With the abundance of fruits, seeds, and berries in the countryside this autumn, the migrant birds which visit us during the colder months should be in for a feast. This may make them less reliant on our bird tables. Thrush species, especially the redwing and fieldfare will particularly favour the hawthorn and holly berries which glow red along the hedgerows and through the woods. Only when they have exhausted all that supply will they move onto the open fields to look for food there. These birds will have travelled large distances from their breeding grounds to wintering areas; other species make much shorter journeys. Solitary birds, small groups, or whole flocks may arrive in an area overnight and then just as quickly move on.

By keeping an eye on the skies for a while on a regular basis it is possible to pick out those movements which are local – for instance short flights by cormorants between lakes in the area – and longer distance – for instance the continuous movement of swallows gradually working their way south at the end of summer.

Birders call watching such movements visible migration, or vismig for short. This contrasts with nocturnal migration or nocmig.

If you want to experience some nocmig for yourself at this time of year, keep your ears open when walking through the village after dark. Especially on nights with low cloud, one can often hear the calls of redwings passing over-head. Their distinctive, high-pitched “tseeep” call is easy to identify but they are by no means the only species to migrate at night. Many others, of which we may be blissfully unaware, will pass through under cover of darkness. Increasingly, recording devices are being employed, especially at coastal bird observatories, to monitor birdcalls through the hours of darkness. Then, with the help of the ever-improving bird call ID applications such as Merlin, it is possible to pick out which species have been passing over while we are asleep. This is telling us more about bird movements than we could previously determine from daylight observation and bird ringing.

Abrupt and significant changes in weather or food supply can prompt major movements of birds. It is always worth looking, listening, and considering where the birds around us have come from and are going.

​Andrew Graham

The first of our series of autumn talks was given by Dr. Tom Lewis, Conservation and Research Manager at Longleat, who came to speak to us about his conservation work on 11 September. This followed on from our excursion to see the beaver territory at the estate earlier this year.
 
Most of us living locally will know of Longleat as a Safari Park, where they also do a popular light display over the Christmas period. What most of us don’t know is that there is more at Longleat than that! And thanks to Tom we gained a better understanding of what is going on there, and the role that large estates like this can play in local nature conservation.
 
Tom started to become interested in conservation by joining bird ringing groups and witnessing the disappearance of willow tits. He then spent some years abroad working in conservation projects in exotic locations, and saving species from extinction. Back in the UK, after two years at Longleat, he has witnessed the re-occurrence of two key native species which have been virtually absent for centuries: beavers and pine martens!
 
None of these two species were released by the Longleat estate. They either made their way there from other locations where they have been reintroduced, or were unofficially released by unknown persons. But the important thing for us is that they are welcome there and thriving, and perhaps we will have them soon established in our immediate area too (if we don’t already!).
 
Tom showed us some stunning aerial footage and told us how every 200 metres of waterway at Longleat now has evidence of beavers. Beavers have transformed small streams of barely 1 m width, fast flowing in winter but which used to dry up in summer, into wetlands with bodies of water of about 20 m wide and which retain water throughout the year. The slow moving waters now support minnows, toads and newts for example, and the species that feed on them.
 
One of Tom’s jobs was to find out how healthy the beaver population is, so he set up trail cameras to try to find out how many beavers were actually living there. Although his first attempts were not very successful at recording beavers, many other interesting species were recorded. The birds included: kingfishers, herons, grey wagtails, egrets, canada geese, marsh tits, jays, crossbills, sparrowhawks, spotted flycatchers… The mammals, foxes and otters. We saw beautiful footage of all these creatures displaying natural behaviours and were finally rewarded with the beavers and their kits, 4 babies in 2024! 4 babies is the upper range of beaver litters, and Tom attributes the high number to the quality of the habitat. It seems this year only 3 beaver kits were born, and one was sadly found dead.
 
Next, Tom told us about his pine marten work. Pine martens were discovered in the estate through some unusual poo, and this was later confirmed by trail camera footage. Tom has since been trying to establish how many are present and he showed us some interesting footage of 2 playful pine martens having a romp this year. Recently, a pine marten with a tracker from Exmoor (the Two Moors Pine Marten Project) has been found in the New Forest by Wild New Forest, showing how large distance movement is possible.
 
Tom mentioned future plans in his work, including analysis of bib patterns (the white marks on the chest of pine martens, unique to each individual) and DNA of scats. He fleetingly mentioned dormice footprint tunnel surveys, bat surveys, wild boar and bird counts. We are happy to hear all this is happening at Longleat and would like to hear more in due course. There is other information on their conservation projects in their website: https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/animals/conservation/uk

Inés López-Dóriga

I really struggle during heatwaves. At home, I do all I can to keep the house cool and to make sure there is some shade into which we can retreat at the hottest time of the day. But, how is wildlife, which has evolved over long time periods to be adapted to our normal climate, impacted by the increasingly frequent hot and dry spells? Well, in numerous direct and indirect ways.

We will see in our gardens how fruit and veg may mature too quickly and drop fruit prematurely. In the field, this can mean that crops of berries, nuts, and fruits that birds and animals normally rely on in autumn, may be gone by the time they need them. Although we can water our wilting garden plants and seedlings, in the wild they may perish, and a new generation will be lost. If the plants provide food for the larvae of insects like butterflies and moths become desiccated and die, the larvae won’t be able to grow sufficiently to progress to their overwintering stage, diminishing the numbers that emerge next year.

Anyone trying to dig into their flowerbeds will know how rock-hard the soil can get. Well, imagine if you rely on muddy soil with which to build a nest, or on digging into that soil to get food – as badgers, hedgehogs and many birds do. Life becomes very difficult for them. And things are just as bad for the creatures in that hardened soil, making it an inhospitable place. The worms and invertebrates that moles feed on are harder to find, so they must dig deeper to find moist soil and food.

While every creature needs to drink water in some way, amphibians such as frogs and toads rely on being able to keep moist, but as cool damp areas become increasingly rare, they risk death from dehydration. During heatwaves, water temperatures in ponds and rivers rise, resulting in reduced dissolved-oxygen levels, which in turn can kill fish. At the same time, the warmth encourages algal blooms, which can smother other wildlife and become toxic. If ponds dry out completely before tadpoles have competed their transition to froglets or toadlets, they will die.

Added to all these problems is the increasing risk of wildfires, or, even worse, deliberately started fires. This is a particular problem on our southern heathlands, many of which are close to built up areas, which seems to increase their vulnerability.

Obviously, it is not all bad news. Some species undoubtedly benefit from the heat and drought. But cumulatively, repeated heatwaves will favour the more resilient species, which can adapt in the short term or can move to more favourable locations and are able to recolonise later. Sedentary species, or those whose population take many generations to rebuild, may become locally extinct, eventually leading to a reduced flora and fauna of robust, adaptable species. Unfortunately, many of these are what we currently think of as pests. In future, our flora and fauna may be less diverse, less interesting, and significantly different to what we are comfortable with.

Andrew Graham

During the winter months, you could often come across small flocks of skylarks feeding on farmland stubbles. The small snatches of song they uttered as they flew over made it easy to distinguish them from the similar meadow pipit, with its high pitched “cheep” call. With the arrival of spring weather, skylarks are now spreading out, looking for suitable breeding habitat and starting to give voice to their full song,  which so epitomises open country in summer.

The skylark is a little larger than a sparrow but smaller than a starling. It has a small crest, which is most likely to be seen raised when the bird is alarmed. As it flies away or glides back to the ground, the white sides to the tail are a distinctive feature. Its streaky tawny plumage is ideal for camouflage amongst tussocky grass, so it is generally inconspicuous when on the ground. Not so when on a song flight, when the bird can sing for up to an hour and climb to great heights making its presence heard over a wide area.

Skylarks occupy open grassland and fields to avoid predators. Their towering song flights mean they have no need for trees or other perches from which to sing and are numerous on the open downlands of Wiltshire. Although in winter skylarks are strongly associated with stubbles, where they feed on seeds, young chicks are exclusively fed on insects and spiders. These remain an important part of the diet of adults and young throughout the summer, so any decline in the availability of such prey will have an impact on breeding success.

Although easy to find and still widespread throughout the UK, the skylark population has declined by 63% since 1967. This decline was largely caused by the move from spring to winter cereals, as well as by intensified grassland management. However, the latest UK population trend shows a small upturn in this species' fortunes.
​
Far less common is the woodlark, a superficially similar species with a noticeably shorter tail. Its distribution is closely tied to areas where wooded heathlands survive. If you want to look for one near here, your best bet is the New Forest.

​Andrew Graham

Debbie and Andrew Carter were treated to some engaging antics of two goldcrests displaying to their own images reflected in a window.

At this time of year I keep an eye on my garden bird feeder for two rather small and easy to miss finches: the siskin and lesser redpoll. Both are drawn to the sunflower hearts, and I assume they visit when their usual food, seeds, particularly those of alder and birch trees, are becoming depleted in the wider countryside. The skin is not hard to identify. It is smaller than a greenfinch but is a similar yellow-green colour streaked with black on the wings and crest. It also has a distinctive forked tail, and a narrow beak suited to prising out the tiny tree seeds it favours. The redpoll is the same size and largely brown but for the red marking on the top of its head and down the breast.

Now, like me, I expect most readers will have struggled with spotting the difference between the common repoll, lesser redpoll and arctic redpoll. Well, there is good news. Those nice people at the International Ornithological Committee have recently decided to lump all the above into one species – the redpoll. Advances in genetics have allowed biologists to assess the genetic similarity of the birds previously considered as different species. While the birds may have slight variations in plumage, distribution, and size, genetically they are almost identical. It has been decided that this variation is just within the species, rather than representing the kind of difference which prevents interbreeding.

This makes life considerably easier for most birdwatchers although it does mean that keen twitchers have lost two species from their potential year lists. At the same time, the hooded crow – found in the north and west of the British Isles – has now been deemed to be one species with the carrion crow we see around Tisbury.

There currently seems to be quite a few changes in what is and isn’t considered a separate species. The red grouse, found in the uplands of the UK and Ireland had until recently been considered a subspecies of the willow grouse/ptarmigan found widely in northern Europe and Russia. Now it has been found to be a separate species, endemic (i.e. found nowhere else) to the British Isles.

Before this, the only endemic bird species in the UK was the scottish crossbill, which was only identified as a separate species 30 or so years ago. Its size, structure and voice are intermediate between the red crossbill and parrot crossbill and its separation is still a point of discussion. Indeed, the best clue to separating it from the other species appears to be that you see it in Scotland. However, I should imagine the Scottish Government at Holyrood House will be keen to avoid the loss of the appellation “scottish” and having the bird lumped in with the red crossbills that we can see in some local woods.

​Andrew Graham

Our first indoor talk of 2025 will be at 7.30pm on Thursday January 9th at Victoria Hall. We are delighted to welcome Dominic Couzens to talk to us about his passion, birds, particularly our garden birds.
 
​Dominic describes himself as an award winning nature writer, with over 40 book titles to his name. He believes passionately in communicating greater understanding about the natural world and also about threats to nature and what we can do to help our planet.

The doors to the Victoria Hall will be open from 7pm and the bar will be available then too. Members are free and guests £2 at the door.

I spent a week in North Norfolk during the autumn birding in the numerous nature reserves along the coast. During the autumn migration one never knows what is going to turn up and the number of birders out and about every day means that many rarities and less common birds get picked up and reported. I was reflecting on how things had changed since I made a similar trip in the late 1970s. Back then, as well as binos and telescope, unless you knew the area and were a real expert, one had to lug around maps and field guides in pockets or a backpack. Now all you need is your phone and, depending on your interests, a handful of apps. The OS app gives you all the maps you want at a range of scales. Most reserves have a map board at the car park; a quick photo of that on arrival and you can navigate around the paths and hides with ease – rather than relying on memory as in the past.

One of the more frequent autumn migrant rarities is the Yellow Browed Warbler and there was a scattering of them along the coast on my recent visit. Like many warblers, this bird can be hard to pick out as its olive plumage and small size means you often only get a glimpse as it flits through the foliage. Now though you can prepare for your search by “swatting up” with an app. I use the Collins Bird Guide – like having the book version on your phone but with the advantage that it can play recordings of the bird’s calls and song. This is so much more useful than the somewhat bewildering verbal descriptions in the book. Telling the difference between two species on the basis of the one calls “hu-itt” and the other “hweet”? Hmmm. But after repeatedly listening to the recording on the app I found the Yellow Browed Warbler easy to identify when I heard it in the field. And after spotting it in the bushes I could then confirm my identification with another phone app – Merlin. This records birdsong and calls around you and identifies the species. It is not infallible but, with sufficient understanding of what you are expecting to see, it can be really useful to clinch sightings.

Other apps such as Obsidentify and Picture This are available which help you identify plants and other species of animals from a photo and in most cases to report where you found it. Similarly for birds, Birdtrack run by the British Trust for Ornithology allows you to record what you are seeing while in the field and then submit the results when you get home. Other apps are available for other groups or species. Ideally, we want to be able to report our sightings of wildlife and so enlarge our knowledge of its distribution and health, so these apps are a real boon.

Even if you don’t have an appropriate app, a photo can later be shared with local experts – often in area or species focussed WhatsApp Groups or forums – who may be able to identify what you have snapped.

So, the combination of all these phone apps and GPS which allows data loggers to track where you are at all times has really changed looking for and recording wildlife. With ever advancing AI one does wonder whether we will soon be able to wander through an area, scanning what we can see and hear through the phone, and this will instantly convert into geographically positioned and dated species lists. Which, although great from the point of view of getting good records, rather removes the sense of achievement from seeking things out and identifying them. We’ll see, but a phone is much lighter than loads of guidebooks, so I know which my back prefers.

​Andrew Graham

Andrew Graham will lead us on a walk around Arne RSPB Reserve where we will pass through varied habitats of heathlands, woods and wetlands with views over Poole Harbour. Arne is a terrific place for wildlife and BBC Seasonwatch has been broadcast from here a number of times, it is so good. It would therefore be a shame not to see a good part of its varied habitats. So, weather permitting, we will aim to spend the day here and we will be walking 4-5 miles. 

Please let us know if you are planning to join the trip and where you will meet us. No dogs. 
 
Meet at the Nadder Centre car park at 9:30am or at the Arne car park at 11:00 am    (OS Grid reference SY972 878) or What3Words wings.poetic.crown. The car park (charges for non- RSPB members) is located on the right at the beginning of Arne village from the Stoborough direction.
 
Distance, Difficulty and Footwear: There is relatively easy walking on paths and tracks with some slopes. Stout shoes should suffice unless wet. Bring binos, a packed lunch and refreshments.

Anticipated end time: Conclude at Arne by 3pm returning to Nadder Centre by 4pm.
 
https://www.rspb.org.uk/days-out/reserves/arne/location