very rare bird, but I mean August is of course a good time for that species, you know, as adults start moving south. There are a few records of them locally. But yeah, certainly osprey is the one that I really think of at this time of year, partly because it can go over just about anywhere, but obviously around us we're very lucky to have a lot of pits where they will often stop off on their migrations and sometimes spend several weeks. Birds often turn up in August, but then will, will
linger long into the autumn. But yeah, raptors, any sort of warm day it's always worth, especially if you work from home and you've got a nice big window that you can stare out of, always worth paying attention to the skies at this time of year. But of course it's not just raptors that fly over. It can be a good time for vis mig, and by that visible migration. T- thinking about species, various passerines. Great month for yellow wagtails going over. They seem to pick up as August goes on. Yeah. A big feature of August for me is getting up early, and on a particularly nice s- fairly still day, just a bit of a breeze, just hearing that lovely soft call of yellow wagtails in the sky. Trying to spot them, they're quite difficult to see in the blue. And i- i- if you really tune your ears in, the odd tree pipit among them too Yeah. Yeah It's interesting. Tree Pipit used to breed fairly locally, but it's, it's a bit of a mega rare at the reservoir. I've only ever seen two in all the years that I've been there. So yeah, it's very odd. They, we just don't seem to get them for some reason. Yeah. It's
strange. Yeah. It's a tricky bird. I think you have to be out early, and this is one tip I'd always say to, to people if they're going out for Tree Pipit. Best time always feels like the first kind of hour or so of daylight. Basically up until the sun, sun rises and not long after that. That's usually when I've had mine very early in the morning, usually around sunrise or just after. And I think there, uh, there's actually a recent paper that's come out about nocturnally migrating passerines, and it seems to demonstrate that these birds do rapidly drop off in their movements an hour or more after sunrise. So definitely if you wanna catch a, a vis mig Tree Pipit, and Yellow Wagtails for that matter, it's always worth out- being out early I'd say. Yeah. I know people who have been running NOC Mig at this time of year, and just the incidental aspect, like you say, of recording that f- first bit of daylight when they wouldn't normally be up birding. It's transformed their understanding of how common Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail are, particularly Tree Pipit- No, really ... yeah, in their local area just
'cause they wouldn't normally be getting up that early to- So you're just saying that I need to get out of bed earlier. Is that it? Pretty much, yeah. If you think it'd help your game, yeah. Yeah, I think, I think it's, um ... I mean, m- one of my sort of ideal August birding days would be, it's a ni- it's gonna be a nice warm day. There's a bit of a light breeze, as David described earlier. Get up to my local bit of farmland and start early, so you're out listening for things like Yellowlegs and Tree Pipits going over first thing. Then the sun'll come up, it'll start warming up, and, uh, in that next hour or so it's a great time for looking out for things like Winchester and Wheatears. These kind of birds that can occur anywhere really on farmland, but like a bit of scrubby or rough ground, and they, they seem to drop in at the end of the night and then start to feed and become a bit more prominent as the temperatures warm Yeah, I feel it's a case of waiting for the... They're after the insects, which will obviously g- be more prominent later in the day as the sun
tempts them out. And also it's a little bit of a case of them, like you say, they might have dropped out the sky early in the day, and they're filtering through trying to find a nice bit of habitat that they eventually settle on. And often still during the middle of the day, I'm seeing them looking like they're actually skipping through the landscape and still looking for somewhere to, to stop, if they're not just looking to make progress all day long anyway. Some of them might do that at times. Yeah. Abso- absolutely. And I'm sure many of our listeners already have well-established routes that they take at this time of year. But if you're just getting into the hobby and you're thinking about looking for a local site near you that is particularly good for these kind of migrating passerines, it's, it, it's well worth exploring some areas, try some walks out, perhaps use OS maps or Google Maps to identify interesting looking areas. I'd certainly say Google Maps in terms of the satellite imagery makes that a little bit easier. Mm. If you can find a nice bit of rough ground in, in, in the middle of farmland, that's often where these birds will gravitate to, especially if there's nice mature hedgerows as well. That, that always helps. And for example, right near me,
I've recently been working at a site called Milton Airfield over the past couple of years, and considering I live in the Fens or on the edge of the Fens, Milton's kind of the altitude's about 50 meters so it's not much- ... but in, in my landscape it is. It's on the edge of the edge of the Fens, and it's the first noticeable hill, and it's this plateau of a hill, and it's got lovely hedgerows and rough ground, and it's a site I identified as worth a look. It's had a track record historically of producing the odd whinchat, redstart, et cetera. And I've been watching it quite regularly over the last couple of years, and it's really been really quite fruitful. I've had, had a lot of reward out of it. Nothing scarce, but just classic August birds, so things like tree pipit, whinchat, common redstarts, spotted flycatcher, all these kind of birds. Lots of mixed flocks in the hedgerows to search through, so you're looking for things like various warblers. Always love seeing autumn lesser whitethroats this time of year. Yeah. That lovely frosted plumage. Oh, they're gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'd definitely look to, to identify a nice
habitat like that near you, and then just persist with it and give it a go and see what you can turn up. And I think you're very right with the altitude. Even if where you are, it's a matter of it doesn't sound like a huge hill, I've often found high ground makes such a difference almost to the extent that it's like turning a tap on and off. As soon as you get to the highest point in an area, it, it's... It gathers birds up. I've seen a study or two that says that altitude is one of the biggest determining factors of what draws birds in i- on migration to make landfall. That's really interesting. Um, they're far more likely to land on high ground. I almost think of them as like vertical headlands at times. Some places I'm familiar with a, a few miles inland are about as busy in August as places like Beachy Head per square kilometer for- Yeah for birds like warblers and flycatchers. Interesting. The, uh, the Lee Valley Flyway, as it were, it's really good when you're on the George on the east side and the... You're watching warblers moving. You can actually see them moving down the valley through the scrub that
lines the side of the river, and as you say, getting a few really nice crisp lesser whitethroats and juvenile willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, occasional garden warbler will go through. But you can actually see them moving south down the line of hedge. It's really quite excellent to watch. And then behind that we've got some rough paddocks which scan the fence line and the ragwort. And yeah, in August you can generally get a couple of whinchats, and yeah, always hoping for something rarer, but yeah, I'll take a whinchat at the moment. It's great. Yeah. Ab- absolutely. It... What you described just summarizes or epitomizes the dynamism o- o- of August birding. That the fact that no two days tend to be the same, and you can often actually see birds moving, not necessarily even just overhead. I just love that about the month and filtering through these flocks of birds moving along hedgerows or, and so on and so forth. It's all part of the fun. Occasionally, something really thrilling will pop out. You... I'm glad you mentioned willow warbler, by the way. I mean, those lemon yellow juvenile willow warblers, they almost feel like a different species to the ones that
turn up- Yeah. Yeah ... in, in April, don't they? I mean, it's so good. Even though they're a common... It's a common species, but they're just brilliant. But yeah, just sort of seeing, seeing them popping out the hedgerows amongst a tit flock and just soaking them up knowing it's the last time you're gonna see them for six months or so before they're back again the next spring. It's sad, but also exciting at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a month where patience and repeated visits really pay off. Like you say, no two days are the same. Sometimes it can feel even within one day, two visits are sometimes not the same. It's often worth going out again in the late afternoon. It's not like spring where a lot of activity, at least for the passerines, is focused in the morning. These birds just filtering through, they're not really bothered what time of day it is. They're just after fuel to migrate and after making some progress. They're gonna be moving through the landscape, and it's well worth getting out At least twice in a day if you possibly can, before and after work maybe. Yeah, definitely. I, I mean, I've c- I've certainly had that with things like whinchat and wheatear. I've had it where I've done a circuit first thing in the morning, there's been nothing, and all of a sudden you go back kind of 8:30, 9:00 AM when
it's warmed up a bit, and then out of nowhere there's a couple of whinchats, and then an hour later they've gone again. So they're obviously just still on the move. But yeah, whinchat, whinchat's a, a classic August species, and it is one that features ... It's actually on the front cover of the August issue of Birdwatch, and- Beautiful photo by, by you. Oh, thank you very much. I'm glad you mentioned it. Yeah. Yeah. In focus for a change. A really great article in the magazine as well from Ed Stubbs on, on, on whinchat, not just how to f- how and where to find them, but also how to age and sex them, because that's, going back to something I was saying earlier, it's, it's a good species to hone your skills of aging and sexing birds with. Yeah. It's ... That article really, if you're a new birder, it'll tell you a lot about how to find whinchat and how to tell them apart from species that are superficially similar, like stonechat. But what Ed's done brilliantly as well is if you are an experienced birder, I'm sure you'll learn something new about aging and sexing them. I find them quite challenging, and I learnt some stuff going through Ed's article and finding some photos, trying to check
ages. They are tricky, not least 'cause a lot of the time the scapular's obscure a lot of what would be the key details in the wing if you were a ringer and you were handling them. But in the field it's a little bit of a different challenge, but there's still clues you can look for there which, which are discussed in the piece. Yeah, to- totally. And I think as we were on the theme of tips for August birding, the one I'd give is check bird guides, see what's going on nationally. So often I have it where people say to me, "I'm not a twitcher, I don't need to, to use bird guides." And I say, "I'm not really a twitcher. I just use bird guides every day," and it's really useful for me to see what's going on around the country, see what species are mo- on the move, whether it's an influx of black terns or- Yeah, exactly ... whether it's pied flycatchers arriving on the East Coast. All these kind of indications, the news that you're seeing on the Bird Guides app, they're great indications for me to go out and I know what to be searching for, and it kind of hones therefore my patch birding tactics, where I decide to visit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. For example, if, if there's loads of pied flycatchers
on the coast, I know that in the coming days it's gonna be a really good idea for me to be checking hotspots for passerines. Equally, if there's an influx of little stints, let's say, then I'll be focusing on my local wetland. So yeah, I'd always be using the Bird Guides app at this time of year. It's an invaluable tool for guiding my patch birding, I would say. I find exactly the same. Often, like you say, after pied flycatchers, and wood warbler is another one. If they're reported at Spurn or on the North Kent coast or in Norfolk, I know, uh, yeah, get checking those tit flocks, which, yeah, is really a tactic that pays off at this time of year. Yeah, you get other things in with the tit flock sometimes, don't you? Always hoping for a wood warbler or something slightly more left field. And yeah, just watching big numbers of post-breeding tit flocks getting together and plowing through the scrub is, is always entertaining as well. It's a profitable time of year to be doing that. Obviously way more than winter 'cause i-in winter it's nice, you can get the odd Nuthatches, Treecreeper, maybe even a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. But
August, migrant birds, sometimes quite surprising ones can be tagging along, like Flycatchers, a Wood Warbler I found once or twice in, in tit flocks inland. A-and yeah, Lesser Spotted... Re-resident birds like Lesser Spotted Woodpecker can even get in there at that time of year too. That's all right for you southerners, but a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker's a bit of a pipe dream up here these days. Well, it's becoming that way here too. Yeah. Yeah. But, but it's a bit difficult locally as well. Epping Forest used to be, well, not easy, but relatively straightforward for a Lesser Spot, but not anymore. I think there was one drumming in Wanstead earlier in the season, but I haven't seen one in the Forest for several years now. Mm. They are still in there, but they're really difficult to get hold of. Yeah. Yeah. And I say August is like the second chance. Like, in years where I've not really got round to looking for them in the spring or not had any luck, August is like, obviously it, it's a bit more of a wild card. It's a bit less certain, but I... When I'm in areas where they are, I'm always thinking one could be among all these tits and Nuthatches and Treecreepers- Mm. if I'm in a, if I'm in a nice woodland. Yeah,
absolutely. I mean, August, so much to go out, so much to see, so much to do. It's a fun month, and I often find myself thinking I wish there were more hours in the daylight at this time of year, because it's just when you're trying to bird alongside work, you just wanna be out in the field all the time, especially when the weather's good and there's lots of stuff on the move. Finally, before we wrap up today's pod, I just wanted to throw it out to you guys in terms of kind of particularly fond personal memories of August birding. Doesn't necessarily have to be on your patch, but let's talk about patch first. David, what about you? Any-anything that particularly stands out for you? I've picked out three representing different kind of eras of my patch birding. So, uh, one was a quail, which isn't a species we've talked about- Mm. ... but that was at my patch in Surrey, Canons Farm on the edge of London, in late August. And at the time, that was the first real chance people in Surrey had to hear that species for I think a few years. It's the first... It was quite a big deal in Surrey at the time. Just to show it, it, it can, as well as the stuff we've talked about, it, it can throw things that you
think, you might otherwise think it's a bit late for. Wasn't thinking of quail at the end of August, and yet one was singing. And there's another time you actually helped me out, Josh, 'cause a Sabine's Gull turned up at Beddington. Like I said earlier, August, a great month for those. So again, a South London site I went to a lot. I'd missed three juveniles one October a few years before when I was in school, and an adult was found on the South Lake in August on a, I think just a normal kind of day with scattered cloud. And you covered me while I was doing the bird sighting service for BirdGuide, so you gave me a few hours off to go and see that, so you kept things running. Classic me. So selfless as always. Absolutely. Yeah. Can always count on you. And more recently, a couple of years ago, August 2024 Ian alluding earlier to these temporary kind of incidental changes to habitat that are almost like reserve management, but not with that intention in mind whatsoever. Locally at Scotney Gravel Pits, which is where, near where I live now in East Sussex, excavations there timed perfectly with August movement for
waders, and it was really incredible. I didn't find any of these myself, but went over there and, and got involved, and there were 20 to 30 green sandpipers, several wood sandpipers, little stint, Temminck's stint, pectoral sandpiper, all that just in one session. Amazing. So that's my slightly fresher in mind August highlight. Nice. What about yourself, Ian? I've never found anything really rare in August. I think one of the highlights was, uh, on the George a few years ago. It was a hot August day, and it, it... There's no shelter on the George at all, and I sort of ummed and ahhed as to whether I could be bothered to go up there 'cause I didn't expect to see anything or find anything, and I got up to the causeway and was about to give up having seen the standard half a dozen common terns, and then I looked down to my right, and there was a, an absolutely pristine juvenile little stint, and- Beautiful so I was absolutely... It was straight out of the box. Fantastic. So I went back round by about 50 yards and went over the fence and
sort of sat down actually in, by the edge of the basin, and this stint, clearly, as we said earlier, had never seen a human before, and it almost walked over my feet. It was- Amazing. Yeah, it was a superb encounter. Yeah, absolutely brilliant. Very memorable. Yeah, that would be my, one of my big August highlights. You, Josh? Ooh, I'd pick out a few. Waders seem to be the common theme here. Um, late August 2022, that's a recent one for me. It was a great year for waders on my patch, there was some good habitat. It was, again, it was quite a dry year, so the water level had dropped and we had a really nice margin on the lake, one of the lakes at my patch. And I had a flock of eight different species of wader gathering on one really small island. Oh, wow. Uh, it was just mind-boggling. It was, uh, one of those pinch me moments, really. So I'd... In, in this flock were curlew and wood sandpipers, common sandpiper, common snipe, little ringed and ringed plovers, ruff, and dunlin. Wow.
Um, and they were all there together on this small island. It was just surreal. There were only one or two of each species, but it was just one of those moments where for whatever reason, this small island was just particularly good feeding and everything had converged on it. And you're looking at these birds, may- there was maybe about a dozen or so birds there in this eight species, and you're kind of like, "I wonder where you've all come from," you know? Yeah. Where some are probably from Scandinavia, maybe some are from Northern Britain, some are from Iceland. The little ringed plovers are probably quite local. But yeah, I even managed a photo of five species all together in one shot, which was really cool. Amazing. Yeah. So that, that was a lot of fun. I mentioned that black tern flock a little bit earlier in the pod. But also, yeah, just I'd just give a shout-out to passerine-wise to Milton Airfield, which is the site I mentioned earlier. Had one day in late August 2024, classic warm late August day. Got there early, tree pipits and yellow wagtails going over first thing. Couple of tree pipits and about 15 or so yellow wags. As it warmed up, I had
two common redstarts in the hedges- Oof ... drawn to them by their sort of classic wheek calling, which sounds a bit like a willow warbler, but not quite. So yeah, they were really shy and hard to see, but occasionally you just get a kind of a reddish tail. And then had whinchat as well. And then actually one of the highlights, not the rarest bird of the session, but the highlight for me was flushing a grasshopper warbler. Oh, wow. Oh. Yeah. Which is, it's a bird that I'm... I don't see much of really at all in my area these days, sadly, but it's always a bird that I expect to see or more accurately hear in April when birds are moving through. But yeah, to get an autumn bird was really fun, and it was like just walking through this rough grassy field and flushing, flushing one a bit like you would a, a rare locustella when you're up in Shetland or something. So it was really exciting to see it in that context. I had one like that in Surrey a few years ago, flushing up with house sparrows on the edge of a field. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. Bizarre. Yeah, it's quite a- they always take you by surprise, don't they? 'Cause I don't know what it is. You clearly, that's how you are gonna see them, but they always surprise you and weird you
out momentarily. It's like, "Whoa, what was that with that really- Yeah ... big, long fan-shaped tail?" Yeah. And you're very right about redstart. That's a good sound to be tuned into. It's v- it's very subtle, isn't it? It's almost between a willow warbler and a chiffchaff. But ... And also nightingale is a good call to internalize at this time of year, 'cause they could turn up in random spots. Yeah, very true. Lots of fun August birding anecdotes there, and hopefully a few handy tips as well for listeners. That was really fun to recap on August, and I'm actually really looking forward to the coming month now as well. It's gonna be a, be an exciting one. Hopefully some tick ticks and some really good birding to follow. But yeah, thanks for listening, and thanks for tuning in. Uh, as always, you can like and follow us on various social media platforms. You can tune in to birdguides.com/podcast for everything we do. Uh, and yeah, we look forward to seeing you again soon. See you later. Cheers. You have been listening to the Bird Guides Podcast. For the latest and best birding content,
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