Autumn into winter

With a gale forecast to arrive soon and the clocks going back, autumn is beginning to turn into winter.
It's been surprisingly mild though and late butterflies continue to feed before going into hibernation.
Several commas, red admirals and small tortoiseshells have been in my garden near Derby, feeding on michaelmas daisies and now on ivy blossom. In addition I've put out rotting plums, damsons and bananas which the commas and red admirals love, probing their proboscises deep into the gooey mess.

Red admiral on ivy 

On the bird front, there are still rather few immigrant thrushes in the Derby area. Even though there were some big counts of redwings a few weeks ago, most of them and their larger cousins the fieldfares, must still be in Scandinavia.

Fieldfare by Pauline Greenhalgh 

Meanwhile, those (mostly crazy) bird watchers who indulge in watching visual migration ('vis mig') are getting up at dawn and keeping their eyes on the skies for the next hour or two, when passage, if there is any, is at its height. I myself indulge occasionally. Two mornings ago I counted over 3000 wood pigeons flying south in flocks up to 150 strong. But there were only a handful of thrushes. This morning, pigeons were on the move again, keeping low to the contours as they headed into a blustery SSW wind.
Suddenly, a raptor flew up in front of me and went over my head, rather half-heartedly chasing a pigeon. It was a juvenile male peregrine falcon and I wondered if it might be from the cathedral since I was only a few miles from the city.
Serious vis miggers contribute their sightings to a website run by a Dutchman and called Trektellen. Some counts are amazing either for the sheer number of birds recorded or for the variety of species seen. Look at http://www.trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=751 to see how many redwings were counted on a single morning flying over a hill in Bedfordshire on 10th October. That must have been amazing!
The best vis mig watch points tend to be among hills or moors where birds are channelled by the contours. But even if you just step outside your house and look up, wherever you are, on a 'good day' you can expect to see redwings, fieldfares or woodies flying over....as long as you get up early! Usually by 9-10 am, passage is much reduced or over, the birds then settling to feed.
Nick B (DWT)
Ps. The best conditions for movement are good visibility, overcast skies and light SW winds but locally birds may move in a wide range of weather types. On clear nights, go outside anytime after 10/11 pm and listen for the 'seep seep' calls of redwings flying overhead....it's magic to hear them passing....and, as Lorraine commented recently, it must be quite exciting for our cathedral peregrines too.

Cooling down, warming up

This morning, with a chill in the autumnal air, both adults were warming themselves in the early morning sun that was shining onto the East face of the tower, the male on the middle gargoyle and the female out of sight of the webcam on the lead gutter just behind the camera, as seen from the ground.

Under the south face of the tower were several feathers of a teal, easily identified by the green sheen on the secondary flight feather that I picked up among many browny breast feathers. Teal are small duck which are often taken by the falcons between now and spring when this species frequents local gravel pits and reservoirs.

(The photo by Jon Salloway shows the female last summer with prey).

The last couple of days have been very warm and sunny here, perfect September days in fact and exactly the type of weather you want coming back from a holiday in SW Spain where mid day temperature were in the mid 30s!

We did see at least one peregrine while we were down there (perching on a pylon) but the main attraction was to watch the exodus of the many different types of birds of prey as they leave Europe bound for African warmth, accompanied by big flocks of white storks, much smaller groups of the rarer black stork and other species such as bee eaters, swallows and swifts.

The southward migration of these birds is focused on the short sea crossing to Morocco between Tarifa and Gibraltar. Over 100, 000 honey buzzards pass through between late August and the end of September with similar numbers of black kites and smaller numbers of short toed and booted eagles, egyptian vultures, harriers, sparrow hawks, ospreys etc. If you happen to be there on a day when the birds are moving in numbers it is really an amazing spectacle to watch. One day, apparently within an hour and a half, over 900 short toed eagles and 1000 other raptors flew over one of the watch points which have been set up to monitor this twice yearly passage.

Back here in Derbyshire it is still possible to see hobbies, especially the young birds which are honing their flying skills before they too set off bound for southern Africa. To watch these birds high in the fly sailing about catching insects is a treat to return home to. They'll soon be gone as the days get ever shorter.

Nick B (DWT)

Big Garden Birdwatch

This weekend, the whole of the United Kingdom is being urged to spend an hour birdwatching - and we don't even have to leave our chairs! Every year for over 30 years the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has organised a garden bird survey to assess how well birds are doing in our towns and cities. In that hour they want us to watch or own gardens and to only count the highest number of birds we see at any one time. (They don't want us to count one blue tit going back into our gardens ten times!) And if you can birdwatch your garden from the same place where you sit and watch our peregrine webcam, you can even submit your results online without moving a muscle!

OK, armchair birdwatching doesn't get us very fit, but it certainly helps show us how fit British gardens are for wild birds to use. Follow this link for more information on the Garden Birdwatch

In Derby on Saturday you can come along to the Market Square for the "Garden Bird Bonanza" where there's lots of family fun and bird activities. Help us do one thing for garden birds. Come along for free bird feeders, mask making and wildlife gardening tips. Visit the BBC Bus, or make yourself a free bird box, go on a bird walk (12 noon and 2pm) . The Museums will be there, and you can colour and cut out a peregrine hat or meet the folks from the RSPB who can tell you so much more about watching birds in your area. It's on from 11-3pm, and isn't too far a stroll from Derby Museum & Art Gallery, or our peregrines at Derby Cathedral, or indeed from all the other town-centre entertainments. (And you may even catch our peregrines on the Big Screen)

Remember, there's not much time left for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere to clean out our bird boxes of old nest materials or other remains of last year's nesting season. You could even install your own nest and camera to watch your birds in intimate detail, provided you remember that the birds come first, and that watching them comes second.

Good bird-watching!