Winter
Winter Goldfinches are attracted to gardens in winter
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ou might expect winter to be the deadest time of year for birdwatching, but in Britain at least, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of our most memorable bird spectacles take place in winter. That’s because, however much we moan about our weather, we actually enjoy far warmer winters than might be expected so far north, thanks to the influence of the Gulf Stream. That makes Britain extremely attractive to all those birds that breed even further north, with wildfowl and waders in particular heading here in large numbers to spend the winter on our ice-free coasts. The East Anglian coast – from Snettisham on The Wash right round to the estuaries of Suffolk and Essex – is particularly good for both, and Pink-footed Geese are among the highlights. Pinkish-grey, with dark heads and necks and pink legs and 74.
© Mike Weedon
feet, of course, they’re medium-sized geese, and form large, noisy flocks, flying in V-shaped skeins. While they roost on coastal marshes and pools, they spend the day feeding on agricultural land, often some way inland, with a particular liking for sugar beet fields (although other crops are also used). They can be very nervous birds, though, so need large, open fields from which they can see threats approaching a long way off, which means that you’ll need to view them from a distance, preferably from cover. Alternatively, you could visit one of their roosting sites, such as Snettisham RSPB, or Holkham Nature Reserve, and watch them flying in and out of the roost. Get there a good hour ahead of dawn or dusk for best results, and try to avoid periods with a full or nearly full moon, when the geese will sometimes stay inland feeding by its light all night.
Snettisham is also a good place to see some of the smaller waders that spend their winters in these islands. These can include Oystercatchers, Knots, Redshanks, Golden Plovers, Grey Plovers, Lapwings and Dunlin. The latter form huge flocks which, after being displaced from their mudflat roosts by the incoming tide, swirl and swarm like insects or shoals of fish, thousands of birds moving as if with one thought. Low tide is the time to avoid – you’ll find yourself viewing the birds at very long distances, over miles of mudflats. In January, when high tide more or less coincides with dawn, you can be lucky enough to see both incoming skeins of Pink-footed Geese, and huge flocks of small waders including Dunlin and Knots, on their way to settle on the small pools just inland. Winter is an excellent time to look out for birds of prey, which have to hunt intensively to find enough food during