The RSPB Bempton column with Ivan Nethercoat
Step into the garden on an October night and there’s a good chance you will hear one of the wonders of the natural world.
You probably won’t see them, but those strange ‘seep’ noises are redwings, a beautiful thrush with a blood red mark below the wing.
They are flying over your garden as they fly from Scandinavia to the UK for the berries on our hedges and relative warmth of a UK winter.
RSPB Bempton Cliffs in October is a place of dramatic change, from cool mornings to warm afternoons; wild seas to calm contemplation – it can all happen here within a few hours.
Now is the time for our new visitors; on an easterly wind hundreds of thousands of birds make their way to the UK for its warmer winters.
Any bit of land that sticks out from the east coast can be a magnet for these transient winter visitors and RSPB Bempton Cliffs is in a prime location, being part of Yorkshire’s ‘great white cape’ that is Flamborough Head.
Many of these birds will fly overhead but others will stop for food after a perilous sea crossing and the trees and hedgerows we have planted here give them a winter larder to refresh tired wings before moving on to your gardens and parks.
Some are regular visitors to our shores – thrushes and goldcrests in particular start to increase in numbers now. You will see more blackbirds in your gardens and parks and overhead the loud crackles of fieldfares can be heard before they fly away from hawthorn berries in a flash of silver.
The smaller redwing is often nearby. Others can be rare visitors to our shores as they find themselves far away from their normal route.
If you’re a gardener or landowner and have berry bearing hedgerows, thankyou for providing important food for wildlife and not cutting them back too early.
Meanwhile, back at RSPB HQ… I have mentioned the RSPB’s ‘behind the scenes’ work to get the Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill fit for purpose in terms of protecting nature from development. We are still working to secure additional amendments for nature.
The Bill will return to the Commons so that MPs can scrutinise any amendments passed by Peers and decide whether to keep them.
At this time, probably early November, we will need your help again to ensure these key safeguards are passed by MPs.
Go to rspb.org.uk/bemptoncliffs to find out more about RSPB Bempton.