Nightingales in November (50 page)

Despite a steady stream of continental Lapwings arriving here from as early as May or June, it is not until September that the proper autumn passage of British Lapwings to their winter quarters will begin in any numbers. Continuing right the way through to winter, the movement of Lapwings that breed here is considered to be complex, but by analysing the data from ringing recoveries, Graham Appleton from the BTO seems to have uncovered a few general patterns. Some Lapwings, it seems, are only partially migratory and where possible will winter close to their breeding grounds, while other birds patently favour moving much further in preparation for the coldest months of the year. Furthermore,
amongst those birds that do prefer to migrate, where they decide to spend the winter seems at least partly to depend on the location where they originally bred.

Records of both British and Irish-ringed Lapwings recovered abroad and also foreign-ringed Lapwings subsequently found in Britain and Ireland.

Many of the Lapwings breeding in the south-east of England, for example, tend to move south to principally coastal locations in France, where the warming effect of the Gulf Steam makes frosts a rare phenomenon, and also to a lesser extent the Mediterranean climate offered down on the Iberian Peninsula. While many of the breeding Lapwings from south-west Britain will also spend the winter on the near continent, a larger proportion of this population seems to prefer crossing the Irish Sea instead to spend the winter in Ireland. For those Lapwings breeding in northern Britain, however, an even larger majority seem to prefer Ireland's winter sun, with few birds believed to prefer crossing to the near continent.

As the Lapwings relocate to their wintering grounds, the Swallows will also begin leaving their breeding sites, with those birds from eastern Britain thought to travel down the eastern side, as opposed to those breeding in the west following the western coastline. Migrating by day, at night the Swallows will coalesce at a number of roosts across the country as they opt for a safety in numbers strategy prior to crossing the English Channel. Some of these roosts, such as Icklesham in Sussex and Slapton in Devon, are well known and regularly used each autumn, but other smaller inland sites tend to be transitory and can often shift location from year to year. The roosting habitats of choice are usually wetland sites, with reedbeds offering the Swallows the benefit of protection from any predators unhappy about getting their feet wet. Gathering at their roost of choice before sunset, the birds initially seem to fly around aimlessly, only changing their behaviour when dusk is rapidly approaching. As the light level drops below a critical level,
the Swallows suddenly become galvanised into tighter flocks, which then wheel over the reedbed before small groups can be seen peeling off into the vegetation below. Incessantly twittering to each other in flight, it is only when the birds have settled down for the night that a hush finally descends over the reedbed. Quickly leaving the roost in a series of waves at sunrise, the Swallows will then disperse into the surrounding countryside to take advantage of the year's last flush of insects. These southern roosts may well play host to Swallows for anywhere from a few nights to a couple of weeks, until the shortening days and colder temperatures finally force them to delay their migration no longer.

Keen themselves to escape the increasingly inclement weather in the Arctic, those Bewick's Swans without young still to fledge should be leaving the tundra by early September. The first leg of their journey will often consist of little more than a hop, as the swans slowly gather on traditional pre-migratory staging sites, such as the shallow coastal waters, large lakes and river estuaries close to their breeding grounds. Two of the most important mustering sites are thought to be the Pechora Delta and Korovinskaya Bay in the Nenets Autonomous Region of the Russian Federation, with combined counts of up to 15,000 swans in some years. Both of these sites are located adjacent to the Pechora Sea, and crucially should still be ice-free at this time of year, offering the birds a last safe feeding opportunity before worsening conditions force them in a westerly direction along the coast.

In those winters when large numbers of Waxwings reach Britain, an early sign will be the sheer number of birds seen
moving into northern Sweden, from Finland and the adjacent Republic of Karelia in the Russian Federation as early as September. Presumably this extraordinary influx of birds must soon strip out the entire berry supply, forcing a continued push west and south to find as yet untapped sources.

As autumn arrives in northern Europe and the Waxwings are driven on by their stomachs, it should be a very different setting for the adult Cuckoos currently still enjoying Chadian or Nigerian hospitality. In three out of the four years that Chris the Cuckoo was tracked by the BTO, he revealed remarkable fidelity to the wooded savannas of southern Chad at this time of the year, and also relatively little inclination to move around much after his arrival. With the feeding here patently good, the data collected from the transmitters of a number of the birds have shown that most of the Cuckoos are content to stay settled here for at least a few weeks before finally moving towards the Congo Basin. Back in Britain and having jettisoned their foster parents way back in July, the juvenile Cuckoos may well be busily fuelling before preparing to depart on their long and lonely migration to Africa.

Unlike the Cuckoo chicks, the Nightingale young will probably migrate at the same time and along a similar route to their parents, but having severed the family ties back in Britain, the assumption is that it will very much be a case of each Nightingale to their own. From the limited data gleaned by geolocators, it seems that most British Nightingales will spend early September in the very same dry, uncultivated land that the adults themselves will have passed through
during their spring migration earlier in the year. Keeping a low profile as they hop around the mosaic of dry scrub and wooded Mediterranean groves, their simple mission will be to put on as much weight as possible before departing from Europe for Africa at the end of the month.

With the Puffins continuing to disperse far and wide from their breeding grounds, those young Peregrines moving away from their parents' territory will now be joining a floating population of birds with a nomadic existence. Being both too inexperienced to hold a territory and still not ready to breed for at least the first couple of years, their only aims will be to find enough food to eat and a safe place to roost without ruffling the feathers of any incumbent Peregrines they may meet on their travels. Peregrine expert Ed Drewitt reported, for example, that at least five different Peregrines were identified using one particular church in the town of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire during the autumn of 2010, a number of which will certainly have been itinerant birds merely passing through. Due to the difficulties of separating individuals purely on plumage, this will probably have been an underestimate of the real number of Peregrines visiting the town, as some may have been present for little more than a few hours or just a day before then moving on.