SET A TARGET OF SEEING 200 BIRDS IN ONE YEAR!
June might boast the year’s longest hours of daylight (meaning there’s no excuse for not fitting in a bit more birding), but it’s also the best time of year to go birding during the hours of darkness. Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to add some great new birds to your list...
1 Owls are the obvious targets for night-time birding, and June’s a good time to look for the four less numerous species (Tawnys will be heard, if not seen, at most times of year). With very limited hours of darkness, Barn Owls will hunt by daylight, while Little Owls may also be seen out basking in sheltered, sunny spots.
Short-eared Owls quarter their moorland breeding areas, and listen for the ‘rusty hinge’ call of young Long-eared Owls.
2 Woodcock continue to perform their ‘roding’ display flight throughout spring, over woodland clearings, rides, or on the edge of forested areas. You might hear them before you see them, making a loud, frog-like croak, but scanning the dusk skies above such habitat should reveal the source of the sound.
3 Nightjars breed mainly in southern and eastern England, but they may be underrecorded elsewhere, so any areas of heathland (the dryer the better) are worth checking. Again, the first clue to their presence is the oddly mechanical ‘churring’ song (which accounts for their old folk name of ‘gabble ratchet’), but look out for them in flight just as the last light goes, with the male’s white wingspots showing up well.
4 Nightingales sing most intensively during April and May, but continue into June. Their population is mostly concentrated in the south and east, with some outposts in the
