Blogs

Yes, it’s true! Britain’s rarest woodpecker has taken up residence at Newport Wetlands – temporarily at least. The wryneck is the rarest of Britain’s four species of woodpecker, the others being great spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker and green woodpecker. Usually...

A busy start to the month for us in wildlife enquiries with plenty of unusual birds for us to help identify as well as the continued stream of reports about avian pox . Of the many bird sighting queries we have been having in the last couple of weeks, the wryneck has perhaps been the most intrigueing...

The last couple of weeks have seen a good movement of migrants along the Suffolk coast. As ever, some simply fly straight over, others pause briefly, while the more considerate ones actually settle on the reserve for a few hours or even days. One example of the former was Monday's osprey , ringed...

Good day on the reserve yesterday - apart from the wryneck, which appeared on-and-off throughout the day, the north brooks held an interesting selection of waders: 1 Temminck's stint, 1 little stint, up to 11 ruff, 2 or 3 greenshank, 1 or 2 common sandpipers, up to 12 snipe, plus several ringed plovers...

Wryneck still present this morning - same spot as previous 2 days, just down the field from the visitor centre. View from tea terrace. It looked a bit bedraggled after the rain at 07.00 this morning, but then so did I. It sat on post preening for about 10mins before disappearing into the brambles. If...

Regular visitor Marc Shaw found a wryneck yesterday (monday) morning - about 50m from the visitor centre and viewable from the tea terrace. It was on show for much of the day, and enjoyed by many. No sign yet this morning, although it is raining...

A rare visit from this wonderful bird. Pictures taken in the car park at RSPB Bempton.

A fantastic weekend of passage waders - up to 10 species present on monday - was topped by the appearance of a wryneck on tuesday. A truly fantastic bird. Described by my colleague Paul as "like a squashed bittern", this small camoflagued migrant woodpecker is now a very rare visitor to the...

Wryneck on the reserve today, showing well at times. Fantastic bird!! :)

Hope you all had a good Easter folks. I spent the break in Shropshire, enjoying a good list of garden butterflies and a thriving colony of house sparrows - something I don't see many of where I live. Also had a great trip to Anglesey to see a selection of birds that are absent here in Suffolk...

Taken last year at the Southgare, a scarce migrant. Often very difficult to see due to the colouration of this amazing bird.

I have been trying to see one of these for years - they are very rare in the UK. This one turned up near Wendover on migration back to Africa and I was lucky enough to find it. I sat down to watch a few metres away and after feeding on ants for a few minutes it flew over and landed right by my feet....

I was just checking on the PBO latest news blog and noticed that last week a pectoral sandpiper had turned up in the tiniest village green at Easton, how bizarre! Looks like they have had some decent birds down that way with wryneck, grey phalarope and long-tail skua in the last week. Worth a look if...

Just when we thought things were looking settled, a surprise discovery brought local birdwatchers out in force on Sunday afternoon. Unlike the recent run of rare visitors, this bird was slightly harder to pin down due to it's sea-going nature. Luckily, as it drifted up and down the Suffolk coast...

Wryneck taken at Dungeness RSPB on 3rd September 2010

Hi Wryneck and welcome to the RSPB Community You lucky lucky person. Most contributors on here would happily sell their big toe for a chance of seeing a Wryneck so close, and that is exactly what you have here. last time I saw one was in South West France. Regards JBNTS

Hi all, I was lucky enough to be visiting Jordan a year or so ago and we were introduced to the local version of the RSPB who were ringing birds there. One of them was a Wryneck and I attach a couple of photos. Any resemblance to the birds you saw, susieq? I haven't seen them anywhere else tho'...

Hi susieq, buzzard :))) Wrynecks normally don't arrive in Britain until late April, they are normally solitary and skulk very efficiently as they are barely larger than a sparrow. There are probably only about 6 breeding pairs in GB normally. Three together would be most unusual especially...

Hi, back in the 70s Pagham was where a lot of us learned our waders. It was a great migrant spot- pied flys, redstarts, firecrest, grey phalarope, wryneck, shrikes etc. I even did a stint (ouch!) as a VOL there. Is it still a good place or has it silted up?

Taken on Bardsey Island