Eco Hvar

Birding at the end of 2018

Steve jones' last report for 2018, rounding up a year whose final months ended with noticeably few new sightings.  

Chaffinch: reduced numbers present in 2018. Chaffinch: reduced numbers present in 2018. Photo: Vivian Grisogono

The last quarter of the year has been very disappointing in terms of individual species and flocks of over wintering birds. In November it was very very quiet. Not even odd birds passing through.
I can only presume it's due to the mild weather. I did have a skylark on the airfield two Sundays ago. Quickly put up and gone on hearing a shotgun some distance away. On November 18th I saw my first small flock of Goldfinch, over a month later than last year.

Last year I was feeding the birds in my garden from October and was seeing numerous Great Tit, Blue Tit and Chaffinch. The food was going in 48 hours. This year sadly I have seen one Great Tit (5th December) and One Blue Tit, a few Chaffinch and food taking a month to be eaten. Most recently have been getting up to 10 House sparrows, these don’t feed from the feeders so I have put more food on the two bird tables and also scattering some seed on the ground. Me stacked up with bird food and nothing to speak of. Last year massive numbers. By contrast, a UK neighbour and friend (who is an official bird ringer) caught and ringed 57 birds in his garden the other weekend.

Great White Egret. Photo: Steve Jones

It is possible with relatively mild temperatures the birds have stayed where they are. Perhaps a prolonged cold spell will bring some in.

Around the fields periodically I am seeing a few large finch flocks but nothing like last year. Goldfinch are here but in very small numbers. I am out almost every day around the airfield, not at any set time and on countless occasions I have noted to myself “nothing to report”.

That said I have added a few more species to the list for 2018 …………………… the solitary Skylark and some Meadow Pipits, some of this was no doubt to the heavy rains in December, the pond although not full by any means has a lot more water than this time last year.

Teal. Photo: Steve Jones

I was fortunate to get this photograph of a Teal on 23rd December. Have seen it on three further occasions but it won’t tolerate me getting within 50 metres. Also on the 23rd December for the briefest of moments I managed a new species for me and also the island: a Great White Egret.

Anyway, it takes the yearly total to 94 which is pretty much the same as the last two years albeit the make-up of species is slightly different. Happy New Year to you all.

© Steve Jones 2018.

For more of Steve's nature pictures, see his personal pages: Bird Pictures on Hvar 2017, Bird Pictures and Sightings on Hvar 2018, and Butterflies of Hvar 

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home Nature Watch Birding at the end of 2018

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Angry Labour MPs urge leadership not to overrule energy secretary on Rosebank

    Exclusive: Backbenchers voice alarm over ‘intolerable position’ faced by Miatta Fahnbulleh over oilfield decision

    Furious Labour MPs have been lobbying the prime minister and chancellor not to overrule the energy secretary should she decide to block the Rosebank oilfield.

    MPs say they are alarmed at the cabinet splits that have emerged over the issue after sources told the Guardian that Miatta Fahnbulleh was minded to refuse environmental permission for the field.

    Continue reading...

  • Queen of Spain butterfly invades Britain – but will it become native?

    This year thousands of the golden-coloured butterfly have arrived in Britain in what one expert calls ‘a bold attempt at colonisation’

    The Queen of Spain has invaded. The enigmatic British visits of this gorgeous golden-coloured butterfly with distinctively shaped, squared-off hindwings have been recorded by lepidopterists for four centuries. Usually there are barely a handful of sightings each summer of a butterfly that is widespread across continental Europe.

    This year, thousands have flown in, some from France and Spain that have reached the south coast, and others from the Netherlands, which have fluttered into East Anglia.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: A new chapter for the farm – we’re going organic | Andrea Meanwell

    Tebay, Cumbria: Historically it’s been a tricky thing for hill farms to do, but we’ve always run ours on organic principles, and now we’re fully converting

    From 1 November we have change happening on our farm. We have decided to become an organic farm and have started the two-year conversion process with the Soil Association. We’ve always run the farm on organic principles, but now, with our small shop selling our beef, lamb and pork, we’ve decided that we will convert, prioritising soil health and biodiversity without the use of chemicals.

    It has historically been tricky for hill farms to go organic because many are on commons with shared grazing and no physical boundaries between “hefts”, and with shared routes to and from the fell. Now the certifiers are keen to be flexible and adapt, so we have decided to give it a go. The process is funded by the government’s sustainable farming incentive scheme, which we were lucky to get into this year as so many farmers missed out.

    Continue reading...

  • Rosebank oilfield would not breach UK emission targets, say government insiders

    Emissions from exported oil would not count against carbon budget, insiders say – reasoning likely to draw dismay from climate campaigners

    The giant Rosebank oilfield can be approved without breaching the UK’s emission targets, according to government insiders, in a boost to those in the cabinet who are pushing for it to be given the go-ahead.

    The Guardian revealed last week that Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, was leaning towards rejecting the project, but her position has put her at loggerheads with cabinet colleagues, including the chancellor, John Healey, who are lobbying for an approval.

    Continue reading...

  • How rising seas transformed dry land into Venice lagoon

    Scientists uncover ancient hills and swamps that disappeared as sea levels rose across northern Adriatic

    Venice is famed for being a floating city, but research shows the land it sits on once lay many miles inland. Dramatic changes in sea level over 10,000 years have reshaped the northern Adriatic coastline, with much of the land that our ancestors roamed now lying beneath the waves.

    Samuele Ongaro, at the University of Southampton, and colleagues combined seismic data with sedimentary cores from the coastal basins of northern Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia to model changes in sea level across the region and reconstruct past landscapes over the past 10,000 years.

    Continue reading...

  • The climate crisis will destroy our economies – we learned this 20 years ago. When will we act? | Fiona Harvey

    The radical Stern report showed that a low-carbon future is also good economics. But it seems that capitalism needs a reminder

    Saving the only planet we have makes good economic sense. There is, after all, no money to be made on a dead Earth. There may be costs involved now, but they are worth paying to protect our children from certain destruction.

    These propositions seem self-evident now. But two decades ago, mainstream economists had very different ideas. They had proved that the climate crisis would be a mere economic blip, easily absorbed by growing economies and therefore not worth spending money on. In their accounting, they considered ice caps and glaciers functionally worthless, that trees only add to GDP when they are cut down, and that a livable climate shouldn’t even merit a line on a spreadsheet.

    Fiona Harvey is an environment editor at the Guardian

    Continue reading...

  • Slovenia mourns loss of glacier on its highest peak after scorching summer

    Extreme heat accelerated disappearance of Triglav glacier from mountain revered as a symbol of Slovenian identity

    The final ice patch has vanished from Slovenia’s Triglav glacier, the latest Alpine casualty of Europe’s scorching summer.

    The once mighty ice mass lost 93% of its surface area between 1983 and 2003, shrinking to cover less than a hectare of overheated rock, but went on to surprise researchers who feared its imminent demise, clinging on to the mountain for two more decades.

    Continue reading...

  • When the weather is frightful, you don’t need to be: everything we love to stay cozy during cold months

    Here are some of our writers’ best ways to stay toasty and occupied, even during cold weather, from teas to pajamas

    Welcome to Filter finds, a series where Filter contributors share the things they love most – and think you might, too.

    When the weather starts to take a turn for the brisk, the impulse to stay inside and hibernate is nothing new – but there are ways to optimize your time spent inside for maximum coziness and pleasure.

    Continue reading...

  • Snail ate your mail? Why gastropods munch paper – and how to stop them

    In wet weather, garden snails can seek shelter in letterboxes – and find a feast there waiting for them

    We’ve all heard of snail mail – a term popularised since the advent of electronic mail – but who knew that snails eat mail?

    We have it on good authority from the ecologist Simon Mustoe – who said snails ate his letter from Sir David Attenborough – a BBC report announcing the closure of a Northumberland Royal Mail postbox because of snails “munching the mail”, and desperate people on the forums of the Australian hardware chain Bunnings claiming snails have “a real appetite for postal letters” and can “eat a whole letter in two days”.

    Continue reading...

  • I struggled to come to terms with my mum’s death. Then I swam in the sea and suddenly felt connected to her

    My mother was a keen swimmer, and she lived with depression. I wonder if she found the same respite in the water that has helped heal me since she passed away

    It was early morning in late September, off the coast of Kaş in Turkey. Watching the slightly choppy sea from a boat, the last thing I felt like doing was embarking on another 5km (3-mile) swim. Mind fog had sapped my energy, and my mood was decidedly Eeyore-like. But as I pulled on my cap and flippers, adjusted my goggles and took the plunge, something shifted.

    Head in the water, the knotted feeling in my throat began to loosen. Breathing came properly. There was respite.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.