Nightingales in November (36 page)

Unlike the busy Swallow nests, many of those which belonged to Blue Tits in southern Britain will have already been vacated as the juveniles learn the art of searching out caterpillars in the tree canopy. Over the next few weeks, with the exception of their flight and some tail feathers, much of the youngsters' hastily acquired dull plumage will be replaced as they prepare for colder times ahead. Squeezing through the hole hundreds of times to feed their chicks will also have made their parents' feathers worn and frayed, leading to many adults starting their moult even before their chicks had even fledged. But as the adults will still need to be able to fly competently for the entire duration of the moult, the whole process can last as long as 80 days and so will not be completed until the autumn. Blue Tits tend to moult in a symmetrical fashion, with rarely more than one primary
flight feather missing from each wing, to ensure the birds are still able to fly in a balanced fashion. The instant an old feather is shed, a new one will then start to form from special cells in the skin. Moulting is an energy-demanding process, and the replacement of body and contour feathers will also temporarily reduce the birds' thermal insulation. So an increase in their intake of food should not only power the replacement of feathers but also keep the birds warm.

Not ready to begin their moult just yet, any adult Nightingales that managed to successfully raise a brood should currently be still helping to feed their chicks. Often staying together as a family for around two weeks at least, by the end of the first week the youngsters should slowly be starting to find their own food. Before the young fledged, the parents are believed to have foraged strictly within their clearly demarcated territory, but with their youngsters now mobile, the territoriality quickly breaks down, leaving the family free to wander further afield and to potentially richer feeding sites.

By mid-June, Lapwings should also be leaving their breeding grounds as both juveniles and adults join post-breeding flocks further afield. These flocks will provide a comfort blanket for all as the young learn the best habitats in which to feed, while the adults seek sanctuary while slowly shedding and replacing feathers worn out during the breeding season.

Breeding north of the Arctic Circle on the maritime Arctic tundra, those pairs of Bewick's Swan intent on breeding should by now be sitting on their clutch of three to five
eggs. Even though the male will take turns to sit on the eggs, it seems he may well in fact be doing little more than preventing them from becoming chilled or eaten by predators, as the responsibility for most of the incubation lies with the female. Bewick's Swans are extremely shy during the breeding season, and being free from disturbance is an important factor in deciding how successful each pair will be in raising chicks. Any humans approaching to within a few hundred metres of the nest will initially cause the sitting swan to hide and if the intruder continues to move even closer this will result in the adult swan retreating to a nearby pool or lake. More natural predators on the tundra include Arctic Foxes, Wolverines, Arctic Skuas and Herring Gulls and they will often try to strike when the adults are away from the nest. Of these, Arctic Fox is thought to be the chief predator of eggs and young cygnets, and one theory believes that more Bewick's Swan eggs and young are taken in those years when the population levels of the foxes' favoured food, lemmings, are much lower.

By contrast to Bewick's Swans needing around 30 days to incubate their clutch, Waxwings will see their young hatching in just half the time. Certainly in northern Scandinavia laying normally begins in mid-June, but can occur before in those years when spring – and crucially the snow melt – occurs earlier than normal. Due to the short Arctic summer, Waxwings, like Bewick's Swans, are only ever single-brooded, and although anywhere between four and seven have been observed, the most commonly recorded clutch size is five eggs. Smooth and glossy in appearance, the eggs are pale or greyish-blue, and tend to be sparsely marked with black and grey spots that occasionally show blurred brownish edges. Like many of the smaller passerines (or perching birds) incubation is by the female alone and is only thought to begin once the
clutch has been completed. Due to the fairly cold ambient temperature in June, the female will rarely leave the eggs and so will need to rely on the male to keep her nourished during her vigil with a cocktail of regurgitated fruits and insects. For the males, any brief antagonism which occurred during the nest-building and egg-laying phases should have been quickly put to one side as their natural sociability once again returns, allowing them to re-form flocks. Waxwings are generally not thought to breed in their first year, but this still doesn't stop any yearling birds returning to the breeding grounds as they join the roving flocks of breeding males. Being amongst their more learned peers will enable them to learn the ropes with the ultimate aim of finding a partner and rearing a family of their own the following year.

By mid to late June, those pairs of Kingfishers which were able to lay their first clutch as early as April may well by now be already incubating their second clutch. For the parent not sitting on eggs, its time will be divided between fishing, preening and resting. Fishing for an experienced bird during this time of plenty should be a doddle compared to the leaner times between autumn and early spring. In Britain during the breeding season Kingfishers will consume a wide variety of fish including Bullhead, Minnow, Three-spined Stickleback, Loach, Grayling, Carp, Perch and Pike – in fact any fish that have reached the ideal length of around 7 to 8cm. In the brackish waters of the Thames in London, Kingfishers have even been spotted catching small flatfish, but by far the commonest species taken are Minnow, Stickleback and Bullhead. Needing to eat roughly their own body weight every day, Kingfisher expert David Boag estimated that each adult requires around 18 fish to be sufficiently well fed. However, as soon as the second brood hatches the number needed will rise substantially!

Late June

It's astonishing to think that for those bird species rearing only one brood, the end of June will already signify that the breeding season is already drawing to a close for another year. Most traditional breeding locations of Lapwings, for example, should by now be deserted as the adults and young suddenly enter the sociable period of the calendar by coalescing into post-breeding flocks. Away from their breeding grounds Lapwing can be frequently mobile, making their movements difficult to track, but it's highly likely that any shifts in location will be dictated by the two most important factors in their lives – food availability and the weather. In addition to British-breeding Lapwings dispersing into flocks to feed and moult, the east coast of Britain may well already be seeing the first of a number of influxes of Lapwings which summered on the continent. These first immigrant Lapwings will probably be individuals that either failed to fledge young, or were simply unable to gain a territory and a mate. As the summer slowly unfolds, the numbers arriving from the Netherlands, Denmark and France will undoubtedly increase to such an extent that by the time winter has fully taken hold, the population of Lapwings in Britain will have more than doubled from around 130,000 breeding pairs to around 620,000 birds.