Nightingales in November (18 page)

Able to help themselves to ‘in-flight food' the Swallows are in the fortunate position of being able to press on, but any Nightingale having passed through West Africa and over the Mediterranean in one non-stop flight will need to feed quickly upon reaching land, before its fat reserves run critically low. The dry, uncultivated land in southern Portugal and Spain, which consists of a mosaic of scrub and wooded groves of Cork and Holm Oak, is thought to be the main pit stop where most of our Nightingales will then spend a while fattening up before ultimately leaving for England in mid-April.

The only one of our chosen migrants still overwintering in Africa by this stage, will be the Cuckoo. Satellite telemetry seems to indicate that most British-tagged Cuckoos by the end of March will have worked their way steadily west to reach countries such as the Ivory Coast. Traditionally very heavily forested, particularly in the lowland Guinean forests along the coast, there has been much recent concern about
the rapid rate of deforestation in this old French colony, sometimes cited as the highest in the world. Certainly ‘Cuckoo Chris' has spent two of his three pre-Saharan stopover points in March feeding up in the eastern part of the country. Fortunately the area Chris and the other Cuckoos seem to favour is in and around the forest-savanna mosaic, a belt extending across the centre of the country, and to the north of the most heavily deforested areas. Once the Cuckoos do leave this habitat in early April, they will in all likelihood not touch down again until they arrive in southern Europe. In the meantime, the only question vexing the Cuckoos as they prepare to traverse the huge arid zones further north is which route to plump for when they cross the Sahara Desert.

By late March, most inshore waters around the major colonies will have begun to turn into a Puffin-thronged melee. Emboldened by their numbers, it seems surprising that the Puffins don't immediately pour on to the breeding colony, but instead appear reluctant to leave the sea. During the first few days back around the colony, the Puffins will use this time to join up in rafts with those birds that have become close neighbours during previous breeding seasons. These ‘clan' gatherings at sea often tend to become aligned adjacent to the sections of the colony with which they're most familiar, and small flocks will then quickly coalesce into much larger rafts of possibly several thousand Puffins as more arrive back. Suddenly amid much excitement, a large number of Puffins will then begin taking off together before heading for land. Flying towards the puffinry, the Puffins will then circle over the area where they intend to breed, before looping back over the sea. This ‘circuit' is flown a number of times, with the number of birds rapidly increasing all the time until the flock becomes a ring of fast-moving
Puffins called a ‘wheel'. The different ‘sub-colonies' within the puffinry will often have ‘wheels' in different locations, enabling the birds to check out familiar terrain while in a large, speedy flock.

This important event in the life of the Puffin is much more than just a convenient way to travel from sea to land, as it also provides an ingenious method of checking for predators close to where they intend to nest. It's also far more difficult for any predators, such as Great Black-backed Gulls, Peregrines or Great Skuas, to pick out just a single bird to target for attack from amongst a rapidly swirling flock. Eventually a few brave Puffins will peel away from the wheel before touching down on terra firma for the first time in over seven months, which in turn gives others confidence to join them on dry land. It's only when this ‘touchdown' has occured that the Puffins' breeding season could be said to have well and truly started.

The two birds with a considerable distance still to cover before they even reach their breeding grounds will be our two winter visitors, Bewick's Swan and Waxwing. Those Waxwings that have already left Britain will in all likelihood have crossed the North Sea and be currently spread out at still fairly low latitudes in a broad front across Denmark, Norway and Sweden. As they head north-east towards the northern forests surrounding the Arctic Circle, they will certainly be eating on the way. Due to the breeding season at high latitudes often being short, many Waxwings will be keen to hit the ground running the moment the weather ameliorates. This ability to quickly capitalise on conditions should give them sufficient time to successfully raise chicks before the days once again shorten and temperatures plummet.

Thanks to intense field work by researchers from the WWT and recent advances in satellite telemetry, the migration picture is currently much clearer for Bewick's Swans than for
Waxwings. As the month draws to an end, most British Bewick's Swans will suddenly leave Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Germany to head towards their key spring staging posts – the estuaries and wetlands off the coasts of Estonia and Latvia, most of which should by now be ice-free. Matsalu Bay, and Pärnu just further south, have long been recognised for their importance for migrating Bewick's Swans, with Matsalu being re-designated as a Ramsar site by the Estonian Government in 1994. These sites were well watched between 1992 and 1994, with Matsalu accounting for approximately 14,500 Bewick's Swans and a further 7,000 dotted around Pärnu Bay and the Pärnu River's watershed. When combined, this figure will have formed a very high proportion of all the Bewick's Swans from the European flyway.

Having been sitting since early March, the embryos inside the eggs should by now be developing quickly providing the female Tawny Owl has been regularly fed by her mate. With her clutch well defended, the only issues that could prejudice the welfare of the clutch at this time is if the Owls have chosen to breed in a year when prey is scarce, or if hunting activity is reduced by prolonged poor weather. In these situations the female may have to break away from incubating to go hunting herself, which could put the eggs at risk of chilling. Dave Culley has found that his resident male Tawny can be incredibly resourceful at this time of year, and with small mammals in lower abundance in early spring, frogs frequently start to form a substantial component of the items brought in to the sitting female.

By the end of March most urban Peregrines should have been sitting on a full clutch for at least a couple of weeks.
Unlike the Tawny Owl, both male and female Peregrine will incubate the eggs, although the female will invariably undertake the greater share and additionally cover the night shifts. Producing three or four eggs is an incredible investment in time and energy for the female, and so if the weather does take a turn for the worse, the incubating birds will often sit tight to ensure their precious clutch doesn't chill. A supreme example of adult Peregrines' devotion to their eggs occurred with an established pair nesting on Nottingham Trent University's Newton Building in late March 2013. An unseasonably late snow flurry virtually covered both the open nest box and the female sitting on a clutch of three eggs. Despite being virtually buried until the snow melted, she didn't abdicate her responsibility and all three chicks successfully hatched at the end of April, a testament to her dedication.

With a territory secured and one or even more females interested, the Lapwing's breeding season will now be quickly gathering pace in the more southerly breeding sites. Having taken to the air to display the calibre of his site and his qualities as a potential partner, the male will now capitalise on his good early work to further court the female on the ground. The main ground display between the pair centres on ‘nest scraping'. Here, the female squats down, often in the location where she would like the nest scrape to be positioned. The male will then approach her while alternately flashing his orange undertail coverts and white rump. The female responds to this overt display by moving towards him, and bowing steeply as she too displays her bright undertail and rump colours. Moving back into the scrape the female then starts raking the ground while the male flicks any material close by along her flanks, and if suitably impressed she will then invite him to mate with her. Mating directly
from flight, the male will need to use his wings to maintain his balance while copulation takes place.