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HomeTHE RSPB MAGAZINE ! WINTER/SPRING 2021
THE SCOOP ON SPOONBILLS Why they’re making a magnificent comeback Snowdrops usher in the spring, Wild about before the vernal equinox. Though often thought a native wildflower, it NATURE was introduced to the UK from mainland Europe in the early 1500s and thrives in our woodland areas.
“The coming year will be crucial in our fight for nature, with global summits on biodiversity and on climate. We need an ambitious global deal to save the planet and safeguard our future. Nature deserves no less.”
Beccy Speight, page 7 Photo: Sue Kennedy (rspb-images.com)
14 winter/spring 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 15 Wild about Seek early Look for flocks Get up at first Look out for If snow falls, primroses JANUARY of linnets on light to see barn scarce ducks head out early in gardens farmland. owls in daylight. such as smew. to look for tracks. and woods.
THINGS TO SEE SKILLS PHOTOGRAPHY NATURE NOTES NICOLA CHESTER Rooks Garden birds Take a close look Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed The Big Garden Birdwatch is a fascinating citizen science project, but it can also be a great time There is beauty to behold in the The speculating rooks at their nests cawed And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flowers of grass, to take stunning photographs. Here are my top tips for capturing your garden visitors. everyday if you seek it out. What we below could not see, winter pass. Bare-faced rooks are early nesters and can We are a little changed since this be seen rebuilding their stick-castles in Food an image; shoot against a dark background thing about a shed is that if it’s been in your time last year, when the losses, swaying, unsheltered treetops. Placing food out for birds can entice them so the rain shows up well and slow your garden for years, the birds will already be sacrifices, restrictions and Their raucous communal chatter into your garden and lure them shutter speed right down to capture used to it. disappointments of a global is part of winter and early into a more photogenic Nuthatch longer streaks. If we are lucky we pandemic were unimaginable. spring’s soundtrack. area. If your garden has might get snow. Think about Bathing birds We’ve become more aware of a particularly nicely lit capturing a familiar species Birds will predominantly be coming into our surroundings and local area, with soft such as a robin in a pure your garden to feed, but they may also communities and are more morning or white world. visit for other reasons. Make sure appreciative of what really afternoon sunshine, you have a bird bath topped matters: the everyday then you may want Use your house or a up with fresh water for extraordinariness of noticing. to consider moving shed as a hide bathing shots. Or, if you This time of year, I love starting the day outside with a mug your feeders there. Garden birds are often tamer prefer something more of tea, watching the steam curl, rise and evaporate like mirror The same goes for an than birds in more wild places, natural, have a writing against the late, warming sunrise. There are moments area that is more but that doesn’t necessarily mean regularly filled where I’ve watched its plumes mirrored in the breath purled natural-looking or less you can stand outside in plain sight puddle or even a from a singing wren on the shed roof, or from a crack in the EVENTS BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH cluttered; feel free to move the without them flying off! Make use of reflection pool. Build gatepost from which a troupe of ladybirds emerged from food around as the day goes on. shooting out of one of your windows, just it at eye level (on a hibernation. Moments like that set you up for the week; the Join the Big Garden Birdwatch 2021 from your garden make sure to position your feeders close table) to get perfect world becomes a sort of poem, condensing on air. (see page 29 for your guide). It only takes an hour, and Perches enough and think about your backgrounds. reflections. It’s not always the grand spectacles that affect us, or are helps conservation scientists to work out which birds Once your feeders are in a good place then You can also consider using something such even available to us. The pandemic has made us look locally, need most help, and where. We’re also planning a try placing beautiful-looking perches next as a shed, shooting from the doorway or a Look out for and environmental responsibility bids us consider longer series of Covid-safe events on some of our reserves to your bird feeder. This allows you to window using some camouflage material behaviours Blackbird journeys. The looking, the noticing becomes more personal. – so head on out to join the fun and learn something photograph the birds on something natural, with a hole cut out for your lens. The great Birds will often squabble over Gilbert White, the evergreen (would be 300-year-old) new! Visit rspb.org.uk/events to find one near you. rather than on the feeder itself. Make sure prime feeding perches on the bird parson-naturalist, has grown his fanbase this year. It already to choose a perch of suitable dimensions for feeders, offering a great chance to capture encompassed Charles Darwin, David Attenborough and rspbShop.co.uk them to happily sit on and also think about birds in flight and birds fighting, so be Chris Packham. Incapacitated by (coach) travel sickness, he your backgrounds – a diffused and prepared for these sort of disputes. Make was restricted to observing his natural parish in great detail Big Garden Birdwatch best buys natural-coloured background sure to use a fast shutter speed to capture and his observations revealed groundbreaking discoveries works well, as does a perch that the action sharply, but don’t be afraid to be about everything from earthworms to bird migration. complements the background colour. creative − a slow shutter speed can also To note what is on your doorstep is a powerful act of show the dramatic movement of the birds. mindfulness and a way to belong. It might be the timing of Use existing props the daily gull commute, or the tenacity of a wild pavement Photograph your garden birds on what is Ben Andrew is an plant growing against the bus stop. To acknowledge these already in your garden, putting them into award-winning things, with all your senses, makes them part of you, and context with their surroundings, whether wildlife photographer. you part of them. Nature is us, here, right now. We need it CATWATCH CAT MUG & COFFEE WINDOW that be on some guttering, the shed roof, These are his photos. and it needs us. It is why we find birdsong, unrolling the DETERRENT Buy the 2021 BIRD FEEDER the fence or even a garden spade. coming spring, so beautiful and moving, and not just a Keep your Big Garden Bring your biological function of survival in another species. garden birds Birdwatch mug garden birds Weather We must strive to notice, more. We are living half a life if safe with this and get a bag of right up close to There really is no bad weather to we don’t, and that’s never going to help the state we’re in. clever, harmless free shade- you with this photograph your garden birds in. So come Goldfinch We must be more Gilbert. ultrasonic cat grown coffee! clever window- rain, sun or even snow, get out there and deterrent that Add both to your mounted bird create images! Rain can add something to Nicola Chester lives in Wessex with her husband, three children and dog. runs off batteries basket and the feeder. Tough, nicolachester.wordpress.com or or mains. coffee will go clear and easy Twitter @nicolawriting From £55.99 through free. £9 to clean. £10.99 Photos: David Norton, Malcolm Hunt, Mike Lane, Kevin Sawford, Oliver Smart, Craig Churchill (all rspb-images.com); Gilbert White Illustration; Ben Andrew Ben Illustration; White Gilbert rspb-images.com); (all Churchill Craig Smart, Oliver Sawford, Kevin Lane, Mike Hunt, Malcolm Norton, David Photos:
16 winter/spring 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 17 Wild about Will it be a The first sunny Clouded drab FEBRUARY waxwing winter? See marsh harriers days of the year moths should be Enjoy the humble Watch berry- skimming over may tempt out on the wing at the crocus on a laden trees. wetlands. water voles. end of the month. spring walk.
SECRET LIVES DOMINIC COUZENS DESIGNED BY NATURE THINGS TO SEE Curlew Busy blackbirds Sleeping winter Many birds, including Roosting birds ducks and gulls, sleep Male blackbirds are busy marking the boundaries of their tuck their heads on with one half of the rspbShop.co.uk territories. In a built-up environment, watch for wildfowl and waders to their backs. brain active, the other their low, head-down runnings in straight On winter days, you may find a surprising resting. BOOKSHELF lines like linesmen. They will use path edges, walls and shed roofs to mark DID YOU number of water birds simply snoozing. The bill is usually out their spaces and patrol it, seeing KNOW Why are they asleep so much of the day? immersed in the back off any other males that step over Blackbirds have feathers, preventing The resting position those lines, with shrill whistles. declined by 15% in the heat being lost through keeps the eyes clear. past 40 years. the mandibles. Sleeping birds We tend to think of birds as looking in the darkness. constantly open their fast-moving organisms, with Lapwings are also common eyes, “peeking” every lightning quick reactions, night-feeders; in winter on few seconds to check astonishing !ying skills and moonlit nights, they may feed for danger. The Consolation of impatient demeanours. all night long, searching the Nature: Spring in the time However, if you visit a nature soil for earthworms and of Coronavirus Michael reserve and look out of a hide insects, some of which they McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott at almost any time of day – detect by sound. and Peter Marren £14.99 especially one overlooking a Wigeons and other ducks This lovely nature diary lake, marsh or estuary – you also commonly feed at night. evokes the three authors’ will be surprised how many "ey do this to avoid Many birds once-a-day walks through individuals seem to be not disturbance from people and, have denser last spring’s lockdown, which doing anything at all. in the case of lapwings, to feathering in opened their eyes to the Even on a cold winter’s day, reduce food-stealing by gulls. winter. nature around them. gulls, ducks and waders may be Another reason why birds One author even discovered standing still, head tucked on loaf during the day is the state a previously undiscovered THINGS TO SEE to the breast or back, or !oating of the tide. Many birds woodland near the home motionless on the water, wintering on estuaries depend Feathers themselves are where he’d lived for 25 years! Coltsfoot flowers apparently asleep. on intertidal mud for their in several layers, including This book reminds us how to Cormorants might be drying food, and if the foraging layers of down over the Roosting birds look, listen, learn, flourish and The bright yellow stubby-stencil brushes of coltsfoot their wings, and herons might grounds are covered by the skin. They provide face into the just be with nature. flowers are an early spring delight. On reddish, scaly be standing upright, hunched high tide, they simply rest to exceptionally good for wind to avoid stems, the flowers appear (like blackthorn) well before and with an expression save energy, o#en in tight insulation, keeping the their feathers the leaves. From the daisy family, the stems bow like apparently casting disdain !ocks which may create their bird’s body at a high ruffling. umbrella handles before straightening and opening on life itself. own microclimate. temperature inside. up to the sun. Monty Don described them perfectly, What are these birds doing? Yet another reason for as ‘stargazies’. Are they resting? Why aren’t daytime roosting is a they feeding? Don’t they have surprising one. Some birds pressing matters to attend to? such as herons, cormorants Birds often rest on "ere are several reasons why and some birds of prey can one leg, while the The warm arteries birds sleep during the day, and obtain all they need for the day other is tucked into the travelling towards the Back to Nature: the most obvious is that some in one (or two) short feeding plumage. This prevents legs briefly run parallel How to Love Life – and preferentially feed at night. sessions. A good $shy meal at heat loss through one to the veins leaving the Save It Chris Packham Take the pochard, for dawn means that a heron can bare leg. legs. This counter- and Megan McCubbin £20 example, a diving duck that loaf around and do nothing DID YOU current ensures that Springwatch’s familial power- seems to be forever slumbering except preen for many hours. KNOW much of the arterial duo kept busy during lockdown on freshwater lakes. In the Perhaps it is doing crosswords Many birds sleep in heat transfers to the creating this exploration of UK winter, especially, it will o#en in its head all the time, but flocks. Experiments show veins before reaching that wakefulness is nature and how we connect commute at dusk to feeding nobody knows! catching. Individuals the legs, thereby with it. With uplifting stories, sites full of bottom-growing keeping heat within the Dominic Couzens don’t just scan for discoveries and experience, vegetation and attendant is a wildlife writer danger, they also scan to bird’s body. it’s an inspiring way to move invertebrates, which it can watch how vigilant their and tour leader forward from 2020. Photos: Andrew Mason, Richard Brooks, Kevin Sawford, Ernie Janes, Phil Cutt, Ray Kennedy, David Tipling, Guy Rogers (all rspb-images.com) (all Rogers Guy Tipling, David Kennedy, Ray Cutt, Phil Janes, Ernie Sawford, Kevin Brooks, Richard Mason, Andrew Photos: presumably graze upon without living in Dorset. neighbours are.
18 winter/spring 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 19 juvenile birds
Tawny owl chicks leave the nest and start ‘branching’ up to a week before they can fly.
BABY BOOM With the bird breeding season in full swing, Mike Unwin looks at youngsters’ perilous and exhilarating worlds. Photo: Miha Krofel / Getty Images
56 spring/summer 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home spring/summer 2021 57 juvenile birds DESIGNED BY NATURE FLEDGLINGS As youngsters leave their nests, they appear alongside their parents. But which is which? These blue tits offer some clues.
Gape: Young Begging behaviour: New Plumage: Juvenile feathers fledglings have a fledglings flutter and beg (before first moult) can look colourful gape (bill noisily as they continue to tatty, with frayed ends. base), a target that petition parents for food. encourages parents to keep feeding them.
Tail: Some immature long-tailed birds here’s no ignoring it. Scru!y, Herring gull chicks (such as magpies, squawking and squatting on the hatch fully “Fledglings are easy to swallows and pavement: a baby herring gull. feathered and mobile. They may pheasants), have Its parents’ piercing cries ring out leave the nest after distinguish by their scruffy shorter tails than the Toverhead. What happens now? just a few days, but adult birds. If, like me, you live in a seaside town, this won’t roam far. scenario may be familiar. From late June, plumage and dull colours.” these unkempt urchins appear in force, waddling over roofs and sometimes crash-landing among us. And it’s not only feathers are developed enough for their had become too cramped, smelly and baby gulls. Youngsters of many species are "rst, wobbly #ight. For some, #ying is a parasite-infested. Besides, their exhausted making their "rst inept sorties into our prerequisite for leaving: blue tit #edglings parents wanted them out: they had stopped world, from starlings on the patio to #u!y usually have a predator-deterring sheer drop the food parcels and were calling to them ducklings on the park pond. Faced with outside their nest hole so must be able to enticingly from outside the nest. Sociability: Juveniles of such apparent helplessness, it is tempting to #utter to the nearest branch. Before they $is development strategy – remaining in some species, such as get involved. But before we interfere, we leave, they’ve been #apping their tiny wings the nest from naked hatchling to feathered carrion crows and need to understand what’s happening. to build up strength. When the moment #edgling – is typical of many bird groups, magpies, may gather in comes, typically early in the morning, they including songbirds, pigeons and raptors. greater numbers than BABY STEPS #utter out one by one to take their chances. Such species are termed ‘altricial’. adults do. $e process through which a bird leaves Others, however, take a di!erent approach. the nest is called #edging – thus, a juvenile BRINGING UP BABY Wildfowl, gamebirds, waders and other that has recently le% is known as a #edgling. $e speed of the #edging process is ground-nesters are termed ‘precocial’ birds. Most #edglings are barely smaller than impressive. When the chicks hatched two or $eir chicks hatch with eyes open and a Colouration: Immatures Markings: Immature their parents, but are easy to distinguish by three weeks earlier, they were blind, naked, covering of camou#age down, ready to lack the adults’ bright plumage may lack key adult their scru!y plumage, stubby wings and and wholly reliant upon their parents – rumble and raring to go. Within 24 hours colours or glossy sheen. markings (such as robins’ red tail, and dull colours. It is also clear from typically, the female keeping them warm of hatching they are out of the nest, running Where males and females breast or this blue tit’s white their begging and #uttering behaviour while the male brought in food. $ey grew or swimming behind their parents. $ey are differ (as in ducks and face); or may show an extra that these youngsters are still far from the quickly, soon opening their eyes and still much smaller than the adult birds, blackbirds), immature marking (eg: great spotted "nished article. acquiring their #u!y ‘natal down’. By the however. $ey are vulnerable, and it will be males can resemble the woodpecker’s all-red crown). For many #edglings, it takes a day or so time they were big enough to leave, staying another two weeks or so before they can #y adult females. a%er leaving the nest before their #ight behind was no longer an option. $e nest or stay warm by themselves. Photo: Richard Bowler (rspb-images.com). Illustration: Mike Langman (rspb-images.com)
58 spring/summer 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 63 species
After a 300-year absence, spoonbills are returning to our shores. Dominic Couzens reveals how your support of conservation work has helped them – and explains the purpose of that cutlery-shaped bill… GLORIOUS SPOONBILLS
Incoming! Spoonbills are recolonising the UK, returning to breed in wetlands after three centuries’ absence. (rspb-images.com) Upton Nick Photo:
Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 69 species
ugust 1521, and Cardinal usually with white plumage, suddenly “As egrets have gained the headlines, complicated than that. Milder winters Spring is a great !omas Wolsey, being at the started to march into the UK from the spoonbills have also been quietly undoubtedly help large wading birds to time to watch spoonbills sparring very height of his powers as near continent. !ey liked it here and attempting to recolonise,” says Graham. survive here into the spring, but there are for mates and Henry VIII’s right-hand man, stayed. Little egrets were the trailblazers, 2020 might have held little cheer for other factors at play.” territory. Aattended a banquet in King’s Lynn, #rst nesting successfully in 1996, rapidly humankind, but it was a breakout year for One of these is that, as far as spoonbills Norfolk. Among the recorded delicacies expanding and now with a population of breeding spoonbills in the UK. Not only are concerned, the increase in the UK is brought to his table were 10 cygnets, about 1,000 pairs. More recently cattle has the Holkham population thrived, directly related to the bird’s fortunes on the three bitterns, 13 plovers – and two egrets have colonised (#rst breeding in with 28 pairs producing 56 young, but continent, where populations in northern tender spoonbills. 2008 and expanding) and so have great they have also bred successfully on two Europe, especially the Netherlands, have Back then, in the 16th century, white egrets (2008). !ere are inklings RSPB reserves. Six pairs produced three signi#cantly increased. Many, if not most, spoonbills were a familiar sight in parts of that purple herons and little bitterns may young at Fairburn Ings in North of our colonising birds are thought to the UK, having been present since at least follow. With some help, cranes are also Yorkshire, and three pairs produced four originate from here. Another bloodless Anglo-Saxon times. !ere was even a thriving, and introduced white storks may young at Havergate Island in Su"olk. !e revolution has therefore reached our shores colony at Fulham, in Middlesex, just down follow in those tall, elegant footsteps. Havergate birds are perhaps especially from Holland (in the original Glorious the !ames from Wolsey’s Hampton poignant, located just a few miles – if 350 Revolution, William of Orange was invited Court Palace. !e following century, RETURN OF THE SPOONIES years – away from the lost Trimley colony. to be king in 1688). however, brought widespread drainage of “But what people don’t realise,” says It seems that the march of the long- “But we shouldn’t overlook the fact that the bird’s habitat, including the Fens, as Graham White, the RSPB’s Head of legged birds gathers pace every year. It is much of the spoonbill’s recent success is well as continued hunting for the pot. !e Ecology, “is that spoonbills almost beat great news for birdwatchers and birds down to conservation work,” comments population crashed – and the last recorded little egrets to it. !ey attempted to breed alike. But what is behind this Glorious Jo Gilbert. “Spoonbills have particular nesting was at Trimley in Su"olk in 1668. in eastern England way back in 1997, and Revolution, this expansion of so many ecological requirements, it has taken some For more than 300 years, not a single there have been sporadic attempts in species on to our islands? time to get this just right.” spoonbill chick was raised in Britain. several places since.” In 2010, a regular “Many people immediately latch on to !en, in the 1980s, something colony was #rmly established at climate change as the explanation,” says Jo BEAK UNIQUE extraordinary began, the e"ects of which Holkham National Nature Reserve Gilbert, RSPB’s Deputy Director of Anybody who has watched spoonbills in we still see today. Birds with long legs, and in Norfolk. Conservation Programmes. “But it is more the wild can see that they are unusual.
“Spoonbills feed by sweeping their bill - which is kept slightly open - from side to side in the shallows.” Photo: Roger Tidman (rspb-images.com) Tidman Roger Photo:
70 winter/spring 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home winter/spring 2021 71 wildlife gardening André introduces Adrian to the famous Square Garden at Waltham Place, which has all the features that garden wildlife loves: abundant plants, water, shelter, flowers, diversity.
TOP TIP Many of the Louisa says: “The garden plants seed is a dialogue – discover themselves when to stand back, and when to intervene. There’s into cracks in the paving in a glorious no recipe; it’s a conversation.” free-for-all. Floral wonders Louisa (above) has worked in the ornamental gardens for 16 years. “We try to give people the feeling they’re walking through a nature reserve,” she says. She does what she calls ‘grazing’ the borders in summer, What were once lightly editing and dropping the spent material wherever it’s cut. formal ponds are now dragonfly and Beautiful collage damselfly heaven in this Blue cornflowers and reddish chemical-free environment. Amaranthus combine in a glorious mix (left). Seedheads are left over winter and cut at the very last moment before new growth comes through.
GIVING NATURE A HOME ladybirds were amazing,” André says, “So no problems with aphids!” Next, into the ornamental walled gardens, which date back to the 17th century but were brought right up to As one with nature date by Dutch garden designer Henk Gerritsen, using his trademark Adrian Thomas visits a remarkable garden in Berkshire which naturalistic style. joins forces with nature to achieve astonishing results. "e Square Garden is perhaps the most iconic image of Waltham Place, with its lookout tower giving elcome to Waltham Place. allowed to take photos to share with the organic movement. “"e health of panoramic views. On my visit, the “ We ask that you look you, because Strilli’s philosophy is the land starts in the soil,” André beds were alive with all manner of Wwith a di!erent eye.” for her visitors to experience explains. “So we nurture it, bees, plus comma and peacock So says Strilli Oppenheimer, the everything with their senses and incorporating a lot of organic matter, butter#ies feasting on swathes of renowned conservationist, on her not through a lens. and integrating animals, crops and herbaceous #owers. You get the website, to introduce her famous and My guide for the day was André soil as part of a holistic system.” feeling the plants are in the act of innovative wildlife-friendly gardens. Tranquilini, the estate manager, I started my visit in the large taking over, self-seeding as they wish I was delighted to be invited to who – with Strilli’s steer – oversees kitchen garden, which produces in exuberant abandon. come and see them for myself; while the entire 220-acre farm, masses of fruit and veg for sale in Meanwhile, in front of the main they are much bigger than most woodlands and gardens. the local community. Every bed, house, the long borders have a ‘live residential gardens, there is so much Management throughout follows mulched and tended by hand, and let live’ lesson for us all in our we can learn from them to inform what are called biodynamic principles. includes ‘diversity islands’ of #owers gardens. "e billowing yew hedges Massed effect our own outside spaces. "e term is sometimes described as to draw in pollinators and bene$cial either side are festooned with hedge This forest of red Persicaria and mauve Veronicastrum, together with creamy
It was an added privilege to be ‘organic plus’, but actually pre-dates predatory insects. “"is year, the bindweed – on purpose! Polygonum and common hogweed, was awash with bumblebees when I visited. Thomas Adrian Photos:
82 spring/summer 2021 Nature’s Home Nature’s Home spring/summer 2021 83 Home juicer “Our worm juice is unbelievable!” André says. This, plus worm compost, is produced in an old bathtub (left)! Happy endings Companion planting of nectar-and pollen-rich flowers bookend the vegetable plots. Perfect pitstop Marjoram, here amid lady’s-mantle, is one of the best flowers for nectaring butterflies, TOP TIP such as this peacock Many of the veg beds (below). use the ‘no dig’ method. Just put a thick layer of mulch (such as rotted compost) onto the soil each winter and let nature do the rest.
For most people it is a dreaded “In part this is because there weed; here it is embraced. are no chemicals,” André “Weeds belong in the ecology of explains. “Plus we allow the JOBS TO DO THIS SEASON the garden,” André maintains. natural cycles to complete, and Adrian’s top wildlife gardening jobs for spring "e wildlife at Waltham only interfere where necessary. into summer, inspired by Waltham Place. Place shows how successful the “Our role is to take care of Make natural fertiliser infusions approach is; 564 moth species the land and help it reach its Dunk nettle leaves, comfrey or horsetail in water have been recorded and 73 full potential, balancing our for a few weeks and then dilute the resulting species of bird breed on the needs with those of nature.” liquid for use on plants. Oh, and use a tight lid estate. When I visited, as the smell can be quite overpowering! Garden tours and courses are butter#ies bounced through planned at Waltham Place Make as much compost as you can the borders in numbers you when restrictions ease. Find André’s compost heaps are long piles on the rarely see these days. out more at walthamplace.com ground, called windrows. In our gardens, the scale may be smaller but the principles are the same – careful mixing of ‘green’ (leafy) and ‘brown’ (woody) materials, turned occasionally rspbShop.co.uk to add oxygen. If you can, shred the material first to make decomposition speedier and hotter. Garden ideas 3 ways to help hedgehogs Seek out seedlings Many of your favourite wildlife plants will have dropped seed around them – learn what they look like when they first germinate and pot them up or transplant them all around the garden.