Photo: Herring gulls at the seaside. Click here for more August bird photos. For more information and sound clips of the birds mentioned here, see the RSPB website.
Birdsong is eerily silent at the start of August. Now that the breeding season is over, the birds have no reason to call attention to themselves. Adults also tend to be moulting, a process that takes 12 weeks for thrushes and finches and 16 weeks for tits. During this time some of the energy they would normally use for flying is devoted to replacing their feathers.
Meanwhile newly-fledged young are learning the ropes and trying not to be eaten by predators. Overall only a third of blackbirds and half of tits survive their first winter, and most do not live to see a second one. Though birds can fly as soon as they leave the nest, it takes time to perfect all the techniques, such as landing. In the meantime they are especially vulnerable to predators.
Despite this, some bird sounds can still be heard in August. One example is sparrows, who can occasionally be heard making their cheerful communal cheeps near houses or farms - at least in the first half of the month. Note also the twittering of goldfinches. Early in the month this might still be a male singing to defend a breeding territory, but for the most part during August these birds are communal, tinkling away as they feed on thistle or teasel seeds. Greenfinches can also sometimes be heard trilling in the first week, though they usually no longer do their nasal "squeezh".
The most prominent birdsong in August, however, comes from wood pigeons, whose hoo-HOO-HOO-hoo-hoo call is common for most of the month, maybe tailing off a bit towards its end. (Its ponderous repetition can get a bit irritating after all the varied birdsong we have enjoyed since February.) Collared doves - "hoo-hooo hoo" (with a slight emphasis on the second hoo) - are also sometimes heard. They tend to be found (and seen) on the roofs of houses, while wood pigeons can be heard both in woodland and amongst houses. Less common, but still possible throughout August (though more particularly in the first half), is the throaty "woo" of the stock dove, entirely a woodland bird.
Another common sound this month is a repetitive hweet...hweet...hweet…hweet (recording), which always seem to come from scrub or tree tops in hedgerows. If you hear this, the bird making it will almost certainly be a chiffchaff. The call seems to be at least partly territorial because you can sometimes hear two birds calling in competition. Even without a rival, the call can go on for extended periods. Having said that, chaffinches make a somewhat similar repeated call earlier in the year, which I have once or twice identified in August. Theirs is a bit more regular and insistent (recording), while the chiffchaff one is more erratic because it is making it while moving through the branches feeding.
Some of the bird noises that will keep us company throughout the winter are also starting up as the month progresses. From around the second week (occasionally earlier) robins start to sing their twittering song, though it is rather tentative and short-lived to begin with. The reason for this is that once they have finished breeding both males and females become aggressively territorial: the breeding pair immediately become rivals once more, each singing to carve out an exclusive feeding ground that will keep them alive through the winter. Juveniles are also are trying to establish themselves, again even competing with their parents. (They have speckled brown breasts until mature, possibly because if they had red breasts their parents would try to kill them). In addition robins have an occasional call which sounds like a ratchet turning: supposedly this is an alarm call, but I have observed a robin doing it while calmly eating blackberries.
Right from the start of the month you can occasionally hear blue tits churring and calling to each other as they feed on bushes and trees, a welcome return of this pleasing sound after the gap for the breeding season, though it is very tentative and hushed. Great tits churr in August too, their version remaining constant in tone, while the blue tit one rises at the end. More common is to hear great tits making their characteristic "see-choo-choo" contact call (or variants of this). As with the blue tits it is all very quiet and shy, however.
Occasionally you may also hear both great tits or coal tits bursting into their see-saw mating song, or even more rarely a blue tit male doing its breeding call, a repeated single note. These outbursts, which rarely last for long, are fledgling males practising for the next mating season, which starts in January.
You may also hear the high-pitched squeaks of long-tailed tits as they hop from branch to branch (though you need relatively young ears for this), or the occasional trilling outburst from a wren: they also make clicking noise they make which sounds like two stones being banged together. In the first week of the month you can still hear a yellowhammer singing its mating song.
Other possible sounds include the high pitched "tseep" of a dunnock or the "wit wit wit" call of a nuthatch. Green woodpeckers occasionally utter a loud run of notes similar to their "yaffle" territorial call earlier in the year, but (usually) flat in pitch and lacking the yaffle's "laughing" quality. You may also hear the "chik...chik..." call of a great spotted woodpecker. A very noticeable absence from the soundscape are skylarks, who for the first time since February are not twittering overhead on downland and arable fields.
Once a common summer sight, but getting worryingly rare in recent years, is swallows or house martins swooping over fields or downland to feed. One way to tell them apart is by their calls - the house martins' have a staccato rasping quality, while swallows sound like a child's squeaky bath toy being rapidly squeezed. Swallows also fly very fast and sometimes very close to the ground - maybe only at knee height - while house martins fly higher and have a 'flap flap glide' flight.
Both have white undersides, but swallows have a dark throat and a long forked tail, while house martins have a stubbier one and a white patch at the bottom of their back. House martins are more sociable, always appearing in groups near buildings (where they nest in colonies), and coming to rest in groups on a fence or a telephone wire and then abruptly taking off again.
But by August you also have groups of juvenile swallows (with a shorter tail and a lighter throat patch), while adults may congregate too now they have finished breeding. Perhaps this is just human fancy, but the juveniles seem to behave just like teenagers, chatting, sitting on fences, flying about (sometimes less adeptly than their parents), feeding and generally enjoying life.
Eventually, in late August or early September, you may come across a large flock of swallows sat on a telephone wire or fence, chattering and swooping for insects, or - a particular sign this - resting up and preening their feathers in the afternoon or early evening. When this happens they are getting ready to migrate. They depart at night so one never sees them go, and as recently as the 18th century the renowned naturalist Gilbert White thought they hibernated. Some even reckoned they spent the winter at the bottom of ponds, since it was often by ponds that they were first seen in spring.
Even after they have disappeared from inland locations, you can still see some swallows or house martins along the south coast - probably birds who have spent the summer further north and are now in transit towards their wintering grounds (in South Africa in the case of swallows) or - again with swallows - juveniles who leave later to give them more time to feed up for the journey.
In seaside towns in August, particularly in the second half of the month, one sees juvenile herring gulls - distinguishable by their grey-brown plumage - following a parent (presumably the mother) and making mewing noises in the hope of being fed. But it is time for them to fend for themselves and the parent ignores them. Later, when the adult has finally shaken them off, the young gulls try the same trick on humans, usually with the same result. Slightly older herring gulls also have grey-brown feathers and make a similar noise, though they no longer beg for food. It takes 3-4 years for the birds to develop adult plumage and their full repertoire of piercing calls.
In coastal scrub one may see a juvenile stonechat making "chat...chat" noises - or is it an adult moulting? It is often hard to tell. Later in the month on the South Downs or south coast you may also come across wheatears - identifiable by their dark eye stripe, but usually without their full mating plumage (many are first year adults). These are migrating southwards after breeding further north.
On newly cut arable fields large flocks of rooks or jackdaws may be seen feeding on the stubble - a sight uncomfortably reminiscent of winter.
More August pages:
- Fruits, berries, nuts and trees
- Downland and seaside flowers
- Wayside flowers
- Butterflies and insects
- Weather
© Peter Conway 2006-2023 • All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment