Tisbury Natural History Society
  • Home
    • About the Society
    • Committee
  • Blog
  • Talks
  • Field trips
  • Young Nature Watch
  • Resources
    • Wildlife identification and recording >
      • Local wildlife >
        • Mammals
      • Identification
      • Recording
    • Other useful websites
    • Reading list
  • Contact us

Blog

Winter bird movements (Focus - January)

1/1/2022

 
Winter can be a tough time for wildlife and while a number of mammal species will hibernate, many birds deal with poor weather by moving to lower ground or even to a different country. The storms and snowfall of December got many thrushes on the move, and in the weeks following there appeared to be many more blackbirds, redwings and fieldfares in the local fields and hedgerows. It is not just the cold temperatures that they are escaping; a blanket of snow will make food inaccessible forcing them to move to clearer land to feed. Redwings and fieldfares will already have travelled from Scandinavia and Russia to find a milder winter and will keep moving to keep clear of the worst conditions. Similarly, there are increased numbers of coots, mallards, and tufted ducks on Fonthill Lake, where they will spend the winter.

This is all normal but what makes things interesting is when there is real dearth of food for birds in their normal wintering areas. This might be because the food crop (for example acorns, beech mast or fruits and berries) has failed or a species has had a population boom after a good breeding season. This is when an irruption can occur, and huge numbers of birds move to parts of Europe where they are not normally seen. A recent example of this was during the winter of 2017/18 when unusually large numbers of hawfinches were seen throughout the UK. They made a rare sight in the beeches around Fonthill Lake and even popped up in Tisbury gardens. This year it seems to be the turn of the brambling to visit us in large numbers, presumably because of a failure of the beech mast crop on the continent. After reaching the east coast in late September, they had soon spread across the whole country and by the end of November seemed to outnumber the chaffinches in some local beech woods. (You can see this movement graphically on eurobirdportal.org).
​

It has been a particularly poor year for acorns which will hit jays which favour this as their winter food, normally burying thousands in the autumn for later retrieval. They may travel several kilometres from their home range looking for acorns and will be more visible than usual as they do so. But if the acorn supply is exhausted, they too will be on the move. The classic irruptive species is the waxwing, a bird rarely seen in the UK apart from during one of their irruptions which only occur once every 10 years or so when flocks of a hundred or more may be seen. Who knows what this winter will bring?
by Andrew Graham

Comments are closed.
    Photo: Avocets ​(Izzy Fry)

    ​The headers display photos taken by our members. Do get in touch via the Contact Form if you'd like to submit a photo for selection.
    Get our website news by email:
    Also go to our pages at:

    Facebook
    Instagram
    Twitter

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018

    Categories

    All
    Birds
    Butterflies & Moths
    Conservation & Biodiversity
    Field Trips
    Film
    Fish
    Focus Magazine
    Fungi
    Identification & Recording
    Insects & Molluscs
    Mammals
    Oysters Coppice
    Plants
    Special Events
    Surveys
    Swifts Project
    Talks
    Trees

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • About the Society
    • Committee
  • Blog
  • Talks
  • Field trips
  • Young Nature Watch
  • Resources
    • Wildlife identification and recording >
      • Local wildlife >
        • Mammals
      • Identification
      • Recording
    • Other useful websites
    • Reading list
  • Contact us