Listing Birds

Thursday, February 20th 2025

I like making lists, and as a birdwatcher I keep a list of all the birds I see each year. I haven’t had the chance to go far on my birdwatching trips this year; limited to my garden, local patches in walking distance, and of course Foxglove Covert. So, my list is still quite short for 2025, and full of the usual suspects; blackbird, robin, jackdaw, et cetera. But one day this week was a particularly good day for birdwatching at Foxglove Covert, and I saw three new species in one day.

Arriving in the morning, I glanced out the window to the Field Centre garden, and immediately caught sight of a Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) in amongst the Lesser Redpolls (Acanthis cabaret), happily enjoying the niger seed. And then – another, and another, and another – at least 8 Brambling in the garden. The last sighting of Brambling at Foxglove was in early December 2024, so it was lovely to see them back at the reserve, and a first for 2025 for me.

Only a couple of hours later, while clearing some vegetation around Spigot Mere, Reserve Manager Carl flushed a Snipe (Gallinago gallinago) from the edge of the pond, and we watched as it frantically flew away. It was a very brief encounter, as encounters with Snipe often are. It has been a little while since I’ve seen a Snipe, so it was a nice bird to add to my 2025 list.

The final new bird of the year was the Little Egret (Egretta garzetta). These small herons are a beautiful bright white with contrasting black legs and a shock of yellow on the feet. The rapid expansion of the Little Egret’s range means that for me, growing up in North Yorkshire, this bird has gone from a rare sight to a relatively common one. But I still hadn’t had the chance to spot one in 2025. One was seen by volunteers on the lake just two weeks earlier, and I’ve been keeping a look out for it ever since. It was therefore a delight when we caught sight of it stood near the lake, just before it took off and flew slowly away, a stark white spot over the treetops.

Hopefully many more interesting birds will show up at Foxglove Covert in 2025!

- El, Reserve Ranger

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