January in the Forest

January in the Forest

One of the compensations of winter’s dark, cold days is the arrival of birds from even colder regions. These winter visitors include Fieldfares, Redwings, Bramblings and additional Blackbirds, Redpolls and Siskins from Scandinavian and continental European locations. Fieldfares are strong, upright birds with the mottled chest of the thrush family (which is what they are), moving around in flocks of tens or even hundreds.  Redwings are smaller but have a cream stripe above the eye and an orangey-red underwing patch. Both species like to feed on berries and orchard fruit, so we can expect them in the forest, its surrounding orchards and in your gardens.

Another bird that you may see feeding on berries at this time of the year is the Hawfinch: a chunky, big-headed bird with a heavy bill, which it uses to get to the kernels of hard seeds and stone fruit, from which it gets its usual name and one of its Yorkshire names, Cherry Finch. We are more or less at the westernmost edge of their range and it used to be thought that they, too, arrived in winter. The truth was that they are very shy and don’t reveal the location of their nests, so that it was not until 1833 that one was found.  It’s unusual not to see them at some point in the winter taking advantage of the food available in Bewdley’s Jubilee Gardens, thereby attracting that other visitor, the Twitcher.

This brings us on nicely to the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch which will be happening this month from 23 to 26 January. You can sign up via their website now (www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch) and will receive ticklists of the birds they want you to record with helpful colour pictures for identification. Then you choose when and where you will watch and count the birds visiting in a one hour period and finally let the RSPB know the highest number of each species you see at any one time. 610,000 people took part in last year’s survey. As the RSPB’s website says,  ‘House Sparrows took the top spot, but counts of these chirpy birds are down by 60% compared to the first Birdwatch in 1979. In fact, we’ve lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 60 years. With birds facing so many challenges, it’s more important than ever to get involved in the Birdwatch. Every bird you do – or don’t – count will give us a valuable insight into how garden birds are faring.’

Linda Iles