February 2026

The frozen chill of Winter presents us in Britain with a wonderful opportunity to see birds that we cannot normally see here. Most of them come to our warmer land from the even colder lands of Iceland, Arctic Scandinavia and Siberia. For example, on a recent visit to Folkestone beach, I counted about 900 dark bellied brent geese (Branta bernicla) flying up the English Channel. These small geese, not much larger than a mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), breed during the long warm summer days of northern Siberia but cannot survive there during the dark freezing days of winter. I have also seen and heard many redwings (Turdus iliacus), which are a type of thrush that visit our islands in their thousands every year. There is another Scandinavian thrush that you may see called the fieldfare (Turdus pilaris), which is a bit larger and has a slate grey head. Another exiting bird that arrives in some winters is the waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus). They feed in flocks on different types of berries. It is a very good winter for berries currently, e.g. holly (Ilex aquifolium), hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and Cotoneaster spp., so the birds should be able to survive well this year.

The dawn of a new year, following the winter solstice on 21st December, brings new behaviour in the bird world. Many birds, such as male blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) taking control of nest-boxes and wood pigeons (Columba palumbus) repairing nests, are starting to court females already. I have also heard male song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) singing loudly to defend their territory and attract females. However, the recent cold spell must have challenged them greatly. Birds tend to moult in the late summer and early autumn, so they should have a good new plumage of warm and colourful feathers. They also have a wonderful arrangement of blood circulation to keep their tiny legs and feet warm. The warm blood from their heart flows down their legs via their artery into their feet against the colder blood passively moving up their legs in the vein back to their warm body. The legs of a bird are covered with hard scales, just like those of a reptile. Indeed, some taxonomists still regard birds as reptiles, referring to them as little dinosaurs that never went extinct. There is some truth in that, because early birds were evolving from dinosaurs at the time, 66 million years ago, when the Chicxulub impactor, an asteroid, apparently eliminated the “non-avian” dinosaurs. It was apparently not a meteorite (a meteorite is an object that survives atmospheric entry and lands on the ground). It was apparently estimated to have been about 10 to 15 kilometres (6 to 9 miles) in diameter, impacting in what is now Mexico. The birds were able to survive because they were endothermic (warm blooded) and able to fly away from unhealthy environments. Tortoises and other extant reptiles, which are exothermic (cold blooded) also survived by burying themselves (hibernation). These animals still do this these days during the coldness of winter, and if the daytime temperature gets too hot when it is called aestivation.