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Friends of Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve
Birds migrate to find the best ecological conditions and habitats for feeding, breeding and raising their young. When conditions become unfavourable, it is time to fly to regions where conditions are better.
Most birds in colder northern countries migrate south to escape harsh winters. In temperate regions, such as the UK, about half the species migrate. For example birds that eat insects will not be able to find enough food here in winter so they fly south. While tropical birds have less need to migrate as they have a more constant food supply and conditions.
When do birds migrate?
Migratory birds generally migrate twice a year, once in autumn and again in spring. In autumn they will be flying to find a good place to spend the winter and in spring a favourable region to nest and raise their young.
PS the photo is of hundreds of winter dunlin by Portbury Wharf salt marsh.
DID YOU KNOW?
At least 4,000 species of birds migrate, that is about 40 per cent of all the world’s birds. Bird migration is a perilous business as they often have to fly hundreds or even thousands of miles.
The birds that are winging their way to Portbury Wharf in this autumn migration will be escaping the frozen north. Our winters are balmy in comparison to Iceland, Siberia and other northern latitudes!
Tomorrow, Saturday 10 October, is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). So this month, in celebration, we will be posting lots of stuff about migration and Portbury Wharf 's winter birds. If you have any interesting bird migration snippets you want to share please join in.
PS this photo is of a fling of dunlin. They are like shoreline starlings flocking at the tide's edge in mesmerising formations.
Portbury Wharf is a great place to visit and it is not just us human visitors that think so! It is a popular destination for our endangered winter birds too.
The autumn bird migration is one of nature's miracles. A time when shoreline birds, thrushes and more fly incredible distances across oceans and continents to escape harsh arctic winters. Some of these new arrivals will stay on the estuary edge and salt marsh as there is lots of food there. Others will prefer the pools and hedgerows on the nature reserve.
To make it through the winter they will need to feed and rest undisturbed. So we can all help by giving them plenty of space. So if we, and our dogs, keep to the main paths and don't walk across the salt marsh, they will have the best chance of survival.
This guy is a fairly regular visitor to the Reserve but i dont normally get the chance to video him at such close quarters.https://youtu.be/pHBAqWOf6y0
Well more of our wintering friends are returning and today a snipe was making his presence felt on the south pool
Join the call for a better future!
Sign the petition to #ReviveOurWorld
e-activist.com
Nature is in crisis and we need Government action. I’ve signed the petition for legally-binding targets to #ReviveOurWorld. Will you? Sign and Share... e-activist.com/page/67273/data/1?ea.tracking.id=facebook-sharenice to see some old friends back - 3 shovellers still in the summer plumage and 4 gadwall mid moult from summer to winter coats. Both on the south pool
they are like buses - get one sandpiper and more appear. There were 2 green sandpipers on the south pool yesterday and they flew up to the North where they joined 3 common sandpipers. This video is of the green
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Posted: December 29, 2019 by Giles Morris
January – What to look out for
Happy New Year! It’s January and a new decade starts here.
This month I thought we would concentrate on one species of bird which is on the reserve in big numbers at the moment. There are a number of different birds that visit us in the winter and you can find out more about them on our Winter Birds page.
We are going to look at just one of these in more detail:
THE WIGEON
The drake (male) Wigeon is a really handsome duck. His chestnut head has a bright golden streak running from the top of his bill over his crown, which stands out when you get a good view of him in the sunlight.
The female is less colourful, but still has rufous brown sides and smart black wing feathers and a white tummy.
Wigeon have small bills and a steep forehead, which gives them an attractive “baby-face” look. They are one of the prettier ducks!
In flight you can see the wigeons’ white bellies. The males have distinctive large white wing patches.
When and where to see wigeon
From October, our estuaries and wetlands fill up with tens of thousands of them flying in from their breeding grounds in Iceland, Scandinavia and northern Russia to take advantage of our milder weather. Only a few wigeon breed in the UK and most of these do so in Scotland.
The North Pool and the Saltmarsh at Portbury Wharf are home to big flocks of Wigeon at the moment and we counted 205 on the North Pools during our December Monitoring count. You can see how their numbers build up on this graph of the count:
All our Wigeon have normally returned north by March!
You can find more graphs of our counts on the Monitoring page – click here.
DID YOU KNOW?
Wigeon are a grazing duck. They usually feed while walking on land, nibbling grass and other vegetation in wet fields or eating seeds and algae in the saltmarsh.
The Whistling Duck!
One of the best sounds on the reserve in mid-winter is the whistling call of the Wigeon. The best place to hear it is from either the Tower Hide or the North Pool Hide next door. Big flocks of Wigeon are constantly whistling to each other!
LISTEN TO THEM WHISTLE!
“Eurasian Wigeon (Anas penelope)” from xeno-canto by Stuart Fisher. Genre: Anatidae.
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Category: birds, what to look for
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