Migratory Bird Day

Autumn is well and truly here. The leaves are changing colour, days are getting shorter and  you may have noticed moving V shaped flocks or skeins of geese heading south for the winter. Having bred and raised chicks in Iceland and Canada and with food running out they will have started their migration in September or October and although many head further south to England some will stay in Scotland. Species such as the barnacle and pink-footed to the UK for the milder winters and more abundant food. Geese are primarily grazers and are typically found in wetlands, coastal areas and farmland, where they gather in groups to feed on seeds, grass, potatoes and small invertebrates. Montrose Basin sees thousands of geese winter there each year. As the population of wild geese has increased geese and farmers have come into conflict since geese cause damage to crops. Farmers have had to adopt management methods such as scaring, sacrificial grassland and culling, which is often seen as controversial. Come spring the geese will head north again ready for the breeding season.

Keep watching the skies and see if you can spot some geese on their migration. They arrive in their thousands, but geese are not the only birds to head to the UK to overwinter.

Redwings migrate here from Scandinavia and mostly eat berries and earthworms. They are the smallest species of thrush. You can find them on berry trees in gardens, woodlands and parks, but they can also be found on farmland.

Fieldfares arrive in the UK around early October and are a larger species of thrush. They are more likely to be found on farmland and enjoy earthworms and other invertebrates.

Snow buntings. Though we do now have around 60 pairs of breeding snow buntings in the UK, they’re confined to Scotland’s highest mountains where you’re more likely to see our winter visitors. Up to 15,000 snow buntings migrate south from the arctic regions each year.

Whooper swans are largely winter visitors, although a small number of pairs nest in Scotland. Most however nest in Iceland and winter in the north of the UK and East Anglia.

As our winter visitors head here so we say farewell to our summer ones:

Chiff Chaff

Come spring you will start to hear these little birds who are some of the first visitors to arrive. They migrate to the UK from Africa, but due to milder winters some are overwintering in the UK. Take a walk around our Craiglockhart campus on a sunny spring day and you will hear the chiff chaff’s distinctive call.

Osprey

The largest summer visitor to the UK, ospreys start to arrive around March returning to the same nest sites to breed with their regular partners. Hunted to extinction in Scotland in 1916, eventually some recolonised Scotland in 1954. Since 1959, Loch Garten in the Highlands has been home to a succession of nesting pairs, probably due to its ideal nesting sites and the plentiful fish in the rivers and lochs. Precautions were taken to protect the birds and their eggs, with no access allowed anywhere near the nest. There is an RSPB centre at Loch Garten which you can visit and rangers will give you information about the ospreys.

You can also view them through the centre’s telescopes. Years passed and the population in Scotland and throughout the UK steadily grew. Some other nest sites across the country have set up webcams so that you can follow the breeding and chick raising season remotely. One of the best is at Loch Arkaig. This year the resident pair named Louis and Dorcha by the watchers and fish counters successfully raised 2 male chicks who set off on their first migration in August. Both were ringed and one has been spotted in northern Spain on August 30th

Swifts and Swallows

Swifts spend most of their lives on the wing. Soaring high in the sky, they can be distinguished from swallows by their distinctive screeching call. They are very sociable and they often fly in groups. And they are easy to spot as they look like an arrow whirling through the sky. They used to prefer to nest in trees or cliffs but now prefer the roofs of old buildings like churches. Swifts spend the winter in Africa and return to Britain every year in April and May. They feed on small flying insects by catching them in flight.

Swallows also spend the winters in Africa arriving in the UK in April and leaving around October. Swallows are common and are often found on farmland and open pasture near water. They build mud and straw nests on ledges, often in farm buildings and outhouses, or under the eaves of houses.  They are agile fliers, feeding on flying insects while on the wing. Before they migrate back to their wintering grounds in Africa, they can be seen gathering to roost in wetlands, particularly reedbeds.

Whatever the season you can look out for the birds in your local area and in January you can participate in the Big Garden Birdwatch and be part of a valuable citizen science project which monitors the UK wild bird population and provides valuable data on the bird population.

Use Library Search to access books and journal articles on birds and migration.

Photo by Mathew Schwartz Unsplash