Category Archives: Birds

Birds – the avian dinosaurs

Enhancement Week

Posted on 2015/11/15 by Chris Foster

School of Biological Sciences students and staff alike enjoyed a veritable wildlife bonanza during week 6 ‘enhancement week’, with a range of sessions including bird ringing and moth trapping that served to demonstrate you don’t have to go far for a … Continue reading →

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A Nightingale Sings In Whiteknights Park

Posted on 2015/05/21 by Chris Foster

This afternoon I was out enjoying the sunshine and doing a spot of fly-catching in the meadows near the meteorology field station. At about half past 3, I thought I heard – or perhaps imagined – the jug-jug-jug-jug phase of a nightingale’s … Continue reading →

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Bird Tracking

Posted on 2015/01/14 by Chris Foster

On December 12th a colour-ringed black-headed gull, white 26L1, was spotted on Whiteknights Lake by dedicated campus birdwatcher Peter Gipson. Pleasingly, it proved to have been ringed as part of the Berkshire gull scheme run by Tim Ball’s Reading and … Continue reading →

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Christmas in Bloom

Posted on 2014/12/16 by Chris Foster

The warmest year on record seems to be allowing a number of plants to cling on in flower. Perhaps they’re limbering up for the BSBI’s New Year Plant Hunt, which this year is being coordinated with assistance from Reading graduate Ryan Clark. Both Scentless … Continue reading →

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A 9th for Berkshire

Posted on 2014/10/28 by Chris Foster

We have a new addition to the campus bird list following the exciting discovery by David Flack from the Meteorology department of Berkshire’s ninth recorded yellow-browed warbler. He kindly sent me the following account of his find: “I got into … Continue reading →

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Birds On The Move

Posted on 2014/10/20 by Chris Foster

hough Whiteknights is perhaps not the best spot to observe bird migration, a few species have been on the move in the last couple of weeks. Our most abundant summer visitor, the chiffchaff, is still around (though in declining numbers), … Continue reading →

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Campus 21st May 2014

Posted on 2014/05/21 by Alastair Culham

Sometimes my walk in to work is so amazing I just have to take some photos.  Today I wanted to check on the progress with the developing reed beds that will promote greater biodiversity around Whiteknights lake.  The blue sky … Continue reading →

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Wings Over Whiteknights

Posted on 2013/12/02 by Chris Foster

Last week saw the completion of a landmark ornithological publication. That’s right, forget the national atlas project: we’re talking about  a new and hopefully fairly complete list of birds that have occurred on (or over) Whiteknights Campus! Joking aside, our … Continue reading →

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Leaf-mining moths going conkers…

Posted on 2013/10/11 by Waheed

While strolling around the campus grounds, have you been wondering what’s happening to our horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L., Sapindaceae) trees? Are those brown leaves really showing signs of an early autumn? These leaves are actually changing colour for a … Continue reading →

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Campus Lake Part Three – Other Water Birds and Edge Species

Posted on 2013/03/09 by Madeleine Sandilands

The third and final part to my blogs on the bird species that can be found on the Whiteknights campus lake. Today, I am including the rest of the water birds which were sighted during the survey period, and some … Continue reading →

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