Brushes with Thrushes - Yorkshire welcomes Vikings!

Sun 29th Oct, 2023

By the time you read this, countless squadrons of the most welcome kinds of Viking invaders will be making landfall right along the Yorkshire coastline, and many more will be on their way. Every last one of them will have battled across the waves to get here - leaving Scandinavia as the temperature drops, the nights draw in and food availability decreases. Say hei, or hej, to these intrepid thrush travellers - Redwings and Fieldfares.

A Fieldfare making the most of its first meal since navigating across the North Sea © Mark Pearson

Where better to come than the UK, with our mild temperatures and berry-laden bushes? While easterly and northerly airflows assist and encourage more of them to make the crossing, the majority are making the journey very much on purpose, following the flightlines of their ancestors, going back countless generations.

Many will filter south and west as autumn becomes winter, forming large feeding flocks in the British countryside, but you can see and hear them pretty much anywhere along the Yorkshire coast as they arrive - especially if you look up on those cold, late autumn days. On a big day, many thousands can be witnessed approaching from out over the sea, chattering away in loose, bounding flocks as they celebrate reachind dry land.

A Redwing arriving at Flamborough (they do at least partially live up to their name!) © Mark Pearson

But it's not just Redwings and Fieldfares that make up our incoming thrush quotent every autumn - far from it. If you think there seems to a few more Blackbirds around all of a sudden, or you're surprised to see Song Thrushes on cliff top paths or coastal fields, well that's because they, like their less familiar relatives, are also arriving in their droves from the continent. And there's always the odd Ring Ouzel to pick out, too....

A Ring Ouzel arriving in off the sea at Filey © Mark Pearson

And nor is it by any means just a daytime phenonenon; in fact, a great many of our 'winter' thrushes will arrive under the cover of darkness, invisible to us as they flood into Yorkshire - migrating just as successfully as they would on a clear, sunny day, but using a range of senses and skills to successfully navigate to Yorkshire and beyond.

A continental Song Thrush, grounded on the clifftop in an October storm © Mark Pearson

Indeed, stepping outside at night, especially in favourable conditions (cloudy, relatively still) as October goes on - and well into November - could easily be your best opportunity of experiencing this much-anticipated annual arrival. The NFCs (Nocturnal Flight Calls) of incoming thrushes can create an unforgettable, exhilirating soundscape as they communicate while en route....

A freshly-arrived Blackbird among the rocks on Filey Brigg © Mark Pearson

Listen out for the rasping, downward-inflected 'tssip's of Redwings, the soft, musical 'tssli's of Blackbirds, the sharp, high-pitched 'tick's of Song Thrushes, and the wheezes and 'chuck-uk-uk's of Fieldfares, often remarkably low overhead, while the rest of your street is blissfully unaware of the action unfolding above them - genuinely thrilling birding, and you don't need anything but your ears to enjoy it!