FIVE TO FIND IN SEPTEMBER

September is a wonderful month for birdwatching. There are plenty of birds on the move, and there is still a decent amount of daylight each day to enjoy them. It can even be quite warm. What more could you want? Here are five birds to check out this month, conditions permitting… 1 JUVENILE SPOTTED REDSHANK

As we never tire of reminding you, the relatively scarce and graceful Spotted Redshank comes in three main flavours. Breeding adults are largely jet black (even the legs!) and winter birds are pale grey and white (with red legs). But, why not look for the handsome juveniles this month? They look cold brown from a distance (almost like a Redshank), but a closer view reveals neat and uniform fine barring on the underparts and neat spotting on the upperparts (and orange legs). All phases lack the white trailing edge shown by Redshank (in flight) and have long legs and toes which project well beyond the tail, in flight. The bill is long and thing and straight, with red only at the base of the lower mandible. A big (though not foolproof) ID clue is that Spotted Redshanks often wade belly deep, where Redshanks fear to tread.

2 SNIPE

A wader which many of us ‘ forget about’ for much of the year, though there are 80,000 breeding pairs in the country. In autumn, like other waders, they start to disperse further from the breeding grounds and begin to appear in suitable wetlands, probing round the fringes of well-vegetated pits and scrapes, as well as unseen in grassy and reedy marshes. They are shy birds, taking flight easily and zig-zagging away while making a weird, squelching sneeze sound. When they are relaxed, they feed with a wonderful ‘sewing machine’ action, probing deep with their ridiculously long, straight bills. The pattern is cryptic, with stripes running longitudinally along the head (unlike the larger Woodcock, which has transverse barring on the head).

3 SOOTY SHEARWATER

The dynamic, dashing, delightful Sooty Shearwater is, like some of our other scarce tubenoses, a visitor from the Southern Hemisphere. Though notably larger than a Manx Shearwater and the Balearic Shearwater (with which it can be mistaken), this is often hard to judge on distant birds, at sea (which is where you will see Sooties, which are extremely rare inland). Remember, though, they are much, much smaller than juvenile Gannets. The dark plumage with silvery underwings may lead to confusion with dark-morph skuas, so concentrate on the flight style, which is typically speedy and with much of the classic stiff-winged shearing flight of shearwaters.

4 BLACK TERN

In spring and summer, Black Terns, which are passage birds only in the UK, are black-andgrey birds. In the autumn, however, the adults are white underneath with paler grey backs, black caps and dark shoulder patches. Juveniles ( left) are similar, but usually look to have a darker back (mantle), which on closer inspection is finely barred, as the edges of the dark feathers have pale fringes. Though most are seen passing at the coast, Black Terns are ‘marsh terns’ and are happy feeding at inland water bodies, so check your local patch for these special visitors.

5 PTARMIGAN

This gorgeous grouse is not the sort of bird which appears on passage on your local patch. Ptarmigans are strictly mountain birds and generally don’t travel much, apart from up and down their local high mountains, and even then, not frequently. Ptarmigan seem to be able to survive on pure mountain air, living at altitudes where there is hardly any vegetation to nibble on. In autumn, they start to transition from the summer colours which blend them in with the lichen and granite, to the famed pure white feathering which hides them beautifully in the snows of winter. If you want to add this bird to your year list, this month, you better head to the Scottish Highlands.