A year of highs and lows for wildlife

RIGHT: This female blackbird has been among those congregating on the coasts.

Published: 14 January, 2010

LOOKING back to 2009, as far as wildlife is concerned there have been some highs and lows and with the depressing severe weather around at the moment perhaps readers will allow me to start with the high side.

Virtually nobody in the Highlands who had a garden or an interest in the countryside could have escaped the extraordinary invasion of the painted lady butterflies.

It was difficult to grasp the fact that these very attractive butterflies flitting through gardens and the countryside throughout the Highlands originated in Africa. There were, without exaggeration, millions of them throughout the British Isles and even beyond and the word "unprecedented" was bandied about with good reason.

There were many words written about this invasion and many ideas put forward but the most interesting one came towards the end of the summer. The question was just what happened to these hordes of butterflies? Did they have broods over here and then die, as we know that they cannot survive our winters?

There has always been the suggestion that such immigrant butterflies have a reverse migration. With such numbers of painted ladies, surely someone would see any reverse in their flight direction.

Autumnwatch on the TV asked for information and the records came in their thousands. Yes they were seen flying back south and along the south coast of England before moving back to the continent. A good example of how the public can help over such queries.

The lows of the year could be summed up by the bad weather that was severe enough in the beginning of they year with deep snow, ice and low temperatures. Birds were flocking to feeding stations in gardens and there were widespread reports of wrens being found dead in the roosts in places such as nestboxes. Most parts of the Highlands lost all their wrens although some parts of the coast still supported some.

One of the regular visitors at bird feeders were long-tailed tits who changed their feeding habits a few years ago and have survived. They had partly changed from their normal diet to peanuts and this kept them going whilst others such as goldcrests did not fare so well.

However, nobody could have foretold what would happen at the end of the year and how long the severe weather would continue. In 23 years of living in this strath it is the worst it has been in terms of snowfall and such prolonged freezing temperatures. We did have -26 degrees Celsius one year and it's been down to -16 degrees Celsius this year. The snow has been deeper, with up to three feet around our house in this part of the Highlands.

The interesting phenomenon of the current very cold period is the lack of birds in many gardens. For example, very few siskins were seen for a couple of weeks into the cold spell. The theory is that they have had such a plentiful supply of natural feed from trees and woodland that they had no need. Even greenfinches were small in numbers.

Whether or not the turning point has been reached is open to conjecture, but one garden near Dingwall at the beginning of this month had an influx of greenfinches and siskins plus a few bramblings. So much so that the owners of the garden had to put out another bird table to take the congregation of birds.

Meanwhile, on the coasts there have been gatherings of birds such as large flocks of skylarks, snow buntings, linnets with a few twites and common snipe. In our garden, I have persisted in sticking half apples on the fruit trees and the blackbirds have had a field day every day.

The female blackbird in the photograph was one such bird and you can see the feathers all "huffed up" as it makes a layer of air between it and the feathers and keeps it warmer. Let us just hope the severe weather will have at least abated by the time this appears in print.

The bird of the week came when some readers heard a thud on their house window. On investigation, there lying on the ground was a tiny bird and it was a goldcrest. They are secretive at the best of times, especially as their high-pitched call notes are soon out of the hearing as people like me get older. So to have a goldcrest in the hand was thrilling to say the least and gave the chance to look at its attractive plumage.

To start with, it is so small - the smallest of our birds, even taking the wren into account. It weights 6g which is about the weight of a 10p coin, so why not take one out of your pocket and judge the weight.

The name comes from its yellow crest over the top of its head and the male also has a strip of orange, making it even more attractive.

There is an interesting myth about goldcrests. Some are winter visitors, having flown over from the continent. They often seem to appear a few days before woodcock and the story goes that they show the woodcock the way. Hence their nickname of "woodcock pilot". The bird that hit the window rested in the reader's hand for a few minutes, apparently stunned, and the warmth revived it and the bird flew off. A momentous event for the readers.

http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6877/A_year_of_highs_and_lows_for_wildlife.html
(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)