Category: Nature: Birds

Great Bustard Nests Found Within Cranborne Chase National Landscape

20th January 2026

From the Facebook page of Cranborne Chase National Landscape:

We’re thrilled to share that for the first time ever recorded, Great Bustard nests were found within Cranborne Chase National Landscape in May 2025.

Nesting has previously been seen on the border, but in 2025 two nests were found by the Great Bustard Group in a field of Sainfoin located North of the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, thanks to the use of FiPL funded drones.

Head to the blog to read all about it > https://cranbornechase.org.uk/great-bustard-nests-found…/

www.facebook.com/CranborneChase

Love Lapwings In Flight

Friday 2nd January 2026

Danny Howell writes:

I saw a big flock (or should that be a deceit) of lapwings at Bishopstrow Farm late afternoon today. I loved watching them in their erratic bouts of flight over Bridge Park, Dairy Field and the Gully Field, turning and tumbling, their white parts glinting in the winter sunshine. A wonderful sight.

An Egret, Two Herons And Two Swans

Tuesday 26th November 2025

Danny Howell writes:

As I walked from Bishopstrow to Boreham during the early part of this afternoon (Tuesday 26th November 2025) I saw a white egret flying over the course of the River Wylye at Hounds Mead.

Later that afternoon when I called in at Bishopstrow Mill to see Paul and Julia Gibson, Julia told me how that morning she had been for coffee with Hannah Anderson at Waterways, Watery Lane, Bishopstrow, and on the water by Waterways were an egret, two herons and two swans.

The Sap Has Risen On Avian Males!

Monday 15th April 2024

Nigel Linge writes:

Spring is clearly upon us and the sap has risen on avian males! I watched a pair of male blackbirds scrapping on my lawn [at Swift Mead, Warminster] when I noticed some fluttering by the shed door. It was a blue tit fighting with its own image on a curved mirror on the shed door. The poor thing was flying up and down and was getting exhausted. I shooed it off yesterday but it was back again this morning. I covered the mirror so hopefully he will get on with his life.

Woodland Birds In Decline

Thursday 9th November 2023

The BTO (British Trust For Ornithology) have tweeted on X:

The woodland breeding bird index for the UK, updated earlier this week, has declined by 37% between 1970 and 2022, and by 15% just over the recent short-term period from 2017–2022. This means that woodland birds are currently our most rapidly-declining group.

A Bustard In Dairy Field, Bishopstrow Farm

Tuesday 30th May 2023

Danny Howell writes:

The field beans growing in the southern part of Dairy Field, Bishopstrow Farm, Bishopstrow, are three inches or so in height. And the soil is looking rather dry and dusty because the weather today is sunny and warm, as it has been these last few days (except the wind isn’t so warm in the more open and exposed areas of Salisbury Plain). The glory was added to today when at 3.50 p.m. I saw a bustard running quickly across the beans, heading north to south over the field. Judging by its size I’m guessing it might have been a juvenile bird. It ran into the undergrowth of grass, nettles, and other greenery including trees between the edge of the beans and the farm barns. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a bustard on this particular farm.