Nightingales in November (11 page)

Also working hard to ensure their mates will be in as good a condition as possible will be the male Bewick's Swans. Amongst family parties, the obvious benefits to being dominant include access to the prime feeding areas and best roost sites, but maintaining a commanding position in the social hierarchy can also be physically demanding. At this stage of late winter, while the females continue to put on weight in preparation for both their long flight and egg laying, their partners will have often lost considerable condition as a result of putting the well-being of their families ahead of their own. It's at this stage of the year that researchers from the WWT are able to distinguish those birds that have put down the most fat reserves during the course of the winter. In slim birds, which are probably lower in the social hierarchy and last to feed, their vents (or bottoms) will look slightly concave, but the vents of well-fed birds appear much fuller, with the appearance of a ‘double bulge'. In the world of Bewick's Swans, it seems a ‘big behind' means you've wintered well and should carry you in good stead!

Having been happily solitary all winter, male Kingfishers will often find that the beginning of the breeding season can be a touch uncomfortable as they become accustomed to a newly arrived female. The early stages of courtship can tend to look
quite similar to the threat display that Kingfishers on territory will adopt if a trespasser comes on to their patch. Announcing her presence by calling, a female's technique is to perch close to her prospective mate. This elicits an immediate response, which sees him standing upright, dropping his wings and positioning himself in such a way that she is able to see the full extent of his dagger-like bill. If the match is deemed compatible, he may then begin to make soft wooing whistles, to which she will respond with a similar call.

While male and female Kingfishers become acquainted with one another, by mid-February British Lapwings will also begin arriving on their breeding grounds. Lapwings seem to be highly faithful to the same sites year after year, and certainly in northern England have been found to nearly always return to identical or neighbouring fields. Their spring arrival is initially fairly unobtrusive, with the first parties back often preferring to feed on fields close to the ultimate breeding territories as they doubtless gauge the lie of the land. The males generally tend to arrive a week or so earlier than the females, who prefer to stay away from the melee until the territories are carved out. Preferring to visit the breeding grounds initially at dawn and dusk, the males will then tentatively start displaying, with moonlit nights often proving popular.

Those Lapwings of continental origin will begin to return to their breeding areas at this time and one of the most unexpected aspects of Lapwing migration is that, although most British-bred Lapwings will return to where they hatched as chicks, a few of these ‘British' birds will undertake ‘abmigration'. Abmigration is considered a northward (or north-easterly) migration, without a corresponding southward (or south-westerly) migration the previous autumn. The fact that some Lapwings seem to go in the opposite direction to what might be expected is only known because the BTO has
recorded a number of Lapwings ringed as chicks in Britain which were then subsequently found breeding in countries as far away as Russia. In these cases it is suspected that British birds may well have simply migrated with birds of an eastern origin, after accidentally joining the ‘wrong' flock in winter.

For those ‘fair weather' British Lapwings that spent the winter in France, Spain and Portugal, their journey back to their breeding grounds will be insignificant compared to that of the Swallows currently leaving their wintering grounds in South Africa.

It is not exactly known how Swallows time their departure, but changes in daylight, the weather and food supply are all thought to be significant factors. Certainly with the northern hemisphere on the cusp of entering spring, countries such as South Africa will now be heading towards their winter, resulting in mid-February seeing the start of a mass ‘hirundine' exodus northwards.

How a bird weighing little more than 20g manages to navigate its way across 9,600km of incredibly varied terrain and sea still largely mystifies the scientific community, and in many ways is as close as we may ever see to a miracle. It's now thought that migrating birds, such as Swallows, are employing a ‘magnetic compass' to some extent, but this is certainly not the only cue they will use. Perhaps the position of the sun in the sky, or the pattern of polarised light on a cloudy day will also help, and they may also use landmarks, topographical features and even familiar smells when homing in on sites previously visited.

With the Swallows at last on their way, the Puffins will also finally be coming towards the end of their seven-month stint
out at sea and, moult permitting, should be slowly turning their beaks towards their breeding grounds. Puffins are long-lived birds, with the oldest known bird re-caught on the Western Isles in 2012 just short of its 37th birthday. Being masters of longevity means that Puffins also have a slow adolescence, rarely reaching adult maturity until at least four or five years of age. This slow maturation means that juvenile birds will take a few seasons to develop the full characteristic adult appearance, and so young birds can easily be identified by their much smaller, less colourful bills with fewer grooves, and muted tones to their plumage. As these one- and two-year-olds will currently have virtually no chance of either attracting a mate or securing a burrow in the socially complex world of a Puffin colony, many of these ‘teenagers' will simply steer clear of the colonies. Preferring to stay at sea, they will then be free to ‘look after number one', biding their time until they feel ready and able to enter the cut-and-thrust world of a thriving puffinry.

Like the juvenile Puffins, Waxwings are in no hurry to leave their wintering grounds either, but for a very different reason. In common with the Bewick's Swans preparing to depart for their Arctic Russian breeding grounds, the Waxwings won't return to their northern Scandinavian summer territories while they are still snow- and ice-bound. With summer arriving much later in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland than in the UK, conditions may not even be suitable for nest building until at least early June. This means the Waxwings will still have plenty of time to track down the ever-diminishing supply of berries here before the migration instinct takes over.

Come the middle of February, a combination of data collated from satellite transmitters, geolocators and ringing
recoveries all suggest that our British-breeding Cuckoos and Nightingales will both still be safely ensconced on their regular wintering territories. Even for these late departees, their primarily insectivorous diet means they should be in no immediate hurry to scramble back to a cold, wet and windy Britain. Staying where the feeding is good makes infinitely more sense, and they should be confident that when the time to leave does come, they will depart in the best possible condition.

Late February