Stonechat

Above: Male.
Below: Female

Below: Juvenile

The stonechat is a UK resident all year round but it's numbers swell during the winter. It prefers heaths and grassland with a few bushes for perching. It seems to be especially fond of gorse bushes and, in my experience, it is more often found in coastal areas or areas of lower lying land than in the hills.

The male is a splendid character, with a black head and pure white wide semi collar that does not meet at either the back or the front of the neck. The back, wings and tail are brown streaked with black. The rump is white and there is a small white patch in the centre of the wing. The breast is a rich orange red that fades to a creamy white at the belly or even at the vent. The beak and legs are black. The female is similar but colours are often not so vivid and her head is brown rather than black and she also lacks the prominent white semi collar.

In the North West, I have not found stonechats easy to find in many places. The ones where I have regularly seen them are: 1. Pwllheli, along the strip of land behind the beach, between Pwllheli and Llanbedrog. 2) Red rocks nature reserve, between West Kirby and Hoylake on the Wirral, either side of the boardwalk and 3) Leasowe Common, the North Wirral Coastal Park (although less regularly here). No doubt there are other places but these three are usually good places to find stonechats at all times of year. If you know of any other good places please let me know.

As far as photography goes, any of these places will be fine. Stonechats are quite confiding by wild birds standards and will usually tolerate you approaching a lot closer than most other birds will. They also have the fortunate habit of perching at the top of bushes, reeds, posts and the like in full, open view, not skulking in the undergrowth, making them easy subjects for photography. At Pwllheli any time of day is good, as the beach is south facing. At Red Rocks, when the sun is shining, morning from the boardwalk looking over the reed bed is good or afternoon from the boardwalk looking over the Royal Liverpool golf course.