A Christmas Robin with a spring in its step, not least its voice! And just why might that be.

Of late, I’ve heard song from Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Robins, Mistle Thrushes, Great Tits and Coal Tits and probably a couple more I haven’t mentioned. Why?

Perhaps this pre-Christmas Davis weather station graph might help guide you towards an answer.

 

Pre-Christmas Air Temperature Maximums from Newbury, Berkshire – December 2015 so far.

 

Yes, the unseasonable Temperatures aren’t helping our bird’s natural processes of late, least not, nature in general is pretty confused. The minimum Temperatures as illustrated by the chart below don’t help things much either. You’ll note that I am yet to register a single Air Frost in December. Once again, the blue line (in this case, maroon) represents the approximate average conditions expected in any given year.

 

Pre-Christmas Air Temperature Minimums from Newbury, Berkshire – December 2015 so far.

 

Now time for some Christmas cheer. Voted No.1 in David Lindo’s UK’s Favourite Bird survey, as promised, here is our Christmas Robin.

 

A Robin Redbreast (Erithacus rubecula)

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year from Tony Powell and UKbirdingtimeline.com

 

 

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Posted by: Tony William Powell on and

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Climate Change effects on our already vulnerable Bird species

Here is an article which recently grabbed my attention, courtesy of BirdLife International. Do have a read through it.

The Messengers: Preview our upcoming climate change report

As with most things in nature, be it climate, birds or otherwise, there is a certain amount of predictability about our knowledge of things but also other aspects remain unchartered waters, so to speak. One thing you can be sure of, is that some species are in dire need of human intervention if they are to sustain their own populations. With frequent flash flooding episodes on the rise, we know for a fact that such events will continue to decimate many vulnerable ground-nesting bird’s broods. Equally, when left unchecked, so too do the rising numbers of egg and chick-raiding predators. These are in reality additional threats over and above those mentioned within the article. I therefore believe that we at least need to mitigate against Climate Change, even if it is the only action most will be willing to take.

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Posted by: Tony William Powell on and

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First proper signs of Autumn in the air

Just the other day I made a concerted effort to go to a networking event which is an unusual thing for me to do but needs must, I guess. In truth, I’m not an overly social being which is quite unlike those nomadic wanderers, Redwings (Turdus iliacus) which always tend to arrive around these parts at this time of the season.

Well, to cut a long-story short, into the wee early hours of Sunday 11th October after the above-mentioned event  I heard some Redwing calling (example calls provided by xeno-canto.org) overhead for the first time this Autumn. In reality I cannot be sure how many, probably only just a couple but they’ve arrived, yippee.

You can see from the chart below that their arrival dates in my patch have been very consistent during recent years.  As this was also at approximately one o’clock in the morning I feel I did quite well to be so observant at such an hour.

First Redwing of Autumn (locally) as of 2015

Click on the chart image above in order to access the datasets in full screen.

Best Wishes and Happy Redwing hunting amongst a plethora of other Autumnal delights.

Posted by: Tony William Powellon and

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