Meteorological summer has now ended, and the morning autumn mists are already starting. The house martins and swallows are busy fueling up for their huge journey south, while the swifts that entertained us on the summer evenings are already in Africa.
For our resident birds this month is really a time of plenty, particularly for the berry eaters. You will still see the mixed flocks around the village, although many of the tits and finches tend to visit our gardens in shifts. If you have the time to observe them over several days, you will find that they visit at around the same time each day – clearly following a ‘round’ of favourite feeding places.
One of our favourite birds is the long-tailed tit, who are always in chattering groups. Almost uniquely, these groups will be made up of blood relatives. Each group is led by an adult pair, accompanied by their offspring from this year. There may also be a few aunts and uncles who failed to breed this year and have joined the family group. They will all stay together until the spring.
This month should see the arrival of the fieldfares and redwings which will show that autumn is really here. The star reported sighting of the month was a snipe, flying away from the river between here and Littlecote. These are now quite rare in this area, and it would be great to see more of them.
Comments