Nightingales in November (67 page)

As a proportion of the Cuckoos proceed down to Angola, most British Nightingales are currently assumed to be still holding patterns, and small territories, in the coastal scrub dotted along West Africa's coast. Experiencing a dry season from November to mid-May, yet with temperatures still likely to be above 20°C, it is highly likely that western Senegal and The Gambia will be coming progressively drier as the month proceeds. The weather in the North Sea and north-east Atlantic Ocean, however, will be a touch more unpredictable for the overwintering Puffins. With these hardy little seabirds currently scattered across a whole range of sea areas, such as Forties and Dogger in the North Sea, to the Faeroes and Southeast Iceland north-west of Britain, and Rockall, Bailey and Shannon to the west, the Puffins will have few opportunities to shelter from any gales or storms which appear with monotonous regularity at this time of year.

Severe weather on the continent will also have a direct impact on the numbers of Bewick's Swans overwintering in Britain. Any freezing conditions in the Netherlands, for example, where up to 70% of the total population of all Bewick's Swans in north-west Europe can be held in early winter, will suddenly result in Britain seeing an influx of ‘new' birds moving away from ice-bound lakes and frozen fields. Capable of making the journey in one short-haul flight, it won't be long from when the swans are forced out of their Dutch wintering sites to when they begin turning up in British overwintering flocks like WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire
and WWT Welney in Cambridgeshire. Entering relatively settled flocks with an already established dominance hierarchy may initially result in aggression flaring up once again as the ‘newcomers' fight for a grudging acceptance from the ‘regulars'. Additionally, being probably unfamiliar with the best feeding and roosting sites means these Dutch birds may well have little choice other than to follow a watching and learning brief until they familiarise themselves with their new surroundings. Likewise, in a good Waxwing year, early December should see the number of Waxwings continuing to swell, as birds that arrived as early as October are joined by recent immigiants pushed across the North Sea as a direct result of a shortage of food in Scandinavia.

Systematically stripping the trees and berries as they merrily go about their nomadic existence, the Waxwings will usually choose to pluck most of the fruit directly from the shrub or tree, but will occasionally also descend to the ground at sites where food may have already ripened and fallen. Each berry is picked with a slight stooping motion and only held briefly in the bill before then being gobbled down following a quick flick back of the head. Being light and acrobatic birds means clinging to the undersides of branches to hoover up any harder-to-reach berries can be achieved with the minimum of fuss, and they will even briefly hover to pluck any fruit suspended from the extremities of the flimsiest twigs. While Hawthorn and Rowan berries are usually swallowed whole, the birds tend to be much fussier when feeding on Cotoneaster and Viburnum. These slightly less palatable berries will be dissected by their tweezer-like bills in order to extricate the seed and pulp, before the skin is then discarded. Any Waxwings feeding on large fruits, such as apples, will then proceed to apply a different technique again, using the bill like a dagger to liberate chunks of pulp.
As fruit is rich is sugar, but deficient in a number of other essential prerequisites, such as proteins, these frugivores will need to devour large quantities to garner sufficient nutrients for all their daily functions. The Waxwings cope with large quantities of fruit by having relatively large livers to help metabolise the excess sugar and will also need to drink frequently to counter the dehydrating effects caused by this incredibly specialised diet.

As Kingfishers' food doesn't grow on trees, in addition to maintaining an exclusive territory, they will also need a considerable degree of skill and level of luck if they are to catch enough food to see them through the dark days of winter. With only their own bill to feed, they can help their cause by spending long periods quietly perched out of view, thereby ensuring energy expenditure is kept to an absolute minimum. The Kingfisher's biggest enemy in the winter is prolonged freezing weather, as the formation of a thick layer of ice will instantly make fishing impossible. In very severe winters, many birds will simply abandon their territory for ice-free conditions near to the coast or head even further afield. A small number of Kingfishers ringed in Britain during the breeding season have even been recovered on the continent, with the highest number (three) being recorded from France, where the winter temperatures, certainly in the western half of the country, may well be a touch higher than across large parts of Britain. Whether these birds then return here when conditions finally began to improve is of course anyone's guess.

Being equally susceptible to freezing conditions and without a winter territory to tie them down, as soon as the temperature
slips below zero many British-breeding Lapwings may simply either disappear off to the near continent, or at the very least head to the frost-free estuaries in the south and west of Britain. During intense cold snaps, movements of Lapwings can be quite dramatic, such as the 4,500 observed passing in a south-westerly direction over Tring, Hertfordshire in just 50 minutes on 9 December 1967. Once conditions do improve, however, the flocks are thought to favour a quick return ‘whence they came', as competition for food in these hard weather refuges may quickly become intense as the birds are forced together in ever larger flocks.

As the days begin to shorten towards the end of the year, the more rural Blue Tits are thought to respond differently to the Lapwings by breaking up their large autumnal flocks into smaller and less mobile groups. In a long-term study of rural Blue Tits overwintering in an oak woodland in Kent, the individual birds seemed to spread themselves out across the wood, and confine their movements to within fairly small and defined areas. These wintering areas were not defended as strongly as individual breeding territories in the spring, but the boundaries seemed nevertheless to have been respected by neighbouring birds. By contrast, many suburban and urban Blue Tits seem to spend the winter roaming more widely than their country cousins as they take in a variety of feeding stations during the course of each day.

Harsh winters will inevitably exact a heavy toll on many of our smaller resident birds, but just like those Blue Tits preferring town to country, any Robin eking out a living alongside us humans will find its chances of survival hugely boosted by capitalising on any food we leave out. Historically
happiest either taking food from a bird table, or cleaning up any scraps dropped by other more acrobatic birds helping themselves from feeders above, it seems that Robins have recently learnt an agility trick or two. A far more common sight in winter gardens these days is that of a Robin darting out of the vegetation to land directly on one of the feeder perches, before then grabbing a sunflower heart and quickly turning on its heels to consume its prize from nearby cover.

Recently voted Britain's favourite bird, the Robin undoubtedly achieved this spot in large part due to its endearing feature of being uniquely tame. Considered on the continent to be a shy woodland bird, in Britain it seems to revel in human company, leading to one of its commonest monikers, ‘the gardeners' friend'. It seems the Robin perched on a fork handle is not just a concocted image to sell Christmas cards, but is down to the bird's genuine confiding nature, which it will use to take advantage of any morsels unearthed as we turn over our herbaceous borders and vegetable patches. It's believed this opportunistic action has been simply adapted from an ancient behaviour of following Wild Boar, a species which would have been common in prehistoric Britain. Guilty of disturbing the soil as they forage for roots, shoots, invertebrates and carrion, any food missed by the Wild Boar will represent a free meal for a sharp-eyed Robin following in close attendance. As Wild Boar became extirpated towards the end of the Middle Ages, the Robins may have simply looked upon us as little more than tall pigs!