Wander through golden woods, heather-clad hills and reed-flanked wetlands in search of Britain’s brilliant autumn birds
BIKE RIDE: WWT Caerlaverock, Dumfries and Galloway SKEINS OF THE SOLWAY
Autumn is a season of flux for Britain’s bird populations, as waders and wildfowl arrive in their thousands in search of food and refuge. One of the most dramatic places to watch this spectacle unfold is the Solway Firth, says Fergal MacErlean
Surely, if there is one sound that heralds the change of the seasons, it is the honk of geese arriving from their breeding grounds. After months away from our shores, their return is simultaneously magical and reassuring.
Chances are you will hear the geese arriving before you see their outstretched necks slicing through the crisp air. Then, once you have your eye in, you will note the long, wavering skeins. Until, remarkably quickly, the sky is almost filled with beating wings and evocative calls. Watching these flocks touch down for their first autumn day in the UK is very special.
WINGS FROM THE NORTH
Many of our feathered winter visitors will have flown vast distances from regions to the north and east – Greenland, the Arctic, Iceland, Scandinavia, Siberia and eastern Europe – to overwinter here, where the weather is milder and food is easier to find. It’s a journey they make every year, before returning in spring to their breeding quarters.
Migrating species include Bewick’s and whooper swans, bramblings, redwings and many species of ducks, geese and wading birds. There are partial migrants, too, species we see year-round, such as robins, starlings and coots, but whose foreign breeding populations overwinter in the UK. And many of our waterbirds – common scoters, red-necked grebes and great northern divers – fly to the coast to spend winter at marine and coastal sites.
Farmland, wetlands, heathland, woodlands and estuaries also attract overwintering birds.
There are dozens of excellent sites around the UK for autumn birdwatching. Knots from Canada can be seen at Blakeney Point in Norfolk; short-eared owls from Scandinavia at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire; and hen harriers at Burton Mere in Cheshire. But for sheer abundance and drama, one of the very best spectacles is the arrival of pink-footed and barnacle geese at Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth in south-west Scotland.
CAERL
