Birds started singing again

[PLUMPUDDING]

Have you noticed that after their moult and recovering from raising young all the birds have started singing again this week. After hearing nothing but a few alarm calls and tweets it is lovely to hear them singing.

Could they be establishing their territories for next spring?

[FelixLeiter]

Which birds have you heard? Some birds keep up a dialogue through the winter. I was watching and listening to a flock of long-tailed tits in the week, which was very cheering.

[sally wright]

Dear Plumpudding,
at this time of year they are carving out winter feeding territories. The exact phrases are not known but it is essentially "go starve in your own patch mate!"
Regards Sally Wright.

[glallotments]

Have you noticed that after their moult and recovering from raising young all the birds have started singing again this week. After hearing nothing but a few alarm calls and tweets it is lovely to hear them singing.

Could they be establishing their territories for next spring?

I read that robins set up their territory around Christmas time and I guess lots of flock birds sing to keep in contact with one another.

Blackbirds are territorial throughout the year.

On the other hand wouldn't you sing if you'd had a load of demanding young leave home?

[oldherbaceous]

I thought the birds were singing because they were happy to have me working in their gardens. I hadn't given it a thought about them establishing theit territories.

[Nature's Babe]

I also detected a change in the birds behaviour, strangely after watching skein after skein of geese take the path of their autumn migration I saw three large skeins of geese reversing their path and returning as they do in spring.????? !!!!!!

[Monika]

Robins actually sing all the year round although the autumn song is rather quite and "sad" as opposed to spring's jolly twitter! The nuthatch and most tits, too, use their call all year to keep in touch.

Still butterflies out today: red admiral and small tortoiseshell, as well as lots of other insects. And our climbing rose Zephirine Drouhin is flowering beautifully.

Frost last night and more expected tonight, but what a great starry night!

[FelixLeiter]

I also detected a change in the birds behaviour, strangely after watching skein after skein of geese take the path of their autumn migration I saw three large skeins of geese reversing their path and returning as they do in spring.????? !!!!!!

Canada geese, more than likely. The poor things are so far from their normal migration route that they make several attempts at this time of the year but of course they don't get anywhere. They'll make more attempts before the winter but will eventually settle here, as they are forced to do every year, where they will continue to pollute our parks with spectacular quantities of poo.

[Parsons Jack]

I also detected a change in the birds behaviour, strangely after watching skein after skein of geese take the path of their autumn migration I saw three large skeins of geese reversing their path and returning as they do in spring.????? !!!!!!

Canada geese, more than likely. The poor things are so far from their normal migration route that they make several attempts at this time of the year but of course they don't get anywhere. They'll make more attempts before the winter but will eventually settle here, as they are forced to do every year, where they will continue to pollute our parks with spectacular quantities of poo.

Canada Geese have been resident all over the UK including southern Scotland for a number of years. They aren't migrating anywhere
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx

[Nature's Babe]

Interesting PJ, so what am i seing each autumn as they head north and spring when they return south, another kind of goose? Hard to tell when they ae in flight.

[Johnboy]

The Canada Goose population is sedentary and is classified as a Resident in the UK and they generally move off only too different feeding grounds. I would suggest that during this period we have Brent Geese (both light and dark phase) Pink Footed Geese, White Fronted Geese. Lesser White Fronted Geese, Bean Geese, Barnacle Geese and two types of Swans all of which form high flying skeins whereas the Canada Geese do fly in a formation but not a skein and not high flying. The resident flock flew over my house this morning before it was light.
In the Teme Valley we have quite a large population of Canada Geese and they simply fly between the Teme Valley and the Lugg Valley which is the next river south of here and then they fly back and forth all the year but nesting with us on the Teme. They fly to feeding grounds and very little else.
I would suggest that the skeins observed are of the other Geese I have mentioned and not Canada's.
JB.

[Parsons Jack]

Interesting PJ, so what am i seing each autumn as they head north and spring when they return south, another kind of goose? Hard to tell when they ae in flight.

Hi NB,

From the Dungeness RSPB site;

Winter

Waterbirds are the main attraction during the winter months. Large numbers of wigeons, gadwalls, teals, mallards, pintails, shovelers, pochards and tufted ducks will be present whilst smews, goldeneyes and pintails will also be seen. Bewick's and whooper swans may roost on the Hanson ARC pit. Large flocks of greylag geese may be joined by white-fronted geese. Merlins, peregrines, hen harriers and marsh harriers should be seen regularly. Barn, short-eared and long-eared owls may also be found during the winter months. Amongst the passerines stonechats, goldcrests and greenfinches will be regular features and Cetti's warblers and bearded tits should be present, particularly around Hooker's pits.

[PLUMPUDDING]

The robin is very vocal, all the tit varieties are chirpy, there are huge flocks of blackbirds zooming about and making a racket (not exactly singing!), the wren keeps giving a few trills and I keep hearing something else I can't identify - not one of the usuals. It is lovely to hear them all though.

Last week I saw and heard two flocks of geese flying over in different directions. The darker ones looked like the usual Canada geese that live on the nearby reservoir, but the larger, higher flying ones were lighter in colour, but I hadn't got my binoculars handy so couldn't identify them.

[Parsons Jack]

Both my neighbour and myself have a huge flock of Goldfinches and some Greenfinches feeding on the sunflower hearts in the feeders these last few days

[Monika]

I have only recently started to feed the birds again (I usually don't put bird food out between about May and November because there is plenty of natural food about all around us), but they are now really flocking to the feeder which are filled with sunflower hearts and the fat blocks which I make from ground peanuts mixed with suet and lard. All our resident tits (blue, great, coal and long-tailed) come regularly, as well as chaffinches, bullfinches, greenfinches (nice to see them back after their number dropped dramatically because of avian trichomoniasis), house sparrows, a pari of nuthatches and a pair of great spotted woodpeckers. Even the dunnocks and robins try to have a go at the feeders, although usually they just pick up whatever drops down below. Today we also had a brambling, a female, so there are likely to be more of them around.

Meanwhile, the blackbirds and thrushes are stripping the holly bushes of the last berries, and the former also come to the back door waiting for currants!