There are all sorts of things that shriek in our dark winter woods: the Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) is just one of them.
Jay (Garrulus glandarius) audio by Bodo Sonnenburg ( CC -BY-SA) xeno-canto.org
Shrieking in the woods
Have the blackbirds started singing yet?
Young males will begin to sing this early in order to establish and defend the territory they hope hold for the rest of their lives. Older and more experienced birds will wait until February or March.
Redwing
Every year redwings are among the park’s winter visitors; we are their winter migration’s destination.
Continue readingOn the twelfth day of Christmas
The park’s twelve drummers drumming are great spotted woodpeckers. They begin drumming at the end of winter as part of a courtship ritual in which the male marks out his territory and advertises his presence. He drums his beak against hollow wood 10 to 20 times in just 2 seconds, and the females replies briefly as she enters his territory.
Here is a video:
Video recorded in March 2019 by George Ewart
Seven swans a-swimming.
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me seven swans a-swimming.
Mute swans (Cygnus olor) come to the park to graze, not to swim or raise chicks. They break their long journey to some faraway lake or river, to rest and eat in the park’s green fields. We are a swan service station.
Six geese a-laying…
…or not.
There are no geese anywhere on our species lists but we can offer you six species of corvid instead.
[1] Crow [2] Jay [3] Rook [4] Jackdaw [5] Magpie [6] Raven
Goldfinches of course.
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five goldfinches. . .
Pictures taken in the reserve by DKG.
Four calling birds
Not calling birds, according to the experts, but colly birds. Colly is an old word for soot or coal dust and a colly bird is a blackbird. We have tuneful blackbirds by the dozen in the park.
Audio by Beatrix Saadi-Varchmin (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) xeno-canto.org
On the third day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
…unfortunately, we have no French hens. In fact we don’t even know what French hens are and, try as we might, we can’t find out. The top two theories suggest that they were either fashionable domestic poultry in 1780, when the song was first published, or an allegorical representation of the Holy Trinity.
Continue reading “On the third day of Christmas”On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me…
…two turtle doves. We have collared doves and woodpigeons by the dozen but no turtle doves. Sorry.
Continue reading “On the second day of Christmas”
Christmas robins
A Christmas Eve gallery of the park’s robins, photographed by DKG.
Red list
In its latest review, the RSPB has added four more names to its red list of Britain’s endangered bird species.
Continue reading “Red list”Warming oceans
Albatross divorce rate rises
No, we haven’t seen an albatross flying over the reserve but occasionally a story from beyond our particular corner of Southwick catches our eye.
Continue reading “Warming oceans”Pigeon post
Pigeons are known to have been domesticated for more than 5,000 years. They are mentioned in cuneiform writing on clay tablets dug up in Mesopotamia and in hieroglyphics on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs. There is a growing belief among archaeologists that pigeons were, in fact, the first birds to be domesticated, more than 10,000 years ago,
Continue reading “Pigeon post”Woodpeckers
We have both greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers on our species lists but it is many years since the single sighting of a lesser spotted woodpecker in the park. Here is a video from the BTO to help you tell the difference between the two.
Header picture: greater spotted woodpecker in the reserve photographed by DKG
Blackcap
Since the 1960s, the number of Eurasian blackcaps that overwinter in the UK has got bigger and bigger. It’s no longer a rare sight to see them in the reserve in the middle of winter. The blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) is one of the rare species that sings all year round. Listen out for them:
Recording: Blackcap by Alexander Henderson (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) xeno-canto.org
Winter moths
The Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) is one of the few moth species that can cope with winter’s freezing temperatures in its adult stage. They are endothermic which means that they can produce heat internally by biochemical processes, just as warm-blooded creatures do.
Continue reading “Winter moths”House sparrow
A study by scientists from the RSPB, BirdLife International and the Czech Society for Ornithology has found that there are 247million fewer house sparrows in Europe than there were in 1980. This is a loss of almost half the house sparrow’s European population.
Continue reading “House sparrow”
Pied wagtail
The car park wagtails are a pair of grey wagtails but we have pied wagtails too.
Continue readingMigration changes
Analysis of records kept since 1964 has found that some species of European migratory birds are spending up to 60 days less each year in their sub-Saharan wintering grounds. Over the most recent 27-year period, migratory birds, including the whitethroats commonly seen in our reserve, were found to have increased their time in Europe by an average of 16 days. It has even been suggested that some species may stop flying south for the winter altogether.
Continue reading “Migration changes”Jays
Live Knight has sent in pictures of the reserve’s jays busy this week caching acorns.
A look back to 2019: a long tailed tit photographed in the reserve by DKG.
Continue reading
Kingfisher!
Mail from Cheryl Cronnie with pictures of a kingfisher:
Hi there, I’d just like to share with you the kingfisher I spotted today at Southwick Country Park by the pond. I was over the moon as I had never seen one before.
Lovely! Thank you, Cheryl.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 