Over the last few weeks we’ve seen, and heard, the
arrival of the first of our winter thrushes as north-easterly winds coming out
of Scandinavia has allowed the first waves of birds to cross the North Sea. Redwings
are usually the first thrushes to appear, arriving in small numbers from
Scandinavia from early October. Their high-pitched calls can be heard overhead
during the hours of darkness as they migrate westwards, whilst tired and hungry
flocks can often be seen chattering as they search hedgerows for berry laden
bushes on which they feed, such as those around the base at Bank Island. Local
bird ringer Mike Jackson has been having some good success at catching and
ringing some of these migrating birds as they pass over Wheldrake Ings – with
63 ringed in recent weeks – hopefully leading to some valuable information of
the movements of these birds. One of the birds caught was of the darker
Icelandic breeding population – more regularly found wintering along the west
coast of the UK. After wintering here, they will then return to their breeding
grounds from mid-March so there is plenty of time yet to see them - as always
when visiting the NNR please leave any records in the log books provided, thank
you.
As well as watching an arrival of Redwings over recent
weeks, we’ve also witnessed the first notable arrival of Fieldfares into the
valley with these early arrivals favouring the berry laden hedges between our
base at Bank Island and the car park at Wheldrake Ings. These winter visitors
arrive in the UK from October onwards from their breeding grounds in
Scandinavia and continental Europe, when food sources such as rowan berries,
become exhausted - up to as many as 750,000 individuals can winter throughout
the UK.
Fieldfares are rather nomadic birds, moving through the
country exploiting local crops of berries, and using damp grasslands and
agricultural land in the search of earthworms and other invertebrates when the
berries have been consumed. Birds will often continue to move west and
south as the winter progresses and temperatures fall – giving the origin of the
name ‘feldware’ in Anglo-Saxon, which means ‘traveller of the fields’. Birds will
return to the valley when freezing conditions or snow covers the higher ground
of the Wolds, and once again in March as they start to depart and head back to
their breeding grounds. They are quite wary birds and often remain high up in
trees – only coming down to feed more frequently in harsh weather when they can
be forced into gardens to take advantage of fruit and other offerings. We
don’t usually catch and ring many Fieldfares during the year as a result - but
birds ringed by Chris Wright in his orchard at Thorganby have subsequently been
recovered in France and the Czech Republic.
