Category: Bird articles

When you are out and about, walking off the Turkey and mince pies (and wine), you may wish to keep your eye out for a few winter visitors to The Lizard. As with any season late autumn and early winter brings some different and often wonderful species onto The Lizard. Many species come south, migrating…

Dear Friends of the Lizard, Steve Townsend at Natural England has asked me to write and tell you about my new book, A Lizard Bird Diary: A Study of the Birds of the South Lizard Peninsula 1970-2015. Much has been written about the flora of the Lizard but apart from two breeding surveys, the birds…

With Christmas and the New Year approaching it’s time to start thinking about New Year resolutions. How about committing to ‘keeping it clean’ for wildlife?Garden birds bring great pleasure to millions of people across the UK, and for some it’s the only contact with wildlife and nature they have. I too am a great lover…

Around and about Lizard Point is known as a good area for birding, but travel a bit further north and west, and there is plenty to see. The whole area is well served by a network of footpaths, most of which have The Lizard village as a hub, so the best sites are all very…

Right now hedges, trees, heath and grassland as well as nestboxes are all of a flutter as the breeding season gets into full swing. Birds are busy diving into all manner of hidey holes and secret places, beaks packed with insect food for their hungry chicks. Egg-laying season is typically between late March and May,…

First published on the website in 2016, this article by Dougy Wright (Warden of Windmill Farm Nature Reserve) explains where best to go on The Lizard to see birds in the later winter and early spring. As with much of the natural world, birds are starting to come to life, as winter slowly eases into…

Fig1: Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus)* The Balearic Shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus is Europe’s only Critically Endangered seabird with a population thought to be around 3200 breeding pairs (18000-25000 individuals). The breeding population is mostly restricted to the Balearic archipelago but the seas around Cornwall are very important foraging areas especially for young birds.

You might well remember that, on a magical day in 2001, three red-billed Choughs arrived on the Lizard after being absent from Cornwall for nearly 30 years. This article is the 2014 update on the Choughs’ story.Photo: Andy Hay (rspbimages.com) 

With winter finally retreating into history and warmer days once more with us, many people will be noting their favourite signs of the coming of Spring and Summer. For some it will be the sight of bluebells in the woods or the arrival of swallows and other summer migrants. One of my favourites comes late…

This small, dark, long-tailed warbler is a resident breeder in the UK but in low numbers. It has suffered in the past from severe winters: its population crashed to a few pairs in the 1960s, since when it has gradually recovered, increasing in both numbers and range. Image copyright: Vic Froome (rspbimages.com) It is still…

Winter brings some special visitors to the Lizard. This article describes some of the bird species you can hope to see on a December day. As with all the seasons, winter brings some special visitors to the Lizard. I love getting out on the heath on crisp winter days and am always on the look-out…

Have you ever looked really closely at a cow pat? Photo: Anthony Miners