Not long ago Winter visitors seen in gardens were usually siskins, bramblings, redwings or fieldfares. However, over the last few years there have been more sightings of warblers during the Winter months. One of the more commonly spotted birds is a blackcap and, the reason that I am writing this post today is because, not only did I spot one in my garden, but, I also managed to take a photo of her.
It is thought (in common with many of the birds seen in the garden in Winter) that these are birds from Germany and Austria and that the British penchant for garden bird feeders has allowed them to travel a shorter distance and stop in the UK rather than flying to Spain.
I have even seen a recent blog post which claims that the migrants with the shorter trip are evolving into a different sub species as they all arrive back in Germany about 10 days before those wintering in Spain and therefore tend to breed together. Those flying longer distances to Spain have more pointed wings suitable for longer distance flying and rounder bills for eating olives when they get there.
Whatever the reasons for them staying, I am still excited if I spot one in the Winter (or any time of year for that matter).
Sometimes it is hard to know what to do during a holiday in autumn, the weather is changeable, one minute the sun is shining, the next black clouds loom. The solution for me is to take my scope to the country park. With the lack of rain in September I was hoping the water level would have dropped and that there may be some waders about.
As you can see from the poor picture above (sorry about the quality, but impromptu digiscoping with my Canon Ixus was never going to produce stunning results) amongst the Lapwing and Coot there was a flock of Golden Plover. I saw these for the first time last year. There really is something special about a flock of these little yellow coloured waders, especially when the sun glints off their winter plumage. I spent some time watching them, scuttling about, dodging in between the gulls and ducks. Then, suddenly, they were gone.
I wandered further round, the usual suspects were all present – Pochard bobbing about, the sun highlighting their chestnut-coloured heads, Shoveler Ducks sifting the water, Tufted Duck diving, Coot, Cormorant gathering along the edges of the water and cramming together on the now vacated tern rafts. I could hear the little birds in the hedgerows, Long-tailed Tits burbling, Wrens and Robins with their alarm calls and Blackbirds swooping between berry-laden trees. Time to head back home.
But then, the sun came back out, a quick check through my binoculars showed the plovers had returned – time to set the scope up again; I may have missed something last time. Indeed I had, a couple of snipe were probing the mud (not too far away, I got a fantastic view through the scope), amongst the Wigeon (did I mention those?) there was a Shelduck – how did I miss a big white duck! I had never seen one before at the Country Park, in fact, I think the last time I saw one was during a visit to Martin Mere when I was much, much younger.
Then I looked again, there were other ducks there too, Gadwall, an understated and pretty duck and, there was the back end of another, different duck peaking out from behind a cormorant – not sure what it was. I moved the scope – better view, it was still asleep – wake up I thought – then another duck wandered into it and it looked up briefly – I thought I recognised it – it was a Pintail, I was sure of it – a new lifetime first for me. Then its head was down again – arse! Literally, all I could see was its bottom. Then, suddenly, the Cormorants were off, followed by the Wigeon, the Lapwing and the Plovers, and, the Pintail. I looked for it again, but couldn’t find it. Time for home before it rained – a Friday afternoon doesn’t get much better than this.
Pink is in. Yes, there is a new entrant into the top 10 and it seems to have got people excited (including me because it is my favourite bird). For the first time the long-tailed tit has made it into the hit parade of garden birds, ousting last season’s new star, the goldfinch.
It is believed to be due to the mild winters of the past two years (these tiny birds are susceptible to cold) and the fact that although they are usually a woodland bird they have adapted to feed on birdtables, feeders and, in particular fat balls. In the winter these birds travel round in family groups, so if you see one, there will be several more on the way. By now they have paired up for the breeding season so you are only likely to see one or two at a time. Look out for them gathering moss and spiders’ webs for their nests (they presumably eat any spiders they find), although they are only tiny they are easy to spot and recognise and they are not the quietest of birds.
Other winners this year included woodpigeon and collared doves which are being spotted more often in gardens (certainly in mine). On the losing side are still the sparrow and starling whose numbers still show a decline. Don’t worry about the goldfinches though, numbers are still high, just not as high as the little pink fluffy long-tailed tits.
More information about the results of the survey can be found on the RSPB’s website.
Well, they’re back. They may be small and not much to look at, but the chiffchaff’s repetitive call for me is THE sign that spring is here. I heard my first one of the year this morning and it certainly put a spring in my step (no pun intended).
Someone has stolen all the robins and thrushes! It occurred to me the other day that I no longer here the song thrush in the morning on my way to work. Then I thought a bit more and realised there were no robins either. Then one morning I woke up earlier than usual and heard the thrush (even through the double glazing – note to self, get double glazing changed). The song thrush sings just before it gets light, unfortunately I am too lazy to get up at that time once we get past February and so I miss his solo performance.
Now the tune has changed and I am treated to the calls of chaffinches, blue tits and great tits. It won’t be long before the blackcaps and chiffchaffs are adding to the chorus line. I know that chiffchaffs have been heard in the area, and I was lucky enough to have a blackcap in the garden on last Saturday (strangely enough the day after I had 5 siskins, traditionally winter visitors, on the seed feeder). I managed to catch the grumpy little chap on camera, unfortunately, though, not the siskins.
One sound of Spring that I am still missing is the sound of the frogs in the pond. Alas, I fear there will be no frogspawn this year.
Is there a sound that you particularly associate with the coming of Spring?
I was listening to a BBC Wildlife podcast the other day, and one of the guests was asked to talk about good news nature stories, to make up for all of the doom and gloom climate change news that surrounds us every day. I think they had a very good point. This is not to say that the doom and gloom may not have some basis in fact, but not everything is bad news.
One of the news stories that I am beginning to take for granted now is the return of the Buzzard. The use of DDT and illegal killing by farmers made the buzzard a rarity outside of Wales. In the last 5 or 10 years, they have become much more commonplace to the point where I expect to see one nearly every time I drive anywhere outside Daventry (and I have seen them above the fields surrounding Daventry as well, it is just they are a more of an open countryside kind of a bird). In fact I saw two yesterday perched in a tree minding their own business.
Another large predator which is being helped in its spread back across the British Isles is the Red Kite. These are magnificent birds, and, until recently I had only ever seen one in mid Wales. However, they are becoming a little more widespread, especially along the M4 corridor. Yesterday, in one of my rare journeys that took me more than 20 miles from home (I was on business and it was a pointless trip, as is so often the case) I saw a large bird ahead with a long tail. I hoped and slowed down a little, and, yes it was a red kite, just over the border in Oxfordshire. It made my trip suddenly more worthwhile and less frustrating!
As you will no doubt be aware, the last two weeks have seen temperatures hover around or below zero almost constantly. The only break in the cold since Boxing Day being a day with some snow last week. Whilst this has curtailed all gardening activities it has provided many (mainly weekend) opportunities for birdwatching.
I think that we are one of the few gardens in the neighbourhood to have a pond, so we are always popular when the frosts come. Each morning either James or myself have been out diligently clearing a spot in the ice for them to drink from and bathe in, and have been amply rewarded by the large number of birds that have been coming in every day. (I think the sunflower hearts and peanuts haven’t hurt either.)
It has also been noticeable how territorial some of the birds get even in Winter, and how some are willing to risk a fight to get to the food and water. Of particular note around here is the abundance of blackbirds. We have a resident pair that tend to come in every day and throw as much compost and as many leaves around as possible. There also seems to be a younger bird (possibly one of last year’s brood) that keeps coming into the garden, much to the chagrin of the male blackbird (shown below having a drink out of the pond). He will chase him off as soon as he sees him, whereas the female will raise the alarm call if she spots an interloper, only going to the trouble of shoo-ing them away if the male doesn’t arrive.
We have also counted three robins in the garden. These are highly territorial birds and as soon as the third one is spotted in the garden he is chased away, with fights breaking out in mid air and air-borne battles taking place over several gardens.
My only concern is that warmer weather is predicted in the coming days, and, with the RSPB’s big garden birdwatch less than two weeks away, they will all desert me. Just maybe my count this year will be better than one greenfinch and a sparrow!
There was a bit of blue in the sky, I was not at work today and I have a new telephoto lens; no more excuse needed for a trip to the Country Park.
I was interested to see how well the lens would perform with a bit more light than is available in our north facing garden, particularly after I dropped it on some concrete slabs! (It still appears to function, and, if anything, the image stabiliser and autofocus seem to be somewhat quieter!) I have also hankered after getting some shots of the goosanders that arrive each Winter.
The Country Park seemed to be busier in terms of people rather than birds, and I did notice a few female goosanders in one of the more sheltered areas where I hadn’t seen them in the past (and where I could not get a decent shot due to the number of trees growing at the edge of the water).
When we made it to the dam I was a little disappointed to find that the usual group of males and females was not there this time, my opportunity for wildlife photographer of the year had vanished! However, further along the reservoir I did spot a lone female and managed to get a few shots, one of which was not too bad for an early attempt (not great either, but I was pleased to get a shot).
Just a quick update today on my birdwatching quest. For some weeks I have been on the lookout for the more obvious Winter visitors, fieldfares and redwings, which seem to have been regularly seen in the county for the last few weeks.
Following a week of frost and grey skies the weekend was surprisingly bright (and even quite warm in the sunshine). A walk into town along the old railway track yielded lots of birds (in contrast with a fortnight ago) but no overtly European visitors. (By this I mean that many of the finches, robins etc may be visiting from the continent, but I would never know.) The main surprise was a female blackcap. These are warblers that usually migrate south for the Winter, but in recent years more and more seem to be found in the UK in the Winter (although these may also be continental visitors).
A trip to the Country Park saw about 14 Goosander, as well as the usual gulls and ducks, but not many small birds. The highlight of the afternoon was watching a sparrowhawk being mobbed by a crow and chased off into nearby shrubs.
Sunday, another sunny day, not an opportunity to be missed. We went for a walk to the north of Daventry to an area where we had seen flocks of redwings and fieldfares last year when doing a bird survey. There were lots of small birds squeaking in the shrubs, but not the longed for redwings. We wandered towards the canal (mainly because we hadn’t been there for a while), still nothing. Finally, on the way back towards Daventry we think we saw a lone fieldfare flying overhead, a small triumph even if we had to go halfway to Braunston to find one.
Redwings? The final piece of the winter puzzle fell into place on my way back to work this lunchtime when I spotted one redwing sitting in the sea buckthorn, looking as though it wished it were somewhere else. (I also got really close to two goldcrests that were darting about some trees, almost oblivious to me, making small squeaks that almost sounded like tiny tinkling bells – something to brighten the dreariest of Mondays.)
Continuing the theme of birds and whether there are more or less of them this year, I thought I would bring your attention to a worrying report from the RSPB that is highlighting the plight of the common house sparrow. Numbers of house sparrows have declined in the UK by 68% in the last 30 years (i.e. they have more than halved in my lifetime).
The reasons for this are unknown, but it is thought to be related to a lack of food for the chicks resulting in lower numbers leaving the nest and a higher mortality rate in those that do fledge. Why the lack of food? The reason is thought to be our disappearing gardens, the reduction in house sparrow numbers being more pronounced in towns and cities than in rural areas. The increase in decking and patios, the removal of hedges, the addition of the dreaded leylandii and the obsession with short grass have all reduced the number of insects inhabiting our gardens. This, coupled with our chemical warfare on all things creepy-crawley, has reduced the food available to the sparrows.
But, I hear you cry, shouldn’t this affect other garden visitors such as blue tits and robins? I think that it has, but it is just that the sparrows used to be so populous that the reduction is more noticeable. Pairs of sparrows need to raise at least five young a year to keep the numbers up, this means having multiple broods and more mouths to feed.
The numbers of sparrows in our garden fluctuates throughout the year, but I know there were a couple of pairs about and that there were two successful broods. Will that be enough? I am not sure, I have only seen the occasional sparrow in recent weeks, but it may be that they are off somewhere else at the moment. (A few weeks ago we had about 8 goldfinches at a time in the garden, then none for weeks, but lots of greenfinches and chaffinches; I guess it depends on whether there are other food sources around.)
So, what can we do? I fed the birds mealworms for a couple of months this year (admittedly they were aimed at the blue and great tits and I was a little annoyed at the time by the gluttony of the sparrows) but this can be expensive if rewarding. The RSPB recommends leaving patches of grass unmown for insects to congregate in and planting certain shrubs, one of the best being honeysuckle which provides food for birds and bees for a lot of the year as well as having the advantage of being easy to grow.
