November is a month which straddles the excitement of autumn migration and the less dramatic action of the start of winter. It is a great month for seeing these five charismatic birds. How many can you bump into this November?
Shag
Famously, contrary to most birders’ expectations, there are about twice as many Shags nesting in the UK (c18,000 pairs) as Cormorants (c9,000 pairs). But they are largely coastal birds, so not so often seen by most of us as their larger cousins. And also, it is coming on winter, so it is less a question of the breeding pairs as the 110,000 Shags spread around our coasts. This is not an even spread, though with more found off Scottish coasts, closer to where the birds nest. Shags are much smaller than Cormorants with correspondingly much finer bill. One tip for identifying them at sea is the little leap clear of the water they do on diving. However, sometimes Cormorants do the same, so don’t rely on this entirely
Hooded Crow
The Hooded Crow is a bird which is very closely related to the Carrion Crow. In fact Hooded and Carrion Crows may be subspecies, or may even represent ‘stable colour-morphs’. It is all very confusing. The distribution of Hooded Crow is also a tad anomalous. Over most of Europe, east in Russia as far as the area north of the Indian subcontinent, Hooded Crows are found. In Western Europe, including most of Germany, France, the Low Countries, and Iberia all black Carrion Crows are found. The exception is Great Britain west of the Great Glen Fault (i.e. north-western Scotland) and Ireland. Further east than the range of the main Eurasian bulk of Hooded Crows, the Carrion Crows are also all black. To continue, there is also the confusion of a hybrid zone around Inverness (at the northern end of the Great Glen)… November often sees wandering Hoodies, presumably from the eastern continent turning up outside their normal range in the UK. So keep an eye out for black-and-grey crows.
Wigeon
About 200 pairs of Wigeon nest in the UK. But come the winter there are 450,000 of these lovely ducks in the country. Although they will feed in water, they are also great grazers on land. The whistled ‘weeeooo’ of the drakes is one of the great sounds of a British wetland winter. These drakes are beautiful ducks, with orange heads and a creamy forehead, a dainty blueish bill, pink breast, black tail end, grey flanks and back and a large area of white in the upper forewing.
Great Grey Shrike
The Great Grey Shrike is a large, handsome, long-tailed shrike from northern climes which visits the UK in very small numbers in later autumn, with fewer than 100 individuals lingering to winter. As with all shrikes, they are great birds to watch, usually seen perched high surveying the land below for their prey of small mammals, small birds or large invertebrates (though these are in short supply in a British winter). They could turn up anywhere, but like areas of rough grassland with scattered bushes and trees.
Grey Phalarope
This tiny arctic-breeding wader is mad enough to winter out at sea, swimming around looking for morsels on the surface. They are even said to appear in flocks near groups of feeding whales! We usually see individuals which have been blown towards the coast (or even inland on fresh waterbodies) in autumn’s storms, when they can be incredibly approachable, having little fear of people.