It was lovely driving in to a frosty scene at Dungeness this morning. A beautiful bright sky with a crisp chill in the air means winter is pretty much here and we have had an influx in winter visitors on our reserve this week. Look out for the tiny little goldcrest and firecrests on the reserve, they particularly enjoy the Willow Trail over at ARC and the willow trees in the stretch between Makepeace and Scott hide. Look out for them on your feeders in the garden too, it's definitely not uncommon to spot them in gardens at this time of year!
Firecrest in the Willow Trail - Martin Casemore
Another bird who we know and love so well, the humble robin, is also a migratory species. During the winter we see a huge rise in robins (hence the relationship with robins and Christmas) because robins from Scandinavia will flock to the UK to seek a bit of extra warmth and add to our native robins which will stay here all year round. Rumour has it though, our own British robins are much friendlier due to being tamed by gardeners and bird lovers who feed them. Other 'common' garden birds who migrate to the UK for winter include blackbirds, greenfinches, goldfinches, wrens and great spotted woodpeckers!
Robin at RSPB Dungeness - Louise Kelly
Food will soon become scarce on the reserve for the littler birds so you will probably find more of them popping into your gardens to see what they can find. If you don't already, please think about feeding the birds this winter! For now, many birds are still relying on the abundance of berries we had this year, including the bright orange berries of the sea buckthorn plant. Many birds are very adaptable and can easily thrive on the insects of the summer months, the berries and fruits in the autumn months and seeds in the winter time.
Blue tit feeding on sea buckthorn berries at RSPB Dungeness - Graham Parry
Another bird who changes their diet for the winter includes the fabulous bearded tit. We have these birds present on our reserve all year round but now is the best time to see them. They are currently using our grit tray to swallow small pieces of grit which helps them break up and digest the seeds from the reed heads. They use this grit at this time of year when their diet changes from eating insects to feeding on seeds. You'll find our grit tray in the area between Denge Marsh and Hookers Pit, up on the viewing ramp. There's a couple of benches looking straight out onto the reedbed and the grit tray so there's a good chance (if you're patient enough!) that you'll spot these elusive birds hopping around the reeds and using the tray.
Bearded tits on grit tray at RSPB Dungeness - Martin Casemore
A bird which does not change its diet for the winter is the stonechat. This bird is resident here in the UK (and on the reserve of course!) all year round. Taken from our regular visitor and photographer, Graham Parry's blog: "This male Stonechat (photo below) seems to have made his home with two females behind Christmas Dell hide at Dungeness RSPB. Stonechats are one of the few strictly insect eating birds to overwinter in the UK (Mainly in the south of England). Very hard winters can effect their population drastically."
Some of you may now be wondering, what is a passerine? Well a passerine is a 'perching' bird in the formal scientific order Passeriformes. There are more than 5,000 unique species of this bird, equating to more than half the worlds bird species! All the birds mentioned above are passerines.
Would you like to know more about our birds? We have some fabulous guided walks coming up that you can take part in! Please check our website here for the dates and information: http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/find-a-reserve/reserves-a-z/reserves-by-name/d/dungeness/events.aspx
A lovely post. Do you still get the largest passerine on the reserve?
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.