Nightingales in November (29 page)

Having fed well on the sugar-rich aquatic plants along the Russian Federation's northern coast, the Bewick's Swans will leave the sanctuary of the White Sea around the middle of May to fly north-east into the incredibly remote Nenets Autonomous Okrug (or Region). Another of Russia's federal subjects, despite this vast region being rich in oil and gas, its remote location means these resources are exploited by a population of little more than 40,000, around half of which reside in the provincial capital of Naryan-Mar. Playing host in the summer to a large proportion of the entire Bewick's Swan breeding population from the European flyway, this region is mostly composed of barren Arctic tundra, with the and adjacent to the Barents Sea being the main area favoured by the swans. As the Bewick's swans finally reach their destination, their arrival will mean that the breeding season can at last swing into action.

By mid-May, most Waxwings should have arrived at their breeding grounds in the taiga forests. Breeding in such a remote location has resulted in few studies of Waxwings in the field, so most of the behavioural observations have come from captive birds. It's presumed that those males already in established pairs will have already initiated courtship prior to their arrival at the breeding sites in order to hit the ground running. The courtship behaviour could never be described as extravagant, and is believed to consist of little more than the male forming a hump posture with his body and rump feathers ruffled, while depressing his tail, raising his crest and hopping around in front of his mate. A responsive female will
then also ruffle her feathers and quiver her wings in return before allowing him to pass her a food item. This relationship-bonding behaviour is believed to continue right the way through nest building to the point when egg laying begins, and has certainly been observed taking place in northern Scandinavia as late as the middle of June.

For those birds not already paired up, it's assumed that the largely sociable lifestyle of the Waxwing means that males and females should find mates with relative ease, rendering the prolonged and noisy courtship of many other bird species redundant. This is a smart move in a location such as the taiga, where the breeding season will always be far more truncated than at temperate latitudes like Britain. Certainly in the closely related, and more intensively studied, Cedar Waxwing from North America, it has been revealed that females select partners according to the number and state of the red waxy tips on their secondary feathers, which ringers now know to be an indicator of age and experience. Not all the Waxwings travelling north will breed, of course, and nomadic flocks comprising a mix of first-year and unpaired birds, can also be seen on the breeding grounds. These inexperienced and unlucky birds will use their time to learn both the lie of the land, and the tricks which should enable them to have more success on their return the following year.

Back in Britain, the speckled Robin juveniles that managed to negotiate their first traumatic week out of the nest will still need help finding enough food for another fortnight before they can consider themselves truly independent of their parents. With spring now well and truly under way, food should certainly be far easier to find, as the youngsters learn to take advantage of the exponential increase in invertebrates that the longer and warmer days will bring.
When foraging, the Robin's favoured technique is to take food from the ground while searching through the soil and leaf litter, but they will also use any lower branches of trees or bushes as observation perches, before flying down when any movement from a tasty morsel is detected. Their search image will encompass a wide and varied diet of caterpillars, beetles, flies, ants, spiders, centipedes, earthworms, slugs and snails, all of which will be bolstered by seeds and fruit as invertebrate abundance declines later in the year. As the chicks steadily become more independent, their mother should by now already be focused on clutch number two, and the completion of her second rest will see her wasting no time in proceeding to lay her second batch.

Those Lapwing chicks managing to avoid the jaws of a Stoat, the talons of a Buzzard or the beak of a Carrion Crow will see their growth quickly accelerate as they approach the grand old age of a couple of weeks. Upon hatching, their wings were little more than articulated stumps, but flight feathers will now be emerging through the down as the young go about their feeding business under the watchful eyes of their parents. Lapwing young hatch with relatively large eyes and a well-developed head, bill and legs, meaning they are well equipped to both spot and quickly dispatch a whole variety of beetles, fly larvae, earthworms, caterpillars and spiders. However, it won't be until early June that they will be ready to fledge, and a further week after that until they would be able to stand any chance of survival without their parents' constant support.

Despite flying well just two weeks after leaving their nesthole, the Tawny Owl youngsters, unlike the more
precocious Lapwing chicks, will still be entirely dependent on their parents for all their dietary needs right the way though to at least midsummer. How many chicks successfully fledge will depend on a variety of factors: the quality of the territory, their parents' level of experience and perhaps most importantly whether it happens to be a good or bad vole year. An extended study in Scotland found that in years with plenty of prey abundance an average Tawny Owl nest would fledge 2.6 young, in contrast to only 0.2 young per nest in years when voles were thin on the ground. For those Tawny Owl pairs nesting in urban environments, and more heavily reliant on bird prey, there is thought to be less of a cyclical element to the number of young successfully fledging each year, as few bird species exhibit such pronounced fluctuations in their population levels when compared to small mammals. Irrespective of how many chicks successfully fledge, those young that have already beaten the odds by surviving well into May will at this stage be relentlessly hectoring their parents for food, as mum and dad work hard to ensure their young are sufficiently well fed.

By the time the Peregrine chicks are around three weeks old, they will rarely be brooded by their mother unless the weather suddenly takes a severe turn for the worse. They will also have grown considerably in the short space of time since hatching, and even at this relatively early stage, the larger female chicks can often be differentiated from the smaller, lighter males. Their contour feathers (the outermost feathers providing the colour and shape of any bird), including those belonging to the wings and tail, will also be growing rapidly and should by now be visible as they emerge from the chicks' second coat of down. Starting off looking just like light-blue pins, as the feathers emerge from the sheaths they will uncurl and straighten, with the nestlings' heads often
showing the characteristic juvenile markings quite early in thier development.

When not sleeping, the chicks will be far more active, with wing-flapping, stretching and preening all part of their daily routine as they begin preparations for life away from the ledge. At around four weeks old, the chicks will also have found their voice, and can be heard either alarm calling with their parents, or making a racket particularly when food arrives. By the time the youngsters reach a month old the female should be back actively hunting again in an attempt to keep up with their insatiable demands, and the arrival of either adult is often the cue for pandemonium to break out as the ravenous nestlings crowd around in an attempt to grab any prey brought in. Whichever chick is successful in snatching the spoils will then often use its wings to ‘mantle' or hood the item, primeval behaviour that has evolved to enable the youngster to eat without interruption. Sometimes a tug-of-war over a prey item can ensue, but once possession has been decided, the victorious nestling is usually left to eat its ill-gotten gains in peace. The number of feeds can vary between around six to eight a day during this demanding period, with food brought in any time from before dawn to after dusk. During this time of plenty, the male may also begin to cache food whenever there is a surplus, as he prepares for the leaner times that will surely lie ahead.