Nightingales in November (27 page)

Still a full month from fledging, the Peregrine chicks will nevertheless be putting on weight and becoming stronger
with each passing day. Even at this tender age, preening, scratching and wing or leg stretching all become part of the daily routine, in addition to their favourite occupation of sleeping. As they begin to grow a second, warmer layer of down at around ten days the female will need to brood them less, meaning that unless the weather is wet, cold and windy she will begin leaving the nest for short periods. As their vision starts developing strongly, this will lead to the youngsters suddenly becoming more mobile. Able to observe any comings and goings from their lofty position will often result in a mad, noisy scramble towards any parent spotted arriving with food. At this stage the male will still be catching the majority of the prey for the chicks, but he will from now on also begin helping the female to feed the chicks at the nest. Arriving at the nest site, the adult dishing out lunch will pin down the plucked and headless prey with its powerful talons, before proceeding to rip it up and feed one morsel at a time to the chicks. As the young become increasingly more coordinated, noisy and hungry, the chunks of food they are able to deal with will increase in size.

In their tunnel nest, little will be heard from young Kingfisher chicks until their eyes start opening at around eight days. The power of sight will suddenly shake them into turning the volume up, leading to their constant churring calls frequently audible from the bank side, particularly when they're hungry and waiting to be fed. Even before the first feathers break through their translucent skin, the blue colouring so characteristic of Kingfishers is very noticeable, and the imminent arrival of plumage is timed to match a huge increase in the chicks' demand for fresh fish deliveries. As each chick is fed its fish it will then shuffle to the back of the pack to digest the meal and await its next turn. Any
chick daring to get more than its fair share by queue jumping will often be pecked back into line by its hungrier siblings.

In those nests where the parents are able to catch enough fish, renowned Kingfisher expert David Boag calculated that each chick will be fed around every 50 minutes, so a typical nest could easily consume over 100 fish a day at its peak, and this figure doesn't include those consumed by the adults themselves. By now the chamber will be reeking of regurgitated fish remains from both the chicks and their parents, but as the youngsters become more mobile they seem to be aware of this sanitation issue and so begin venturing down the tunnel to defecate rather than add to the mess in the chamber. Squirting out their white poo soon turns the tunnel into a slimy mess through which the adults must trudge through each time they return with food. This necessitates frequent bathing and preening sessions for the parents to ensure their plumage remains both flightworthy and waterproof. The sheaths that enclose the feathers will also begin poking through the skin at this stage, leading to the chicks quickly turning into a spiky mass of blue and orange. Interestingly, the feathers remain encased until they are virtually full grown, with the sheaths only dropping off shortly before fledging. This is thought to be an adaptation to protect the new feathers from the filth and squalor of the chamber, to ensure the plumage remains in the best possible condition for the moment the youngsters fledge.

With her clutch complete, early May should find many southern Blue Tits in full incubation mode. The sole responsibility of keeping the eggs warm and turned on a regular basis falls to the female, who will spend the entire fortnight ensconced in her cavity nest, bar a few short breaks to feed, drink and toilet herself. During this vigil she will sit tight, and as many generations of young egg collectors and
bird ringers can attest, the nickname ‘Billy Biter' is well deserved. Despite her devotion, it's thought as many as a third of all Blue Tit clutches are predated by Wood Mice, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Grey Squirrels. While the female incubates, the male has relatively little to keep him busy apart from feeding himself, and with his paternity already assured he will not feel the need to regularly sing during this period. He will, however, remain in sight of the nest entrance for the duration, and often escort the female on the occasions she briefly needs to leave the nest.

In contrast to the large Blue Tit clutch, no pair of Puffins has ever been recorded laying anything other than just a single egg. Despite a difference between years and a natural variation between colonies, early May, in most years, will be the peak egg laying period. The whitish-coloured egg, weighs in at over 60g or around 15% of her body weight. Unlike the eggs of Guillemots and Razorbills, which are pear-shaped to help prevent them being accidentally knocked or blown off their precarious nesting ledges, the Puffins' underground egg need only be elliptical. After it has been laid, both members of the pair will take it in turn to incubate the egg, which is tucked against the bare skin of one of the brood patches located underneath each wing. Incubating in shifts, each stint will often last more than a day while the other partner feeds out at sea. Taking an average of 41 days, Puffin incubation is such a time-consuming affair that it won't be until mid-June that the first Puffins will be seen coming ashore with fish, a sure-fire sign that their egg has transformed into a newly hatched underground ‘puffling'.

Close on the heels of the Puffins, those Nightingale pairs already established will begin nest-building in early May. The
female, accompanied by the male, tends to select the precise spot to rear the young which is usually located on or near the ground, surrounded by dense vegetation and often underneath some shrubby growth. The construction duties are also her responsibility, as she starts by moulding a loose, bulky cup of dead leaves and grass, before then lining it with finer grasses and hair. The nest complete, she will begin laying her clutch of olive-green to olive-brown lightly speckled eggs, only commencing incubation when the last of the four or five eggs is produced. As the whole incubation process rarely takes more than 13 or 14 days, this means productive Nightingale sites should be awash with hungry baby chicks well before the end of the month.

For any Swallow pairs choosing to build a nest from scratch the assembly period may take around a week, and sometimes even longer when unseasonably cold or dry weather makes suitable mud harder to find. Variable amounts of dry grass, straw and even horsehair are all added to strengthen the cup, which is principally made up of over 1,000 pellets of mud that have been collected from a variety of suitable locations nearby. Built by both birds, the first stage of the process tends to be the construction of a ledge on which the birds can perch, and from this base they can then build the walls upwards and outwards. Only spending a few seconds on the ground as they collect mud from a nearby stream's edge or hoof-print of a domestic animal, the mud is pushed into place using the bill and tongue, with the Swallow additionally vibrating its head up and down to ensure it is tamped down into place.

Most building takes place in the morning, which will allow the mud to dry well before nightfall and also free up the pair to feed during the warmest part of the day when insects will be most abundant. Once the external structure is around 20cm wide and 10cm high, comprising a cup deep
enough to hold the chicks, the pair will trun their attentions to the interior soft furnishings. Lining the cup with dry grass, soft hair and white chicken feathers, no doubt collected from around the farmyard, the feathers in particular are much more than just a fashion accessory and will help to insulate the nest during incubation and prevent the eggs chilling too quickly in the brief moments that the female must leave for a stretch and a feed.

Mid-May

Totally absent during the egg-laying and rearing process, the male Cuckoo's success must be measured not just by the number of matings with females, but also by his ability to keep any other competing males at bay in order to ensure his paternity. Upon arriving back at their regular breeding sites, the females will initially be keen to avoid the males, as more pressing issues will need to be addressed first, such as feeding up, and carrying out an assessment as to the state of the host nests in which they will ultimately hope to deposit their eggs. As it appears the best places for host nests are not always the best locations for caterpillars, most Cuckoos are thought to forage away from their breeding ranges. This means both sexes will have to periodically and temporarily suspend any breeding activities while away feeding in nearby locations, such as orchards with a rich supply of caterpillars.