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

 

 

naturestimeline Education services – “A conservation professional sharing his personal perspective on breaking news stories from the world of nature alongside his own accounts from the field.”

Posted by: Tony William Powell on and

naturestimeline.tvon

A LinkedIn share from Tony Powell – Migrating Birds of Land and Sea. Sometimes even they, need a rest!

There are a great many Social Media platforms upon which you can be active these days. In this instance, I bring to your attention, one of my published posts as Tony Powell over at LinkedIn concerning the often perilous journeys of Bird Migration.

Migrating Birds of Land and Sea. Sometimes even they, need a rest!

Let us hope the birds made it safely to lands afar and are now stuffing their little bellies full of Autumnal fruits and seeds and whatever their beaks can take. Take care now and enjoy the spectacle, courtesy of Martin Grimm and his Clever & Smarty YouTube channel 

naturestimeline Education services – “A conservation professional sharing his personal perspective on breaking news stories from the world of nature alongside his own accounts from the field.”

Posted by: Tony William Powell on and

naturestimeline.tvon

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

naturestimeline.tvon