Nightingales in November (32 page)

It's generally not until around eight or ten hours after hatching that the Cuckoo chick will have garnered sufficient
strength to begin the devious business of ejecting the host eggs or chicks. Despite being naked, pink and blind the chick has a broad back complete with a shallow depression, and by wriggling around in the bottom of the nest at some point one of the host's eggs or helpless chicks will finally come to rest on its back. By then using its legs as a brace against the side of the nest, and its wings to hold the egg or host chick in place, the young Cuckoo will then begin the exhausting process of hauling its cargo up the wall of the nest. Working in short bursts with frequent rests, as soon as the egg or chick finally reaches the rim, one last quick jerk will see it pushed out of the nest, and in the case of the Reed Warbler, straight into the water below. In the nests of small hosts such as Reed Warblers and Meadow Pipits, it might take less than 20 seconds to evict an egg, but having seen this happen many times, Cuckoo expert Nick Davies reckons the average time taken is around three to four minutes per egg. Needing also to recoup its energy in between evictions, the disposal of an entire clutch might take anywhere from three or four hours to a couple of days if the chick has to eject large host young. After four days, this ‘ejecting behaviour' then suddenly disappears, by which time the Cuckoo should have become the last chick standing! Oblivious to this blatant act of skulduggery, the unquestioning host parents will then simply devote their entire attention, and food supply, to the Cuckoo in the nest.

Hatching out in southern England, Nightingale nestlings certainly don't have the killer instinct of a Cuckoo chick, and compete on a fair and level playing field with their fellow siblings for the food brought in. Instinctively begging soon after hatching, the young are initially brooded by their mother, leaving the male as the sole provider of food during the early stages. Like Blue Tits, the Nightingale pair will aim to synchronise their brood to the precise moment when
concentrations of caterpillars are at their highest. Any tiny caterpillars or other morsels brought in by the male are passed initially to his mate, who will in turn feed the small, naked and blind young. This arrangement won't last long, and as the chicks' appetite grows, both parents will be forced into foraging for larger caterpillas to keep up with the demand.

The British naturalist Oliver Pike, in his book
The Nightingale: its Story and Song
, published in 1932, spent many hours watching Nightingales on their breeding grounds. He reported on one nest where the adults came in every minute for nearly three hours and the four young were always ready for their meal. Before the young's eyes were open, Pike observed the female making a low ‘
zee-zee-zee
' call to prepare the young for her arrival, but later on as the chicks were able to see, this call was rendered redundant, as beaks suddenly shot up at the first sight of her return with food. Watching the nest from his hide with a periscope, Pike didn't think that the parents travelled far from the nest and that all the food was collected strictly from within their territory. Although the male will still sing at this stage, it will be only sporadically, with any bursts heard presumably giving male chicks in the nest the opportunity to listen and start learning the complex songs they will need to have mastered by the following year – providing they manage to both fledge and successfully negotiate a return trip to Africa!

By now in full laying mode, female Swallows will be aiming to produce an egg each morning until their clutch is complete. The number of eggs can vary between two and eight, but a clutch of four or five is by far the most common. As the eggs are formed directly from the female's current intake of food rather than her fat reserves, the prevailing environmental conditions are thought to impact on clutch size. Each weighing in at around 2g, the eggs are usually white with varying
amounts of reddish- or purplish-brown speckles and blotches. Only starting her incubation with the penultimate egg, as the female alone has a brood patch, on the few occasions where she disappears off to feed the male won't normally sit on the eggs. Angela Turner reported that an incubating female will generally spend 60 to 80% of the day incubating her clutch, and as the male doesn't feed her at the nest, she will need to intersperse these sitting duties with short feeding bouts lasting anywhere between two and nine minutes. Her incubation is of course carefully timed to coincide with the first large proliferation of insects in spring, meaning she shouldn't need to be away from the eggs for any longer than is absolutely necessary. On particularly cold days, however, the female will need to spend more time hunkered down with the eggs, and when eventually forced off by hunger, she will just have to hope that the nest's feather lining will help ensure the clutch doesn't cool down too much before her return.

Having laid their single precious egg in early May, come the end of the month the Puffins will still have some way to go before their chick or ‘puffling' will be finally ready to make its entrance into the underground world. Despite needing around six weeks for incubation, which is a remarkable length of time for such a small bird, the relatively constant temperature underground should give the pair enough time for short socialising breaks. When the pair are both present at the puffinry early or late in the day, they will rarely miss the opportunity to indulge in a spot of ritualised behaviour, such as ‘billing', the ‘pelican walk' or ‘spot-stomp'. Practised by generations of Puffins, these actions all reinforce the same message to any neighbouring birds looking on: ‘This is my mate for life, we have a strong bond and this is our burrow, so please keep your distance!'

June

The middle of the year brings a wonderful blend of the luxuriance of spring and the warmth of summer to the British Isles. As the sunshine warms the soil this is the time for huge floral diversity and is without doubt the best month to look for the most enigmatic and beautiful of all the plant groups – orchids. With flowers resembling monkeys, ladies and lizards, it's not just the orchids that will be the centre of attention for insects, as most colourful blooms may well have a whole swarm of pollinators in attendance, keen to take advantage of the nectar and pollen on offer. With the summer solstice also happening this month, the long days will provide ample opportunities for the many birds now fledging to find sufficient food while learning the ropes away from the confines of the nest. For some youngsters, the extended parental care can last all summer, but for others it will be a steep learning curve as they are given the cold
shoulder by mum and dad, keen to turn their attentions to brood number two.

Early June

After around 20 days cramped up in the nest, in quite possibly stifling conditions while competing for every caterpillar that arrives, many juvenile Blue Tits will decide they can stand the conditions no longer and begin to fledge. With most Scottish Blue Tits only just beginning to hatch at this point, it will definitely be the southerners leading the way, as the first chick jumps up to the nest entrance and grabs the rim of the hole with its feet before squeezing through into a world full of infinite possibility and danger. Fledging usually takes place early in the morning to give the birds all day to become accustomed to their new surroundings, and as the first bird leaves, this often gives impetus to the other chicks to seize the moment and cross the line from nestlings to fledglings.

Their parents will invariably be close by during this defining moment of the breeding season, and play their part with encouraging calls as the chicks are enticed out and hopefully up into the relative safety of the trees. With their distinctive bluish-green caps, yellow faces and still a hint of a yellow gape, juvenile Blue Tits immediately stand out even to the novice birdwatcher. Unsurprisingly, given the restricted room in the nest, their wings are still not fully grown, so upon fledging their flights are initially short, feeble and clumsy. Despite the best efforts of the parents to keep their young fed during this period, the harsh reality is that as many as 90% will not even see their first birthday, with the first few days out of the nest exacting the heaviest toll. Any young Tit grounded will immediately be at great risk from predators such as Weasels, Stoats and of course domestic cats. The youngsters will also have to remain alert above ground too, as Sparrowhawks will
make short work of a defenceless Blue Tit with their own chicks hungrily waiting back at the nest. The other big factor affecting the survival of young and inexperienced birds like Blue Tit chicks will be the weather, and any prolonged cold and wet periods immediately after fledging can have a dramatic effect on the number of juveniles able to see the summer out.