Winter Migrants find a Temperate Climate

The middle of November was mostly damp and mild, with the rivers high and fast, carrying some mud from far fields upstream. It will be a while before ground water levels reach the usual height for this time of the year however. 

Conditions east and north of our shores have recently worsened, triggering flocks of birds to head west and south in search of food and shelter, given favourable winds. 

Locating rivers,  lakes and shores from the air is easy for birds and our winter migrants, redwing, field fare, continental blackbirds and song thrushes mainly, don't take long to get here. They drop down suddenly into thickets and proceed to explore the immediate area for food. mostly berries, the numbers of birds in the hedgerows and trees increasing hugely overnight. Splitting up into smaller groups they will select sheltered areas, feed then sit together, resting in the warmest sheltered thickets. Some will communicate by calling or singing, filling the riverbanks with sound where the day before all was quiet apart from one or two local robins and wrens. Goldfinches and starlings often fly to join in.

A Willow seen through the bridge railings, the design perfect for spiders

 to form webs to trap insects carried by the breeze above the river.

In turn, birds fly in to glean the trapped insects!

Nature will win in the end.

On Sunday 18th November 2018, after a cold start, the skies were clear with the sun quickly warming up surfaces. There had been a large increase in bird numbers, with many more blackbirds, more song thrushes, newly arrived redwing and fieldfare all exploring thickets for berries and fruits from top to bottom. Blue and great tits and a few coal tits were also busy foraging - but gleaning invertebrates from the undersides of leaves still left on trees such as willows.

Linnets in flight, bullfinches and goldfinches were also present, with noisy jays still finding plenty of acorns amongst the fallen oak leaves.

  

A Bird's Eye View of the Landscape

As no two days are alike here, following a routine is out of the question for wildlife anywhere in this country, especially in the south, in Autumn. Adapting to circumstances is the key to survival - birds are opportunists, as they don't hibernate, they either migrate in good time or stay to share their habitat with incoming birds, winter migrants. These leave rapidly freezing plains for more temperate lands - there's no better place than here in the south - and once discovered birds will return year after year….

 A view of the river in November with willows on the left and old oaks on the right.

Birds flying over the landscape follow the river, focussing on the glint of sunlight (or moonlight for night-flyers) on the water and the ribbon of trees and thickets along the banks.

Here a bridge was built over the river in 2011 but wildlife soon adapted to make use of the new feature. Kingfishers continued to fly low along the river, under the bridge, even when scaffolding was still in place during construction. Resident birds stayed put in the river buffer zone, the old Oaks and Field Maples, thickets of Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Holly and Ivy sustaining and sheltering them.

It's our responsibility to protect the riverside habitat whatever changes are made nearby- and improve it for wildlife, extending the wildlife habitat in all directions.

The Best of Brambles

Brambles are beautiful all year round, for different reasons. This year most were early to fruit  in the sun and wildlife took advantage, selecting the best fruits and leaving the rest to dry out in the heat. Fortunately rain fell just in time to save the fruits and generate fresh leaves where the old leaves and stems were drying out. After birds and small mammals had had their fill, riverside insects took over, collecting sugars left in the dried fruits. Even now there are seeds left to be foraged by autumn birds.

There are many varieties of Bramble here and some have fine autumn colours:

On 12th November 2018 the colours were vivid along the bank:

Contrasting with the old oak in the background.

The young bare tree in the middle distance is a fruit tree which has thrived since planting due to the protection given to the young growing trunk and branches by the dense bramble shoots around it. Traditional forestry employed brambles as effective protection for newly planted trees, especially from browsing deer, and this has worked well here.

Brambles are good for numerous reasons and help maintain a diverse ecology.

New Bramble shoots appeared after the first rain, the new leaves turning

red after a few weeks.

On the day these photos were taken, 12th November, the riverside had come to life after heavy rain the preceding day, with numerous starlings singing together with goldfinches and house sparrows along the river thickets. Black-headed gulls flew over, fast in the wind. Blue and great tits were foraging along the Blackthorn thickets but there were no signs yet of winter migrants. The river was flowing quite high and fast and a kingfisher dashed across low over the water.

By evening a storm had moved in, bringing heavy hail then rainfall, thunder and lightening. 

Brilliant November

The month of November is not usually described as brilliant  but this year the autumn colours have continued to last well into the month, brightening the riverside even on the most dark and dank days with rapidly diminishing hours of daylight. This was the scene on 10th November:

The contrasting colours of Oaks in the foreground and Poplars in the background, along the river bank on 10th November 2018. The brilliant yellow leaves were fragile and did not last very

long once it became windy - but the coppery oak leaves were a lot tougher.

On the same day, not far upstream along the river, the picture was quite different:

The sun falls on the sheltered river through branches retaining some of their leaves - Willows and Blackthorn - but the colours seem spring-like here! Recent rainfall had refreshed the river, with leaves being carried fast downstream, some to form small islands with twigs which are beloved of Moorhens and smaller birds.