Alle afleveringen van Tweet of the Day – pagina 11 van 15

Woodcock

1 april 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Kate Humble presents the woodcock. Woodcocks are waders, thickset, long-billed, and superbly camouflaged. On the woodland floor, where they hide by day, their rust, fawn and black plumage conceals them among the dead leaves of winter. Often the first sign that they're about is a blur of russet and a whirr of wings as a woodcock rises from almost under your feet and twists away between the tree-trunks.

Ring Ouzel

31 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the ring ouzel. Ring ouzels are related to blackbirds and because they nest in the uplands, they’re sometimes known as the ‘mountain blackbird’. The male ring ouzel is a handsome bird, sooty black with a broad white ring called a ‘gorget’ right across his chest that stands out like a beacon. Unfortunately these summer visitors are becoming harder to find even in their strongholds, which include the North York Moors and several Scottish and Welsh mountains.

Big Bird

29 maart 2014 · 2 min

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As part of Radio 4's Character Invasion, Chris Packham presents a unique Tweet of the Day to tell the story of Big Bird. Lees meer

Avis giganteus, is , as its scientific name suggests, a large, conspicuous and highly vocal species, and one of the few birds for which binoculars are redundant. At a staggering 249 cm high, it is over-topped only by the male ostrich. But while the ostrich is an athletic creature of wild open spaces, our bird is a denizen of urban thoroughfares and film studios.

Black Redstart

28 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the black redstart. It was the German Luftwaffe which enabled black redstarts to gain a real foothold here. The air-raids of the Blitz created bombsites which mimicked their rocky homes and the weeds that grew there attracted insects. In 1942 there over twenty singing males in London alone and now they're being encouraged by the creation of ‘green roof’ habitats, rich in flowers and insects.

Little Ringed Plover

27 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the little ringed plover. In 1938, there was great excitement at a Hertfordshire reservoir. On the gravelly shoreline a pair of birds, which had never bred in the UK before, were showing signs of nesting. They were little ringed plovers, summer visitors to Continental Europe and they'd been attracted to the reservoirs' shingle banks where they laid their clutch of four eggs. Today there are around a thousand pairs in the UK.

Ruff

26 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the ruff. The glory of the ruff lies in its extravagant courtship displays. For most of the year these waders look similar to our other long-legged water-birds such as redshanks or sandpipers but in the breeding season the males sprout a multi-coloured ruff. The impressive ruffs of feathers come in infinite variety, black, white, ginger, or a mixture of these. The males gather at traditional spring leks with the aim of winning one or more mates.

Alpine Swift

25 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the alpine swift. Alpine swifts are impressive anchor-shaped birds, the colour of coffee above and milk-white below. In the UK Alpine swifts are annual visitors, appearing in Spring, but they don't breed here. They spend the winter in Africa and on their journey north in spring some birds overshoot their breeding areas. Alpine swifts can be seen as they arc through the skies and because they travel so fast they can turn up almost anywhere from central London to Shetland.

Egyptian Goose

24 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the Egyptian goose. Although Egyptian geese are common throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and in Egypt, they are now officially a British bird. These striking birds attracted the attention of wildfowl collectors and the first geese were brought to the UK in the 17th century. By the 1960's it became obvious that the geese were breeding in the wild in East Anglia and since then they've spread in south and eastern England.

Snow Goose

21 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the snow goose. Snow geese breed in the Canadian Arctic and fly south in autumn to feed. Their migrations are eagerly awaited and the arrival of thousands of these white geese with black-wingtips is one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles. Here, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, snow geese are seen every year, often with flocks of other species such as white-fronted geese. Snow geese are commonly kept in captivity in the UK, and escaped birds can and do breed in the wild. So, when a white shape turns up amongst a flock of wild grey geese, its origins are always under scrutiny.

Goldeneye

20 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the goldeneye. Although they’re a common winter visitor, you’ll need to travel to Speyside in the Scottish Highlands to see goldeneyes in their breeding season where, since 1970, a small population has bred there. Unlike dabbling ducks, such as mallard and teal, they don’t need muddy shorelines and lots of vegetation. Goldeneyes are diving ducks that feed mainly on shellfish and crustaceans.

Sand Martin

19 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Bill Oddie presents the sand martin. The flickering shapes of sand martins over a lake or reservoir are a welcome sign of spring. After winging their way across the Sahara Desert, the first birds usually arrive in the UK in March. They're smaller than house martins or swallows, and they're brown above and white below with a brown band across their chest. Often you can hear their dry buzzing calls overhead before you see them. Lees meer

Producer: Sarah Pitt

Great Crested Grebe

18 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the great crested grebe. In Spring, great crested grebes perform a high ritualized mating display. This includes head shaking and a spectacular performance during which both male and female birds gather bunches of waterweed and as they swim towards each other, before rising vertically in the water, chest to chest, and paddling furiously to keep themselves upright.

Grey Partridge

17 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the Grey partridge. The grey partridge, a plump game bird, is now a rarity across most of the UK. Found on farmland, a partridge pair will often hold territory in a few fields beyond which they seldom stray during their whole lives. They should be doing well but increasing field sizes, which reduce nesting cover and the use of pesticides, which kill off vital insects, have taken their toll.

Woodlark

14 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the woodlark. Woodlarks are closely related to skylarks, but they're much rarer in the UK, where they’re mainly confined, as breeding birds, to southern England. Unlike the skylark, the male woodlark will sing from trees but his piece de resistance is the song-flight in which he flies slowly in a broad loop, often very high above his territory.

Cetti's Warbler

13 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the Cetti's warbler. Until the 1960s, Cetti's warblers were unknown in the UK but on the Continent they were common in marshy areas, especially dense scrub and the edge of reed-beds and ditches. They first bred in these habitats in south-east England in the early 1970s and by the end of the century their loud and sudden song-bursts were startling people from southern England and South Wales and northwards as far as Yorkshire.

Rook

12 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the rook. High in the treetops buffeted by March winds, rooks are gathering twigs to build their untidy nests. The bustle of a rookery is one of the classic sounds of the UK countryside, especially in farming areas, where rooks are in their element, probing the pastures and ploughed fields with long pickaxe bills.

Peregrine

11 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the peregrine. The peregrine is a truly awesome predator and a bird that we associate with wild places where, with wings flickering like knife-blades, it chases its prey in thrilling pursuits and breath-taking dives. Our city churches, cathedrals and other tall buildings are a perfect substitute for cliffs and quarries where they like to nest and with a plentiful supply of town pigeons they’re thriving in these artificial eyries.

Treecreeper

10 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the treecreeper. Treecreepers are common woodland birds but because their high-pitched almost whispering song, is often drowned out by the dawn chorus, they're often overlooked. The first glimpse may be a silhouette, its belly close to the bark, braced by stiff tail feathers. It has a curved, tweezer-like bill with with which it delicately probes for hidden insects and spiders deep in the crevices of the bark.

Nuthatch

7 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the nuthatch. Nuthatches are the only UK birds that can climb down a tree as fast they can go up and you'll often see them descending a trunk or hanging beneath a branch. Nuthatches are unmistakable: blue-grey above, chestnut under the tail and with a black highwayman's mask.

Lapwing

6 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the lapwing. The lovely iridescent greens and purples of the lapwing: with its delicate crest and broad rounded wings that almost seem to twinkle in level flight, they are seen less often on our farmland today. At one time they were so common that their freckled eggs were harvested and sent off to the cities to pamper the palates of urban epicures.

Chiffchaff

5 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about the British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the chiffchaff. Chiffchaff are small olive warblers which sing their name as they flit around hunting for insects in woods, marshes and scrubby places. Chiffchaffs are increasing in the UK and the secret of their success is their ability to weather our winters. Many stay in the milder south and south-west of England where the insects are more active.

Producer Sarah Pitt

Blackbird (Spring)

4 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the blackbird. Blackbirds are thrushes and the brown female often has a few speckles on her throat to prove it. Velvety, black and shiny, the males sport an eye-ring as yellow as a spring daffodil and a bill glowing like a buttercup. Happily blackbirds aren't doing too badly. There's so many of them that their territories often overlap so that where one song leaves off, another song begins.

St Kilda Wren

3 maart 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Bill Oddie presents the St Kilda wren. The Island of St Kilda is not where you'd expect to see wrens but the wrens that sing along the cliffs of St Kilda are the same species as the common wren, but after 5000 years of isolation they've evolved a different song and are slightly larger and slightly paler than the mainland wrens. Bill Oddie remembers an encounter with the St Kilda Wren.

Wigeon

28 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the wigeon. Wigeon are dabbling ducks and related to mallards and teal but unlike these birds Wigeon spend much of their time out of the water grazing waterside pastures with their short blue-grey bills. The drakes are handsome-looking birds with chestnut heads and a cream forehead which contrasts well with their pale grey bodies.

John Aitchison recorded a flock of wigeon, for Tweet listeners, on a pool in Norfolk where they had found a safe place to roost on an island.

Black-throated Diver

27 februari 2014 · 2 min

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John Aitchison presents the black-throated diver. Black-throated divers are strong contenders for our most beautiful bird. Their breeding plumage with a neck barcoded in white, an ebony bib and a plush grey head is dramatic. The black dagger-like bill and broad lobed feet are perfect for catching and pursuing fish, which the divers bring to their chicks in nests on the shoreline of the Scottish Lochs on which they breed. Lees meer

Producer: Sarah Pitt

White-fronted Goose

26 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the white-fronted goose. Flocks of White-Fronted Geese return each year to their favourite wintering areas, the bogs and and saltmarshes of Ireland and the Severn Estuary as well as western Scotland, although smaller flocks are found elsewhere. John Aitchison recorded the musical yapping of white-fronted geese for Tweet listeners as they flew over his home in western Scotland.

Golden Pheasant

25 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the golden pheasant. Golden pheasants are native to the mountains of China where they live in thick bamboo forest. The males are brightly-coloured; gold and scarlet, with a long tail and a cape of black and orange which they use to woo the much duller brown females. From the late 1800's Golden Pheasants were introduced to many bird collections and shooting estates around the UK. Today the strongest colonies are in East Anglia.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

24 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the lesser spotted woodpecker. Lesser spotted woodpeckers are the smallest of our three woodpeckers and about the size of a house sparrow. They have horizontal white stripes across their backs, hence their old name of 'barred woodpecker'. The lesser spotted woodpecker is one of our most elusive birds. For most of the year it's relatively silent but in late February and March, males begin to stake out their territories in old woods and orchards by calling loudly and drumming softly.

Slavonian Grebe

21 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison tells the story of the Slavonian grebe. In winter, Slavonian Grebes, with their vermilion eyes, bright and shiny as redcurrants, fly south from Scandinavia and Iceland to spend the winter around our coasts. Their winter plumage is black, grey and white but in spring they moult into their breeding plumage with a rich chestnut throat and belly and golden ear-tufts. A small population breed on a few Scottish Lochs where you might hear their trilling calls.

Parrot Crossbill

20 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison tells the story of the parrot crossbill. The Parrot Crossbill lives only in a few native pinewoods in Scotland. When they're at the top of pine trees a view of the Parrot Crossbill is tricky, so crossbill experts use the birds' calls to tell them apart from Common and Scottish Crossbills. Parrot crossbills have a deeper call than the others.

Chough

19 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison tells the story of the chough. Our healthiest chough populations are in Ireland, southwest and north Wales and western Scotland. The last English stronghold was in Cornwall and Choughs feature on the Cornish coat of arms. Even here they became extinct until wild birds from Ireland re-colonised the county in 2001. Now the birds breed regularly on the Lizard peninsula.

Skylark

18 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison tells the story of the skylark. No other UK bird is capable of sustaining such a loud and complex song while hovering high above the ground, rapidly beating its wings to stay aloft. Some songs can last 20 minutes or more and their performance is likely to be as much a territorial display as an exhibition of the male's physical fitness to impress a female.

Canada Goose

17 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison tells the story of the Canada goose. These large black-necked geese with white cheeks and chinstraps are native to Canada and the USA. The first reference to them in the UK is in 1665 when English diarist, John Evelyn, records that they were in the waterfowl collection of King Charles II at St. James' Park in London.

Waxwing

14 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the waxwing. Waxwings are winter visitors from Russia and Scandinavia where they breed in conifer forests. They head south to feed on berries and other fruits, and if these are in short supply on the Continent, the birds flood into the UK. It happens every few years or so and the sight of these punk-crested plunderers swarming over rowan and other berry-producing trees is sure to attract your attention.

Long-Eared Owl

13 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the long-eared owl. The low moaning hoot of a long-eared owl filters through the blackness of a pine wood. Long-eared owls are nocturnal and one of our most elusive breeding birds. They nest in conifer woods, copses and shelter-belts of trees near wide open grasslands and heaths where they hunt for rodents.

Dunnock

12 februari 2014 · 2 min

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John Aitchison presents the dunnock. You'll often see dunnocks, or hedge sparrows, as they were once called, shuffling around under a bird table or at the bottom of a hedge. They're inconspicuous birds being mostly brown with a greyish neck and breast. They aren't, as you might imagine, closely related to sparrows, many of their nearest relatives are birds of mountainous regions in Europe and Asia.

Wren

11 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the wren. You'll often see the male wren, with its tail cocked jauntily, singing from a fence-post or shrub, bill wide and trembling with the effort of producing that ear-splitting territorial advertisement. It's the extrovert side of what can be an introvert bird that normally creeps, like a mouse, among banks of foliage or in crevices between rocks. They can live almost anywhere from mountain crags and remote islands to gardens and city parks.

Chaffinch

10 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

John Aitchison presents the chaffinch. The name chaffinch refers to its habit of flocking in stubble fields, often in the company of other birds, to sort through the chaff for seeds. In less tidy times when spilled grain was a regular feature in farmyards and stubble was retained for longer periods, these winter flocks were widespread.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

7 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the great spotted woodpecker. In late winter and early spring, brightly-coloured head-bangers are livening up the woods. The handsome Great Spotted Woodpecker really knows how to grab our attention. They don't sing but instead advertise their territories by drumming loudly on the branch or trunk of a tree.

Avocet

6 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the avocet. With its black and white plumage, blue-grey legs and delicate upturned bill, the avocet is one of our easiest birds to identify. They are a conservation success and are now breeding in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Kent and elsewhere.

Mallard

5 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the mallard. Mallards are our commonest ducks. In winter, mallards from Continental Europe join our resident birds. Some may have flown from as far away as Russia and many infiltrate local flocks, so the bills which snatch your bread may have been born hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres away.

Great Bustard

4 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the great bustard. Great bustards, one of the heaviest flying birds in the world, were most common in Wiltshire and East Anglia but in the past they were hunted to extinction and the last known breeding birds in the UK were in 1832.

Today, great bustards are back on Salisbury Plain, thanks to the work of the Great Bustard Group. The Group aims to establish a self-sustaining population in the UK.

Grey Heron (Winter)

3 februari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the grey heron. Winter can be a challenging time for grey herons. In freezing conditions, their favoured food supplies of fish and amphibians are locked beneath the ice and prolonged spells of cold weather can be fatal for these birds.

Great Northern Diver

31 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the great northern diver. The wailing cries of a great northern diver echo around the lakes where they live. If the bird sounds striking, then its appearance is just as dramatic....a dagger bill, sleek submarine–shaped body, it's plumage covered in graphic patterns of black and white stripes, dots and dashes.

Hen Harrier

30 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the hen harrier. The sight of hen harriers floating in to their roost on a winter's afternoon is one that once seen, you'll never forget. Hen harriers are long-winged, graceful birds of prey which hunt by quartering rough ground such as marshes and moorland.

Grey Wagtail

29 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the grey wagtail. Grey wagtails are supremely graceful birds which boost their appeal by nesting in photogenic locations. They revel in shaded spots near swift-flowing water and will also nest by canal lock-gates or mill-races.

Blue Tit

28 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the blue tit. The perky blue tit is a stalwart of garden bird-feeders. This popular British bird has a blue cap and wings, olive green back and yellow belly. The male and females look identical to us but blue tits can clearly tell each other apart, find out how in this episode.

Shoveler

27 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the shoveler. Swimming in circles, their huge beaks trawling the surface, shovelers do the job of baleen whales on our lakes and ponds. In winter our shoveler population is boosted by Continental birds. They're rather shy though and you're not likely to see them taking bread on the park lake!

Merlin

24 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs. Lees meer

Chris Packham presents the story of the merlin. These diminutive falcons nest in deep heather on moorland, mainly in the north and west. In winter they also hunt over open country, hillsides and coastal marshes. The male merlin or jack is our smallest falcon, about the size of a mistle thrush.

Moorhen

23 januari 2014 · 2 min

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Chris Packham presents the story of the Moorhen. Almost anywhere there's freshwater you might hear or see a moorhen. They're easy to identify from their red and yellow bill, red shield on the forehead and green-ish yellow legs with a red patch that looks like a garter.