Blogger: Lauren Harris, Futurescapes Support Officer
So, what do we talk about in our little offices on a Monday morning catch up with colleagues? Lots of things, but this Monday we talked about the influx of migrant birds coming off the continent onto our little piece of rock. The most impressive of these were the 21,100 redwings that were spotted at the Spurn Bird Observatory on Monday 22 October 2012. For those of you that don’t know where this is (I didn’t either), this is located on a strange strip of land that neatly curves round into the Humber Estuary, near Hull.
For me redwings are a subtle reminder that winter is approaching us and you will often see them busying themselves eating berries and fruit from our hedgerows and orchards. You will also see them forage in colder weather on the ground in woodland in the same way that blackbirds do. Quite often they are accompanied by fieldfares, another very attractive winter migrant that travels all the way from Norway. Two years ago we were presented with a bumper flock of 5,000 fieldfares at an orchard in Suffolk, which was so exciting it made the local news that day. Funnily enough, the droppings of this large group of birds also presented an interesting fact – fieldfares can make a wonderful gritting agent. This was so much the case that the locals thought the gritting lorries had been to the area!
Redwings are the smallest member of the thrush family and have a distinctive creamy strip above the eye, but its probably the orange-red flank patches which sit under the wing that make this bird so distinctive. I think they look perfectly dressed for the Christmas season.
What is exciting about this visitor is that redwings may come all the way from Iceland or Russia and Scandinavia to winter in southern England and further south in Europe. In autumn, redwings gather along the Scandinavian coast at dusk before launching off on their single 800 km (500 mile) flight across the North Sea to the UK. What a journey! They stay with us until the spring, then they return to their northern territories. We are lucky enough to have them for a few months and it strikes me that it is important that we think about their needs, like you would any guest.
We are thinking about this more and more, and we aren’t just thinking about migrants, we are thinking about those species that might be heading our way as we see the impacts of climate change. We might be recording amazing species like the hoopoe on our Big Garden Birdwatch lists in the future and we need to make sure we are able to provide the habitat they need. That is why we are working with our partners across the UK and at a landscape-scale to ensure that we meet the challenges of the future, we call it Futurescapes.
While you are out and about this autumn, have a look for redwings, you might spot them in parks and playing fields – often in loose, mixed flocks with other birds, such as starlings and fieldfares. Listen out for their soft seep seep call, as they pass overhead.
[Editor's Note: You can now register for Big Garden Birdwatch for January 26-27 2013 here]
Photo Credit: redwing by Liz Cutting