Nightingales in November (52 page)

For those established and experienced Tawny Owls, it will be highly unlikely that their territorial boundaries will
change much after the breeding season, contrasting with the far more fluid state of Kingfishers' real estate. Antisocial by nature, Kingfishers usually undergo a post-breeding ‘divorce', leading to their territories sometimes being split as each individual bird settles for a more modest-sized piece of waterfront throughout the winter months. Unsurprisingly for a bird with a typical lifespan of little more than two years, it probably pays not to put too much investment into a partner that may not even see out the winter. So by using mostly a core area within their domain, each Kingfisher will hope to spend most of the rest of the year quietly concealed amongst bank-side vegetation, only revealing itself either to feed or to chase away any Kingfishers caught trespassing.

With any semblance of territoriality dropped when their young fledged, adult Blue Tits, along with the small percentage of juveniles still alive, will by now be roaming the countryside for food in their mixed species flocks, a practice that will last right the way through until early spring the following year.

By mid-September those juvenile Peregrines that left their parents' territory in the summer will also be continuing to move around the region, as they explore other territories, meet other Peregrines and hone their hunting skills. In Scotland a study of Peregrines by the Lothian and Borders Raptor Study Group showed that females tended to disperse much further, averaging around 80km from where they were reared, as opposed to their male siblings moving only around 48km. Certainly across northern Europe, continental Peregrines are much more migratory than their British counterparts, with many birds both moving to avoid
the colder, shorter days and to follow their prey which is also keen to depart for warmer climes. As continental Peregrines relocate, the east coast of Britain can often see an influx of these wandering raptors from around this time, which have opted to take advantage of our relatively benign winter climate. Most of the Peregrines nesting high up in the Arctic are thought to overwinter in Spain or Africa, while those breeding birds from southern Scandinavia are more likely to move to Britain – a classic example of leap-frog migration, where birds nesting at the higher latitudes travel the furthest distance to spend the winter. The BTO has so far compiled records of 53 Peregrine Falcons ringed abroad and recovered in the UK, with 32 of these coming from Norway and Sweden. Just one example of this continental influx was of a Peregrine ringed as a nestling in Arvika, southern Sweden in 2008, which was then recovered injured in Somerset the following autumn.

As British-nesting Lapwings continue to relocate either within the UK and Ireland or simply migrating abroad themselves, the middle of the month should also mark the point when the Bewick's Swan young finally fledge. Leaving the maritime tundra, the families will be keen to relocate to the relative sanctuary of the lakes, estuaries and coastal waters close by. As conditions continue to worsen, the daily average temperature on the tundra may only be 5°C at this time of year, and with each passing 24-hour period receiving seven minutes less daylight, feeding will soon be downright impossible even for birds as hardy as Bewick's Swans. Immediately identifiable by their grey plumage and grey-pink bills, the youngsters will continue to stand out like sore thumbs from their snow-white parents for some time yet, and any pair managing to fledge at least two youngsters will by any definition have had a very successful breeding season.
Due to both the number of predators and precarious nature of the weather on the breeding grounds, any young cygnet able leave the tundra behind will instantly see its chances of survival suddenly take an exponential leap. With their parents continuing to lead by example, the young will have the luxury of personal, on-tap tuition from mum and dad as they set out on the steep learning curve of acquiring first-hand knowledge of their migration route and the good stopover locations on the way to their wintering grounds. Building in number as they coalesce at a variety of key sites around the Pechora Delta, these locations will give the birds a final opportunity to feed before the continually deteriorating weather eventually persuades them to embark for north-west Europe.

Waxwings amassing in northern Sweden will often be one of the first clear indications of an irruption year in the making, but as large flocks continue to strip the finite food resource, their stay there will be little more than a temporary one as wave after wave of birds are pushed further south. Due to the remote nature of these temperate Swedish and Norwegian forests, the number of Waxwings on the move in invasion years is difficult to estimate, with the French ornithologists Fouarge and Vandevondele having estimated an absolute minimum of 10,000 birds to have congregated in Sweden by mid-September before the great British invasion of 2004 and 2005.

Having made mental notes as to the positions of local landmarks and good feeding areas they might need upon their return, many Swallows should by now be leaving in their droves as the declining number of insects suddenly makes Britain a decidedly unwelcome place for insectivorous
birds. Heading off across the English Channel, this narrow marine waterbody will represent just the first of many obstacles in an epic journey will take around five or six weeks, and covering in the process close to 10,000km. After bidding the southern English coast farewell, the Swallows will reach the continent in less than an hour, before then pushing along the French coast towards the Bay of Biscay. Stopping off each night as dusk approaches, the Swallows will often be attracted to roosting sites that may already be occupied by birds, and which have been tried and tested by generations of hirundines over the years. Restricting their navigating and foraging to daylight hours, the Swallows will often migrate reasonably close to the ground where their food tends to accumulate in much higher concentrations. As the birds are quite capable of covering anywhere between 100 and 320km a day, it will not take them long to cross France, before then turning east along the northern edge of the Pyrenees en route to the Mediterranean coast. The distance travelled will of course depend hugely on the weather, with the Swallows' progress often being held up by wet weather or unfavourable winds. Alternatively, they may also choose to have a lazy day at particularly rich feeding sites they encounter along the way, such as The Camargue on France's Mediterranean coast, where the feeding may be just be too good to pass on quickly through.

With the Swallows streaming towards northern Spain, the Nightingales, by contrast, will be deserting the Iberian Peninsula in their droves as they make the short trip across the Mediterranean Sea heading for West Africa.

Nightingale OAD, retrospectively tracked by the BTO following the recovery of its geolocator, is thought to have left southern Portugal on 19 September 2009, only then to arrive in the small disputed territory of Western Sahara by
the following day, a scarcely believable distance covered of around 1,300km. This movement of OAD in mid-September also tallies with ringing data of Nightingales collected from the Rock of Gibraltar, the British overseas territory on Spain's southern coast, which reports a spike in Nightingales observed at this time of year. The route taken to the Western Sahara can only be surmised, but if the Nightingales were to follow the Moroccan coastline, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, this will mean they are able to circumvent both the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert in one deft sweep.