“Many people are sad to see the summer end,” says Kane Brides, WWT Senior Research Officer. “But we’re excited by the arrival of autumn and all the birds it brings!” The days are drawing in, greens have turned to gold, but if you think autumn is about winding down, think again. Across all WWT’s reserves, and the country as a whole, life is about to get a whole lot livelier.
Thousands of birds head to our chilly and damp islands in search of refuge from harsher, freezing conditions elsewhere. “Many of our arrivals use the critically important Northwest European Flyway,” adds Kane. “Birds stream down from the north, east and west, following coasts and wetlands along the route to more temperate climates or Africa. Along the way, these hardy travellers face many challenges – gruelling journeys, uncertain weather, human disturbance and hunting – but thanks to work to protect and conserve their resting and refuelling spots, carried out by WWT and our partners, still they come.” They will stay all winter, bringing drama, vitality and noise to our wetlands. It’s a wonderful spectacle that we can all enjoy. Here, we celebrate some of these new arrivals.
1. White-fronted Goose
“For many birdwatchers, winter means vast flocks of geese,” says Kane. “They feed in fields by day and move to open water at dusk, often commuting at dawn and dusk in spectacular V formations. The sight stirs the soul, and they also make a wonderful, laughing call.”
One of our species is the white-fronted goose, Anser albifrons; albifrons comes from the Latin albus, ‘white’, and frons, ‘forehead’. Some arrive from Russia, spilling over parts of southern England, while another population of larger individuals with more heavily-barred breasts comes from Greenland and mainly winters in Scotland and Ireland. The birds travel in family parties and older offspring may associate with their parents for some years.
Greenland birds travel first to Iceland and stay for a few weeks before transferring to Britain in late October. With climate change, many fewer Russian birds winter in England than previously because they simply stop in mainland Europe instead.
Slimbridge is one of only three strongholds for the geese in southern England (along with the Thames Estuary and North Warren, Suffolk). About 300 winter here now, down from the 2,000 or so that were present around 30 years ago.
WHERE TO SEE: Slimbridge
2. Common Pochard
“Many people don’t realise that pochards are migrants,” says Kane. “But there are hardly any pochards here in summer, and then suddenly 48,000 swarm in from northern and eastern Europe, including Russia.” These swift-flying ducks can cover 1,000km in just a couple of days, arriving almost by stealth. The males migrate first and can quickly swamp an area, so the later arriving females are often compelled to travel further on. A small number migrate as far as west Africa.
WHERE TO SEE: Martin Mere, Slimbridge, Welney
3. Bewick's Swan
“Every autumn, there’s one particular day that everyone at Slimbridge calls swanfall,” says Kane. “It’s one of my favourite days of the year. After weeks of occasional Bewick’s swan arrivals trickling in, overnight their bugling calls are suddenly everywhere as they arrive en masse.” Bewick’s swans breed in Arctic Siberia, meaning they have at least 2,500km to travel to get here for the winter. By October, they are resting and feeding up in the Baltic states, such as Estonia, where there is plenty of food and they are in no rush. They usually arrive here later than other migrants, often not in bulk until at least November. “They often arrive in family parties, which might explain why they are pretty noisy!” says Kane.
WHERE TO SEE: Slimbridge, Welney
4. Red Knot
The red knot has a gift for the spectacular. It’s most famous for its murmuration-like aerobatics hen huge numbers gather at an estuary high tide, but its migration is no less astonishing. “In Britain, we don’t get many regular bird migrants from North America,” says Kane. “But if you’re lucky, you may see knots visiting WWT Caerlaverock, or elsewhere on the Solway Firth, from Arctic Canada and Greenland.” The knot finds a migration of 16,000km at great altitude no great challenge. Individuals can cover thousands of kilometres in several days of non-stop flying.
WHERE TO SEE: Caerlaverock
5. Golden Plover
With spangled plumage that glows in even the pale winter sun, this highly sociable wader unusually winters on inland fields as well as on estuaries. Most of our wintering birds are from Ireland or are ‘in-house’ migrants that might have bred on Scottish bogs. We also get the Icelandic population either moving through or wintering in the UK. They often accompany lapwings and black-headed gulls as they search for earthworms. Look for the compact flocks that fly high and form crescents, often wheeling around many times before landing.
WHERE TO SEE: Caerlaverock, Slimbridge, Steart Marshes and Welney
6. Light-bellied Brent Goose
Brent geese arrive in autumn to visit sheltered estuaries, where they are often remarkably tame. Around 90% of the world’s population of light-bellied birds come to Northern Ireland from Greenland and Arctic Canada, and might have travelled 4,600km to get here, via a stopover in Iceland. Strangford Lough is the single most important site for the population outside the breeding season, and WWT Castle Espie offers front-row views. Their marvellous ‘brr-brr’ call is a constant on many estuaries. They do rather let their kind down when in flight; flying low, they form untidy lines or bunches, when they ought to be making perfect Vs!
WHERE TO SEE: Castle Espie
7. Black-tailed Godwit
Most of our wintering black-tailed godwits come here from Iceland, while our breeding birds head to Africa for the winter. These are proper waders, getting their feet wet as they wade in deep water and often immersing their heads when probing in the shallows. Godwits are unusual among waders for being relatively quiet. Think of how much noise oystercatchers or curlews make – there’s a real difference.
WHERE TO SEE: Slimbridge, Steart Marshes, Welney and Martin Mere
8. Pintail
This tapered duck is very rare in the summer, but autumn brings an influx of at least 195,000 individuals to all sorts of wetlands, from inland meadows to estuaries. The incredibly smart males lose no time displaying to prospective mates – why wait until spring? These highly sociable ducks are long distance migrants, and many European birds winter in Africa.
WHERE TO SEE: Caerlaverock, Martin Mere and Slimbridge
9. Whooper Swan
“The whooper swan is our largest migratory bird,” says Kane. “It’s one of the biggest in the world, with a 2.5m wingspan.” Almost all our winter visitors of this species come from Iceland, crossing the 1,000km of North Sea in a single flight that takes about 12 hours flying non-stop. They normally fly a few metres above the sea, but a pilot once recorded whooper swans migrating up at 8,000m, although this is uncommon. They have a trumpeting flight call, unlike the mute swan, which uses the sound of its wings to keep in contact.
WHERE TO SEE: Caerlaverock, Martin Mere and Welney
