Tweet of the Day

Latest Episodes:

Tawny Pipit Sep 27, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the tawny pipit. Tawny pipits have never bred in the UK in real life but they have in fiction. Released in 1944 the film, 'The Tawny Pipit', featured a pair found in an English village. Their rarity causes the village to rally round to protect the birds when the field in which they are nesting is marked out for ploughing. The film leaves the audience with the message that nothing can change traditional village life.

Great Reed Warbler Sep 26, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the great reed warbler. As you'd expect from their name, Great Reed Warblers are a much larger version of the Common Reed Warbler and breed in Continental Europe where their very loud song echoes around reed-beds, it can be heard up to half a kilometre away. We can hear one or more singing Great Reed Warblers in the UK each spring.

Melodious Warbler Sep 25, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the melodious warbler. A lemon-yellow warbler singing on a sunny Spanish hillside will be the well-named Melodious Warbler. They are slightly smaller than blackcaps, moss-green above and pale yellow below. You may occasionally see them in the UK in late summer or autumn. The song is melodious and the bird often includes nasal chattering phrases that sound like house sparrows.

Aquatic Warbler Sep 24, 2013

Show notes

Brett Westwood presents the aquatic warbler. The stripy aquatic warbler is streaked like the sedges it lives in and is the only globally threatened European perching bird. They sing in the marshes of central and eastern Europe where the small European population has its stronghold. Unfortunately, this specialized habitat is disappearing because of drainage, disturbance and peat extraction. They are migrants so it's vital to protect their wintering areas as well as their breeding sites. It's known that up to 10,000 birds winter in the swamps of North-west Senegal.

Bluethroat Sep 23, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the bluethroat. This is a fine songbird and a sprightly robin-sized bird with a dazzling sapphire bib. Your best chance of seeing one is in autumn when they pass through the north or east coast on migration.

Jay Sep 20, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the jay. This bird is a colourful member of the crow family. In September and October you'll often see jays flying around woodland with their bills and throats crammed with acorns. Many of these they bury as winter stores but not all are retrieved by Jays and many germinate and grow into young oaks, making the jay a tree-planter on a national scale.

Thrush Nightingale Sep 19, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the thrush nightingale. Even though there's no sign of the whistling crescendos that are a hallmark of its close relative, the Nightingale, the song of the thrush nightingale is an accomplished performance. They are summer visitors to Europe and prefer dense damp thickets from which they often sing.

Turnstone Sep 18, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the turnstone. A turnstone is a stout little wading bird which you'll often see probing under seaweed on rocky shores or flipping pebbles over with the stout bills...hence their name....Turnstone. In summer they are intricately patterned and strikingly coloured like a tortoiseshell cat but at other times of year they look brownish and can be hard to see against the seaweed covered rocks among which they love to feed.

Hobby Sep 17, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the Hobby. Sickle winged, red-trousered and black-moustached, the hobby is a strikingly beautiful falcon. Hobbies arrive in the UK in late April or May from their wintering grounds in Africa. They are now flourishing in the UK where there are now around 2000 pairs, breeding mainly on farmland and heaths in England and Wales.

Great Shearwater Sep 16, 2013

Show notes

Tweet of the Day is a series of fascinating stories about our British birds inspired by their calls and songs.

Brett Westwood presents the Great Shearwater; a wanderer of the open ocean. They breed on remote islands in the South Atlantic and then disperse widely and many follow fish and squid shoals northwards, appearing around UK coasts in late summer and early autumn. The south-west of Britain and Ireland is the best area to look for them.

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