December 2008

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The dark tail-end of the year can provide some rewarding birdwatching especially when there are clear crisp days to lift the spirits and help to dispel some of the economic and climatic gloom. It's good, too, to snatch a few hours away from the hectic run-up to the Christmas holiday and those frenetic spells of shopping. If you can spare the time make for the coast on days of good visibilty to see some spectacular flocks of waders, geese and ducks.

One of my favourites is the Cudmore Grove Country Park, East Mersea where you are guaranteed flocks of dark-bellied brent geese, wigeon, golden plovers and curlew with the possibilty of snow buntings and twite along the shore or feeding on salt marsh seeding plants. Twite have been scarce in recent winters but some have arrived this year from their northern moorland breeding areas. Offshore there is always a chance of red-breasted mergansers, eider and shelduck. Other winter birding "hotspots” are Colne Point, Tollesbury Wick and the RSPB's Old Hall Marsh reserve, Tollesbury, where as well as geese, ducks and waders there are wintering short-eared owls, marsh and hen harriers, Merlins and if you are lucky, that aristocrat of the raptor world - the peregrine.

There's always plenty to see at Abberton Reservoir as the winter packs of duck build up. There are already some smew and in the first week of December I watched a dapper little drake smew diving under willows on the Layer Breton side for small fish. Goosanders, the larger sawbill cousins of the smew, have also arrived by December. In the past two or three winters some bitterns have wintered in the reservoir's reedbeds so keep a sharp look out along the edge of the reeds or for flying birds.

December is when garden bird feeders really come into their own and you never know what might turn up on bird tables or on seed and peanut containers. At time of writing we have a male blackcap visiting our bird table or feeding on fat balls and squares hanging from our pendulous pear tree. The blackcap is a warbler which is mainly a summer resident from winter quarters in Africa and the mediterranean but every winter some stay and brave the cold and take advantage of the garden bird feeder stations. Ringing has proved that our winter blackcaps mostly come from the Continent, our own summer nesters head further south.

Wherever there are alder trees look for flocks of siskins and redpolls. These attractive and lively small finches acrobatically hang on branches to get at the seed in the alder cones, the male siskins in particular providing a dash of colour with their green and yellow plumage and black caps and throats. Redpolls are much scarcer now than years gone by but you can find small groups with the siskins on alders and also feeding on the seed in larch cones.

There's a good showing of holly berries which is good news for the festive season and also for redwings which, like mistle thrushes and blackbirds, feast on them. The redwings are winter stayers from the Scandinavian forests and when there are wintry spells with grassland frozen and preventing feeding of worms, the redwings come into gardens and along hedges to feed on the berry crops.

Remain on the alert for waxwings. There was a largish influx of these beautiful crested winter visitors from Scandinavia and the Baltic in November and early December and currently flocks are in East Anglia. One was in Plough Drive, Prettygate, Colchester at the end of November feeding on berries in a garden. Waxwings are often seen near supermarkets and hospitals in urban areas feeding on the berries of shrubs which have been planted there next to car parks and the approach roads.

Flocks of siskins should be looked for feeding on the seeds in the cones on alder trees. Pictured, a male.

Among the birds which come in winter to garden bird tables and feeders are blackcaps. These warblers are spring and summer immigrants, breeding in woods and large gardens, but some winter here, mainly from across the North Sea.

Short-eared owls are being reported from coastal marshes and along sea walls in NE Essex. Winter visitors from the Continent, they are hunting for voles and other small rodents.

Redwings, winter visitors from Scandinavia, are very fond of holly berries of which there is a big crop this year.

Abberton Reservoir offers some top class birdwatching in December from the main causeways and hide. Among the many duck species are smew, small 'sawbills'. which come from the Continent and far north. Front is the drake with female which is also known as a 'red-cap' from its chestnut head.

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