February is short and cold. But in the island UK, it is not as cold as the continent. So, February is also rich in wintering birds, which will (with luck) hang around at least until March before moving on. Here are five beauties that will be available to feast your eyes on, this month.
Stonechat
The cute little Stonechat is a tough guy, which stays within the UK throughout the year. Part of the secret to its survival is that it heads downhill from its upland breeding grounds to spread out over milder lowlands for the winter months. At any time of year, these perky little chats habitually perch on top of tall ‘weeds’, small bushes and hedges, along fence lines etc, looking to the ground for signs of movement (they often feed on hairy caterpillars in the winter). Often if you spot one bird, its partner will be nearby. Males have blacker heads and throats (and backs), contrasting with the white neck sides and orange breast; females are a little paler, browner and streakier.
Black Grouse
Almost throughout the year male Black Grouse will **awake pre-dawn to practise ‘battling’ their rivals in a ritualised dance which may spill over into violence, known as a ‘lek’. Around this time of year, and into spring, it is time for the ‘real thing’, when the rarely seen and unobtrusive (some may even say dowdy, though that is unfair) females attend the lek to take their pick of the males. No one would call the males dowdy, being among the most striking and even exotic-looking of all British birds. They are largely blue-black with flamboyant and extensive white undertail coverts flanked by long curved (‘lyre-shaped’)outer tail feathers. In display, the tail (and undertail coverts) are held up and spread as the bubbling males face their competitors. As the sun rises, the lek will conclude, and the birds will disperse and disappear into surrounding moorland, with scattered trees. So, by far the easiest way to see Black Grouse is to view a well-known lek from a good distance, before sunrise.
Black-tailed Godwit
Of our two European godwit species, the Bar-tailed is much more tied to the coast than the Black-tailed, though both will appear at coastal settings such as estuaries and mudflats. Bar-tailed Godwits are patterned like curlews, with a large white rump and white lower back and no obvious wing-bars. Black-tailed Godwits have small, square white rumps (and black tails!), grey-brown lower backs and very striking (in flight) white longitudinal wing-bars. Most of the Black-tailed Godwits we see in winter are of the slightly smaller Icelandic subspecies, and flocks of more than 1,000 are not uncommon, even far inland at suitable wintering wetlands, or partially flooded grasslands.
Long-tailed Duck
This handsome little ducks is a winter visitor to the UK, almost exclusively found at sea (with a few inland outliers), and most are found around the coasts of the northern half of the country (from Northumberland and up). Unlike other ducks drake Long-taileds have a distinct ‘winter plumage’ which is different from the breeding attire. The winter plumage has a pleasing mix of mostly white (and pale grey) with smatterings of black, a small, pink and black bill, and an absurdly long extension of the central tail feathers to a fine point. Females are less striking, and all have wholly dark wings, (including the underwing) which makes them distinctive as they fly over the waves.
Fieldfare
An estimated three-quarters of a these large, gorgeous thrushes spend the winter in the UK. They are found pretty much everywhere and in these numbers are far from a difficult bird to encounter, if you know where to look. Fieldfares are voracious berry-guzzlers, filling up suitable hedges and berry-laden trees. But they are also birds of the fields, patrolling often in quite large flocks (often mixed with Redwings), looking for signs of inverterbrates (worms and the like) to feed on worms, insect. Nearly the size of larvae and the like. A little smaller than Mistle Thrushes, Fieldfares have pale blue-grey heads and rumps, a dark red-brown mantle, and black tail. The black-spotted breast has an yellow ochre wash.