Rippingale nature columnist talks about migrants arriving in autumn from America

Autumn 2023 will be remembered by the arrival of numerous American waders; or shorebirds as they are called in the USA, writes our Rippingale nature columnist Ian Misselbrook.

Some of these migrants were close enough to our area to see. RSPB Frampton Marsh, near Boston, hosted no less than five species including the lesser yellowlegs which stayed on the reserve for many months. To date autumn 2024 is perhaps a more usual season for migrant arrivals hosting species from the north and east as well as providing exciting sea-watching on the east coast.

In our immediate area it enabled us to catch up with species passing through that do not breed in our area. Admittedly for the first half of September I was on holiday on the Greek island of Lesvos; a mecca for bird migration including a host of species that we don’t normally see in the UK.

However, before we left, I did catch up with a wheatear on a field of stubble very close to my home. Wheatears nest on moors and some heaths. The closest nesting birds to our region are probably in the peak district to the north-west or a few pairs on the Breckland heaths near Thetford. In autumn they migrate south passing though our area on their way to Sub Saharan Africa.

I got back in time to find other passerine migrants including another member of the chat family; the whinchat. This dainty little bird has declined hugely in the UK. It is another denizen of heath and moorland, formerly found in Crowle waste in north-west Lincolnshire but now difficult to find even in its former strongholds of Scotland and Wales. The birds passing through our area probably bred in northern Europe.

The results from the Big Butterfly Count and other surveys organized by Butterfly Conservation, sadly confirm what we all suspected. 2024 was the worst year in the survey’s 14 year history with most participants seeing only very small numbers of fewer species. On average only seven butterflies were spotted during the 15 minute survey compared to 12 the year before. The decline has now been classified as a butterfly emergency and although it is largely attributed to the cold wet spring, the long term trend is also one of decline.

It is not too late to look for butterfliesin October. Given a bit of sunshine speckled wood, comma, red admiral and holly blues could all be on the wing. Some dragonflies will also be hunting around ponds and streams as well as woodland glades. I have seen both common darter and migrant hawker around my garden ponds just a few days ago.