For me, the Christmas/New Yr break is a really specific time of the yr. It offers me with a peculiar and strange mixture of birds and it brings again reminiscences of instances previous when the image was completely different in some methods. Residing on the southernmost area of Europe, really additional south than components of North Africa, signifies that it’s right here that we discover the early proof of the onset of “spring”. Actually, from this weekend onwards the times will begin to get longer and we quickly get a response from birds.
I made a decision to checklist my high ten favorite species right now of the yr, people who I most frequently affiliate with this era and which give me fond reminiscences of many years of searching for them. Due to the geographical location, two of the three classes into which I’ve grouped my high ten, signify differing weather conditions and responses to those. One represents the response of birds to chilly winter snaps, right here or additional north, whereas the opposite, paradoxically, represents the “spring” arrival of birds from the south. Each can coincide, such is the climatic gradient offered by the vary of altitude, from sea stage to over 3,000 metres, on this a part of the world. My third group is seabirds.
Let’s begin with these displaying a response to chilly winter circumstances. Prime of my checklist on this class, and total in my high ten, is the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus). The Spanish title “Avefria” says all of it – the chook of the chilly. Seeing large flocks of Lapwings flying previous alongside the coast, crossing into Morocco, is a reminiscence that I shall always remember. One winter an estimated quarter-of-a-million Lapwings descended on Cadiz Province alone! This doesn’t occur anymore. The winters are milder and the European inhabitants of Lapwing has declined enormously. I nonetheless see flocks right here and there however nothing in comparison with what it as soon as was.
My second “chilly” chook is the Alpine Accentor (Prunella collaris). Throughout chilly snaps, particularly when the mountains are lined in snow, these beautiful birds descend proper all the way down to the coast. Searching for Alpine Accentors on the Rock of Gibraltar, the place I reside, was a Christmas break task since my college days.
The third candidate is the Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita). This small warbler arrives in October however, what makes it particular for me is its behavior of attending stands of launched aloes. Right here, as temperatures drop and bugs change into scarce, the Chiffchaffs change into short-term hummingbirds, hovering to extract the nectar from the flowering aloes which originated from South Africa. It’s a novel behaviour which I hung out recording and describing as a pupil again within the seventies.
The flip facet of the coin is offered by three birds that are already arriving from tropical Africa and whose numbers will increase within the weeks to come back. The Swallow (Hirundo rustica) arrives now and settles in its breeding websites on the lowlands. Daytime temperatures listed below are excessive sufficient to generate insect exercise, particularly within the marshlands the place water offers breeding grounds for mosquitoes and different bugs. This yr, a moist one ultimately, guarantees to be good for them.
Second is the Nice Noticed Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) which exploits the emergence of caterpillars, utilizing the world as stop-over earlier than persevering with north. An early arrival ensures they’re able to parasitise magpies and different corvids, which begin breeding actions early within the yr.
The third is the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia). Many White Storks don’t go away us in any respect these days however the arrival of huge flocks of those birds from Africa right now of the yr is likely one of the particular moments within the ornithological calendar.
My third group is the seabirds. Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) and Sandwich Terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) patrol the shoreline in the hunt for fish, usually in giant numbers after gales. Spending time on the cliffs of Gibraltar watching these birds, which come remarkably shut, is one other seasonal ornithological pastime.
Some years we get influxes of Razorbills (Alco torda). These birds are very confiding and can enterprise into the sheltered harbour areas the place you possibly can see them at shut quarters.
My final species is, just like the Lapwing, one which has declined considerably, a minimum of as a wintering seabird off our coasts. I’m referring to Little Gull (Hydrocoloeus minutus). Every winter I might go to Europa Level throughout easterly gales and I might see flocks of over 2 hundred Little Gulls offshore. Now there are none.
I’m wondering what number of readers have their very own favorite seasonal chook species. It will be enjoyable to match notes! Wishing you all the perfect in the course of the season’s festivities and for the brand new yr.
