Tweet of the Day

Latest Episodes:

Great Spotted Woodpecker Sep 13, 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 Spotted woodpecker. In spring Great Spotted Woodpeckers drum loudly with their bills against tree bark to advertise their territories. Unlike many of our woodland birds, which are declining, Great Spotted Woodpeckers have increased rapidly over the last few decades - up to 250% since the 1970's.

Mistle Thrush: Part One Sep 12, 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 Mistle Thrush. Loud rattling calls, like someone scraping a comb across wood, tell you that Mistle Thrushes are about. From midsummer to early autumn, bands of Mistle Thrushes roam the countryside, where they feed on open pastures, among stubble or on moorland. These birds are very fond of the white sticky berries of mistletoe and spread the seeds into cracks of tree bark when they wipe their bills or defecate.

Wood Sandpiper Sep 11, 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 Wood Sandpiper. Wood Sandpipers are elegant waders and just a handful of pairs breed in the UK, in wooded marshes and remote bogs of Northern Scotland. There's a chance to see them when they break their migration journey south at inland pools and marshes here. Listen out for their cheerful call that has been described as sounding like an old penny-whistle.

Green Sandpiper Sep 10, 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 Green Sandpiper; a bird with a wonderful yodelling call and the heart-stopping suddenness with which it leaps up from its feeding place and dashes off. The birds that visit the UK are often from Scandinavia, where they nest high up in a fir-tree. When the chicks hatch they tumble unharmed from the nest and are escorted to safe feeding places by their parents.

Meadow Pipit Sep 09, 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 Meadow Pipit. The thin but penetrating calls of the meadow pipit can be heard on a remote mountainside or high above the city streets on an autumn day. Meadow pipits are often the main hosts for the parasitic Cuckoos and many a pipit pair ends up stuffing insects into a much larger cuckoo chick.

Red Grouse Sep 06, 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 Red Grouse. These birds like to eat the shoots of young heather and nest in the shelter of older clumps. For many years Red Grouse were thought to be the only species of bird found in the British Isles and nowhere else, but scientists now believe the Red Grouse is a relative, a subspecies of the Willow Grouse, which is a widespread bird of northern Europe.

Greenshank Sep 05, 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 Greenshank. The ringing triple call of a greenshank from a pool or marshy area is something to listen out for and a sure sign that autumn migration is under way. It's during their migration north that most of us meet greenshanks because in the UK they breed only in Scotland and even there, they are usually in the most remote bogs and mires of the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland.

Roseate Tern Sep 04, 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 Roseate Tern. One of the rarest of the UK's breeding seabirds, the Roseate Tern is exquisitely graceful. Roseate means flushed with pink and seen close this bird does have a faint pinkish wash on its chest in summer, but from a distance, it's the brilliant-white freshly-laundered look of its back and wings that distinguishes a Roseate Tern from its greyer relatives, the Common and Arctic Terns.

Swallow Sep 03, 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 swallow. You can see Swallows at this time of year gathering on telegraph wires, strung out like musical notes on a stave, before their long journey south to Africa. The female swallow often rears two broods of young each year but in sunny weather when there are plenty of flying insects, she may manage three broods.

Robin Sep 02, 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 robin. The autumn song of the Robin is the soundtrack to shortening days, gathering mists and ripening fruit. Robins sing in spring but their autumn song is different. It may sound melancholy to us but for the Robin it has clear purpose - to defend the winter territories that male and female robins establish separately after they've moulted.

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