New Year bird sightings
What birding delights you can expect (or hope) to see over the next 12 months...
As a new year dawns, the world seems a very different place compared to just 12 months ago. Many aspects of our lives have changed, but one constant remains – birds. We’re birdwatchers, therefore birds are a big part of our lives, but I would wager they are now more important to us than ever before.
I’ve just spent a few minutes watching a succession of Coal Tits coming to the sunflower seeds in the feeder, an avian tag team of seed-snatchers, their white head markings gleaming in the morning sunshine, as they fly in and then fly out again. For those few minutes spent watching these small and very delightful garden visitors, my mind was completely empty, only the Coal Tits occupied it.
Now, more than ever, we need to be able to empty our minds, and watching birds is a great way to do so. Birdwatching is good for you!
So, as the year begins, what are you looking forward to in terms of birds?
I have a number of avian calendar milestones I am particularly waiting for over these next dozen months. As January progresses, the weather often gets even colder, and in combination with the abundance of hedgerow fruits in the surrounding countryside diminishing rapidly, this often leads to Fieldfares and Redwings visiting our garden, attracted by the remaining berries on our Hawthorn and pyracantha.
These winter thrushes are beautiful birds and are definitely something to look forward to. I especially like the bold
markings and wonderfully cackling, chuckling calls of the Fieldfare; and
I’m hoping I will have some in the garden before very long.
As the year progresses into February, it’s a cold, clear morning I look forward to, not just for the feeling of winter sun on my back, but for the drumming of the local Great Spotted Woodpeckers. High-speed territorial tapping, staking out their claims. It is a great sound to hear, one I always await eagerly. The drumming, for me at least, signifies that winter is coming to an end.
Sounds of spring
In March, it’s another sound, this time a two-note song, I look forward to hearing. We all have our own symbols that spring has sprung, and mine is the song of the Chiffchaff. It might not be the most melodious bird in the world, but its song means so much. Most birders render the small warbler’s song into the ‘chiff chaff’ of the bird’s name, but I hear ‘spring’s come’ on the March day when I first catch it. What a welcome sound after the long, dark nights of the winter.
Spring, for us birders, is a time of arrivals. Migrants from the south are heading our way, coming to our shores to breed. When it comes to looking forward to what birding pleasures the new year will bring, I can’t help but think of the spring, as so much is happening in the bird world then, and there is always the chance of an overshoot from the continent. Perhaps a vagrant will turn up on your patch, or a ‘mega’ will make landfall close by.
As April dawns, though, there is just one bird that I really look forward to seeing once more. It is not a mega, nor is it a vagrant, it isn’t even rare, but it is a prodigious traveler. The Swallow is a bird I always enjoy watching and listening to. Whether they’re twittering from a wire, or arcing gracefully through the air, they are one of life’s pleasures. The first one of the year is always a treat, and even writing this has me already looking forward to seeing my first one again in April.
A few weeks after the first Swallow, there’s another birding delight to look forward to, the arrival of the Swifts, slicing through the air on their sickleshaped wings. Once these ultimate flyers have returned, the birding world tends to settle down again.
But there’s still much to look forward to, not least the young birds fledging from the nestboxes I have in the garden. Will I get Blue Tits in the box by the house again, or will it be Great Tits as I had the year before, or will a Nuthatch claim the box as