Tag Archives: birding

The ‘heard before seen challenge’ – calls of wagtails

***Feedback on this challenge gratefully received as a comment on this post.*** If you know your wagtails, you may have spotted that the picture is of a rare visitor to the British Isles, a Citrine Wagtail, rather than one of the three commoner ones – Pied, Grey and Yellow – which will be the focus […]

The ‘garden frequenters challenge part 3’ – calls of thrushes

***Feedback on this challenge gratefully received as a comment on this post.*** Part 3 of the ‘garden frequenters challenge’ covers the calls of the common thrushes. Like the tits in part 2, these are birds which are usually easy to identify by sight but their calls may be harder to remember. Step 1 – Describe […]

The ‘garden frequenters challenge part 1’ – calls of Robin, Wren, Dunnock, and a couple of warblers

***Feedback on this challenge gratefully received as a comment on this post.*** I’m going to start with the assumption that you can already recognise the songs of common garden birds. With those under your belt, adding the calls and alarm calls of frequent garden visitors is a good place to start to build your confidence. […]

Bird calls – devising a learning programme

More confidence with distinguishing between calls might take my winter and spring birding to the next level, and I’m optimistic that the ability to learn less obvious calls is something many of us could get better at if only we had a good programme to work through and some targeted learning materials. As an educator, […]