What a great year to watch birds
It has been a strange year.
Spring had a traditional feel to it, with cold weather providing nasty surprises for birds that thought that it was now okay to breed in March. Blackbirds, robins and song thrushes gave up on nesting attempts; they needed all their time to find food for themselves – no time for sitting around to keep eggs warm. These species literally don't put all their eggs in one basket and were able to do better later in the summer, when the weather was more conducive to chick-raising.
Migrants from Africa, such as swallows, were generally late arriving and then flooded in on warm southerly winds in May. They were accompanied by some exotic birds that had forgotten to engage their landing-gear over France; spoonbills, hoopoes, great reed warbler and other rare birds provided excitement for lucky birdwatchers. If only this warm weather could have continued.
Imagine what it must be like on a cold, wet day for a parent bird whose main goal is to bring up a family. The poor weather has already slowed down insect production and it is hard to catch flies in the driving rain. If you leave the youngsters they might get chilled and die but if you don't find food they will starve to death. It is no wonder that species such as warblers produced very few young this summer. Many birdwatchers commented that migratory birds left the country early, presumably having given up for this year.
Once the children were back at school, the weather improved, of course, and birdwatchers had a wonderful autumn. High pressure became established across the North Sea and many birds from Scandinavia, that might have been expected to travel down the west coast of Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, cut the corner off and passed through Norfolk's air-space. There were days when it was really hard to get BTO staff to sit at their desks; coffee and tea breaks saw a rush for the doors, as people scanned the sky for passing birds as rare as honey buzzards and ospreys.
As I write this, at the start of November, winter has arrived, the blue skies of just two weeks ago are but a memory and the Nunnery Lakes nature reserve has taken on a wintry feel. Visitors have got a good chance of seeing kingfisher on the river and water rail and snipe are showing well from the hide. In Thetford Forest, there are reports of lots of siskin, the smaller cousin of the greenfinch, newly arrived from the northern forests of Scotland and Scandinavia. Once they have munched their way through the seed cones of spruce trees and alder they are expected to pour into gardens. With low numbers of blue and great tits, after two difficult breeding seasons, there should be plenty of room for them on the seed feeders.
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Weather for Bury St Edmunds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North
