RUTH MILLER
It’s early morning as I walk along a footpath on the Great Orme’s Head in Llandudno (again!). We’re still under tight lockdown restrictions in Wales, so I’m out for my permitted daily exercise walk on the Great Orme, and at this time of day, I have the headland all to myself – apart from the wildlife, that is.
Over the past months, I’ve learned where to look for particular species: that’s the tree where the Song Thrush likes to serenade;
The Stonechat is a bird worthy of much admiration, as Ruth explains
there’s the tussock where the Meadow Pipit is nesting; Jackdaws are always fossicking in this field; Choughs are often probing the sheep poo in that one. And all along my route are Stonechats.
The European Stonechat must be among the most obliging of birds, from a birdwatcher’s perspective. Firstly, they live up to their name. Their call really does sound like two stones being banged together, hence the name Stonechat. It carries well, so I’ve often heard them while
I’ve been out on my walks, even before I’ve caught sight of them. But secondly, they are not usually too hard to spot because they are pretty colourful.
The males are particularly handsome, with a black head which is quite large for its dumpy body, an orange-tawny breast, and a showy white collar. The female is more subtly coloured, though she too has an orangey front and a hint of a pale collar. Thirdly, they’re usually fairly confiding. They have the delightful habit of perching on top of a bush and flicking their wings, which catches your eye as they allow you to get a really good look at them. If they do fly, it’s usually only a few feet to the next bush. If only more birds were so helpful! And they are often in pairs or family groups, too, so if you find one bird, you don’t have to look far before you see another.
wonderful warm and calm weather we had throughout May, and we have been able to watch numerous pairs on the Great Orme going through the cycle of nest-building, egg-incubating and chick-feeding. The first broods of speckled youngsters are now regularly seen chasing around the brambles, pestering the adults for food but not averse to grabbing a passing insect for themselves if the opportunity presents itself.
Even more confiding than their parents, having not yet learned the need for caution, these scruffy but endearing youngsters perch on the bushes and stone walls beside the path and watch me as intently as I watch them. Some of the earliest breeding adults are already moving on to rearing their second brood, so while some adults may dash by me with a bill full of insects for their hungry fledglings, others move more stealthily with nesting material in their bill. In a good year, Stonechats can have up to three broods.
They start to breed in mid-March and continue until late July, laying on average five eggs per clutch, though they may lay larger clutches in the premium months of May and June. Stonechats are mainly insectivorous, so their larger broods are when the food supply for the offspring is most plentiful.
It’s clear why we’re fortunate enough to see plenty of Stonechats of all ages on the
Great Orme right now. The weather is good and the living is easy, for the moment at least. Stonechats are resident in Britain, though they may make a short migration southwards and westwards to lower altitudes and more protected coastal areas in winter. A few hardy Stonechats may survive the winter on our exposed headland, but many relocate to more benign areas for the duration. However, Stonechats will eat seeds and fruit if insects are not available, and by this strategy they survive here in Britain through the coldest months.
Insect diet
This is in real contrast to their close relation, the beautiful Whinchat, Saxicola rubetra, which we also see occasionally on the Great Orme, but only as a migrant species passing through. It’s a real treat to encounter one of these red-listed passage visitors. Although closely related to the Stonechat and fairly similar in plumage, the Whinchat spends the winter in central and southern Africa and only migrates to Britain in late April.
It breeds in rough tussocky grassland in upland areas, and manages to raise two broods between the beginning of May and mid-July. Insects make up about 90% of their diet; and so after the adults moult at the end of July, they migrate back south to Africa around the end of August. For them, the long migration each year gives them the best of both worlds: suitable breeding grounds here in Britain in the summer, and over-wintering territories in Africa, where there is an abundant supply of insects.
It’s fascinating to compare and contrast the strategy of these two closely related chats. One pursues an incredible and risky migration, while the other toughs it out here on our shores all year round, surviving on seeds and fruit when insects are in short supply. You have to admire both, but I must declare a sneaky preference for the plucky Stonechat. This dapper bird gives me so much pleasure throughout the year. It attracts my attention with its ‘chat chat’ stone-rubbing call, and it lifts my spirits as it shows off with panache from the top of a bramble. Give the Stonechat 10 out of 10 for attitude; it’s a very special bird indeed.
Ruth Miller is one half of The Biggest Twitch team, and along with partner Alan Davies, set the then world record for most bird species seen in a year – 4,341, in 2008, an experience they wrote about in their book, The Biggest Twitch. Indeed, Ruth is still the female world record-holder! As well as her work as a tour leader, she is the author of the Birds, Boots and Butties books, on walking, birding and tea-drinking in North Wales, and previously worked as the RSPB’s head of trading. She lives in North Wales. birdwatchingtrips.co.uk