Rock pipets at Hurst Castle

Visit all year round, and you can see rock pipets flitting around the castle walls, feeding on molluscs and invertebrates.

Rock pipets are a relatively common bird to our coastlines, where they nest on rocky beaches. But they're often overlooked.

Slightly smaller than a starling, they are streaky olive-brown on top and dirty white underneath. Listen out for the high pitched 'peeping' sound they make.

Choughs at Dover Castle in Kent

Dover Castle in Kent has seen an avian success story in recent years, with the reintroduction of choughs to the site.

Choughs are a rare member of the crow family, with black feathers, a red beak and red legs. Legend has it that choughs got their colouring when a crow walked in the blood of the martyred Thomas Becket as the archbishop lay dying in Canterbury Cathedral. 

A common sight over the skies of Kent when Dover Castle's defences were first built in the 12th century, the chough has been missing from the area for more than 200 years, due to habitat loss and historical persecution.

Changes in farming habits from traditional low-density grazing to rapidly industrialised fields means the choughs, who mainly feed on ground-dwelling invertebrates, can't get sufficient food.

Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

Visit the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle on the Northumberland Coast, and you can see different sea birds, depending on the time of year.

Part of the land between Castle Point and Cullernose Point is a site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI. 

From Spring to early summer, these cliffs are home to many breeding seabirds with notable populations of northern fulmar, kittiwake and razorbill.

Passage Migrant Birds at Dunstanburgh Castle

Visit in the spring or the autumn, and you'll find Dunstanburgh Castle is a good site for passage migrant birds. Transient avian visitors use the castle and its surrounding lands as a kind of motorway service station, a safe place to rest and refuel during their long flight.

Look out for the wheatear, a small bird with blue-grey shoulders and an orange tinge to its white chest, and a black cheek.

You might also spot a ring ouzel: a thrush in smart evening wear. Slightly smaller than a blackbird, this rare bird has a striking white breast band and a black-and-yellow beak.

Kenwood, London

Kenwood is positioned to the north of Hampstead Heath, right by a mosaic of parkland and woodland that exists surprisingly close to the centre of London. The woodland is a western relic of the great ancient forest that once spanned the entirety of north London, joining up with larger areas of woodland at Epping Forest in Essex.

It's another Site of Special Scientific Interest; the natural woodland includes the nationally rare wild service tree and a nationally scarce species of fungi, as well as the only (albeit small) sphagnum moss bog in London.

Common and rarer woodland and parkland birds at Kenwood

Kenwood is also home to a mix of common and rarer woodland and parkland birds.

Look out for the spotted flycatcher, willow warbler and chiff-chaff and greater spotted and green woodpeckers.

And, of course, you can't miss spotting the noisy, green parakeets at this London site. A non-native bird from Africa and South Asia, the rose-ringed parakeet or ringneck parrot is now abundant in southern England and slowly expanding northwards.

Were the first pair (apparently named Adam and Eve) released by Jimi Hendrix on Carnaby Street in the swinging 60s? Or did they escape from Shepperton Studios during the making of the 1951 film The African Queen? These are just a couple of the urban legends that have sprung up around these acrobatic interlopers.

In reality, reports suggest parakeets have been in this country since at least the 1860s. The numbers of these noisy but successful tropical integrators were perhaps bolstered by the many pets who were set free during a parrot fever outbreak in the late 1920s.

Summer birds to see on Piel Island

In summer, as you travel across to the island, look out for redshank, with its bright red-orange legs.

And the smaller turnstone, with a brown-and-white body, and black-and-white head. The latter are likely to be pottering about the rocks hunting for food from under stones.

In the air, you'll see silvery-grey and white common tern with long tails, nicknamed the 'sea-swallow'; as well as the little tern, with a short tail, and a yellow beak with a black tip.