According to the National Trust, gardens in the south and west of England are coming into flower up to four weeks ahead of schedule. The warm weather and such an early source of nectar will bring our butterflies out of hibernation; one of the earliest reported in the reserve, nearly every year, is the brimstone.
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The British Trust for Ornithology has been collecting information about the UK’s birds since 1932.
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Great tits can be very loud at this time of year as they search for territory and a mate. They sit high in the trees and shout. It is a distinctive repetitive call like a creaky gate. Listen out for it.
This great tit is in the willows by the decorated bridge, sitting up up among the branches and making a lot of noise
Coot (Fulica atra), small black waterbirds, close relatives of moorhens, visit the reserve in the spring. They have never nested here but we live in hope.
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Already, our songbirds are tuning up for the spring. Here are ten things you may not have known about birdsong.
The reserve’s song bird are tuning up for spring
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This far south, Eurasian collared doves, Streptopelia decaocto, breed almost all year round. In the reserve, even this early in the year, their ever-present monotonous calls (…my toe hurts…my toe hurts…) become just background noise.
Recording by Olivier Swift (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED) xeno-canto.org
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On Tuesday, a member of FoSCP saw a waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) in the copse at the bottom of Kestrel Field. He didn’t get a picture and there was nobody to confirm the sighting so it hasn’t been added to our species lists yet. If you have seen it, or photographed it, please contact us.
Continue reading “Waxwing”
It’s Big Garden Birdwatch weekend! Sign up, join in and get counting.
The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, has been taking place over the last weekend in January every year since 1979. This is important citizen science: the RSPB uses the information we collect to monitor our native bird populations. Each year, as global warming takes hold and our climate changes, planning for the future of our wildlife becomes more urgent.
Below is a link that will take you to live-feed cameras watching bird feeders across the UK.
Did you know that some robins migrate?
Continue reading “Winter robins”
Ian reported a flock of fifty or more redwings visiting the reserve last week.
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Dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis) is one of those mysterious, usually nameless, plants that is hardly ever noticed. It forms dense carpets on the woodland floor and beneath old hedgerows but appears to most passers-by as just background for the bluebells and primroses.
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This far south, and despite the freezing weather, the reserve’s rooks will have begun to collect nesting material. Rooks pair for life and build their nest together: the male finds most of the material and the female puts it in place. Here is a video that shows us what kind of behaviour to look out for:
Video by Film Studio Aves;
Header picture (CC0) pixabay.com
A long tailed tit all fluffed up against the cold.
Header image taken in the reserve by Simon Knight
Our chiffchaffs will already have started the long journey back to their breeding sites in the reserve. They have overwintered in the warmth of southern Europe or northern Africa and are making their way home in a leisurely way with lots of stops for fuel. The males are the frontrunners and they need to arrive fit enough to find and fight for a territory.
They will begin arriving in March; their song (chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff) is one of the first signs of spring.
Pictures take in the reserve by DKG
The collective noun for goldfinches is a charm. How charming is that?
Continue reading “A charm of goldfinches”
Near Fiveways, there is a male song thrush that begins to sing in January. He sits high up in his territory, often on the topmost branch of a tree, and once he gets going you can hear him all over the reserve.
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There is a family of Eurasian wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes) sharing a winter territory in the copse to the north east of the big pond. Have you seen them?
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A gallery of blackbirds foraging for winter food.
Every winter we get reports of people leaving food, presumably for our wildlife, somewhere in the reserve. Please, don’t do this.
Continue reading “Please don’t do this…”
Treat your garden birds with a Christmas bird table. Here are some suggestions:
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Common name: robin
Scientific name: Erithacus rubecula
Family: Muscicapidae
Habitat: woodland, hedgerows, gardens
Diet: invertebrates, fruit, seeds, bird table scraps
Predators: birds of prey, domestic cats
Origin: native
Here’s a video from the British Trust for Ornithology to help us all sort out our native pigeons:
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 