FIVE TO FIND IN NOVEMBER
November is no October (in terms of passage), but there are still plenty of exciting birds around and on the move. Here are five very nice birds to catch up with this month.
1 RING-NECKED PARAKEET
No one living in the London area, or indeed much of the surrounding parts of south-east England, will need any encouragement to go out to see (or hear) these long-tailed green parrots. They are seemingly everywhere, down there, and make their presence known constantly, with their incessant squawking, whether in parks, gardens or even whizzing around central London. However, they have not (yet) colonised much of the rest of country, though have established populations in cities as far away from London as, say, Manchester. Learn the call, and you will know they are there. But, surprisingly for such seemingly obvious birds, they can be unobtrusive and disappear into trees, matching the leaves! So, in that case, they may need a bit of effort…
2 PINK-FOOTED GOOSE
By November, much of the substantial wintering population of Pinkfeet is back in the UK. But, during the month, there will be new waves arriving from the north, so keep an ear and an eye to the skies for passing skeins. Most of the ever-growing 360,000 birds which come here each year, find their way to the areas around The Wash, the Ribble and the Solway, as well as eastern Scotland. But they are also found elsewhere, and can fly over anywhere. A medium-small grey goose, with a dark brown neck and small dark bill, obvious grey in the forewings and a ‘ wink wink’ call. Oh, and they have pink legs and feet.
3 RED-NECKED GREBE
Primarily a scarce wintering bird found mostly on the coast (with only about 50 wintering individuals), the Red-necked Grebe is always a treat to find. Intermediate in size between a Great Crested Grebe and a Slavonian Grebe, the Red-necked is quite a chunky bird, with a thick neck and longish bill. The plumage is mainly brown in winter, and the bill is dark with a yellow base (Great Crested Grebes have pinkish bills). Beware this bill’s superficial resemblance to that of the similarly brown plumaged Little Grebe, which is a tiny waterbird.
4 SHORT-EARED OWL
The beautiful Short-eared Owl is one of those treats of wintering birds which people will travel especially to watch and enjoy in all their glorious elegance. They frequently fly in full daylight, and will often put on a full performance just as the sun is thinking of setting. The flight is delicious, making the bird appear to float on long ‘stiff’ wings, as it patrols low over rough grassland, almost in the manner of a harrier. Breeding in uplands, moors and new conifer plantations in the north of the country, Short-eared Owls spread south and to lower country (such as coastal marshes and so on) for the winter, their numbers bolstered by migrants from the continent.
5 MARSH TIT
Comfortably the more numerous of our two extremely similar-looking, blackcapped brown tits (the other being the Willow Tit), the Marsh Tit is not really ‘common’ anywhere, any more. Contrary to the name, they are not necessarily birds of ‘marshes’, though they do thrive in some damp ‘carr’ woodlands. They are primarily woodland birds, especially where there are areas of undergrowth in which to forage for seeds (or insects). Probably the best way to identify Marsh Tits (from Willow Tits) is from their giveaway call, a sneezing ‘pitchOO’ often followed by a buzzing, rapid ‘chickadeedeedee’.