Nature Notes

Brin Best

Wharfedale Naturalists’ Society

wharfedale-nats.org.uk

A TRIP to the North Norfolk coast allowed my wife and I to enjoy aspects of bird migration which are not available to us here in West Yorkshire.

On a beautifully still - and surprisingly warm - November morning, we strolled along the beachfront in the pretty Victorian resort town of Sheringham in search of new arrivals.

This part of Norfolk is famous for rare birds, as it faces the continent and is the first landfall for lost avian visitors looking for somewhere to rest.

Within a few moments of arriving at the coast, we realised that a wave of migrant birds was arriving off the sea. We watched an unidentified, medium-sized bird fly in from the North Sea, and turn into a fieldfare as it passed overhead.

This attractively patterned thrush winters in large numbers in the UK, with birds undergoing long flights over the sea to reach our shores from continental Europe. Our bird will no doubt now be gorging itself on berries in a Norfolk hedgerow.

In past years we’ve had the thrill of seeing even small birds battle their way through the wind and spray to reach the Norfolk shore. We once saw a bedraggled great tit slowly reach the safety of a shingle bank, after watching it struggle, over terrifying waves, to make landfall. The last, desperate hundred metres of its journey was truly harrowing to witness.

The highlight of our morning’s stroll occurred when a quartet of Brent geese - no doubt a family party - approached us over the waves. They have just ended an epic flight from their Arctic breeding grounds.

As these small geese spotted the welcoming sight of the Norfolk coast, where they would spend the winter, they finally landed on the sea to rest.

As they preened their feathers and took a well-earned break, we marvelled at the vast and perilous journey they had just undertaken, which may well have been carried out without a single stop.

These encounters with birds, in the very act of migrating, are always thrilling. They remind us of how extraordinary migration is, and the huge importance of Britain for birds escaping frozen northern Europe in winter.

But most of all they show us how incredibly tough nature is; how amazing resilient birds are to be able to reach our shores at all after thousands of miles of feathered flight, in all weathers.

As you wrap up warm for your journey to work tomorrow, remind yourself that overhead and all around you, natural miracles covered with feathers are already busy feeding, so they can survive the winter nights ahead, and return to foreign shores next spring.