MIGRATION ON THE COAST.
_The Best Coasts for Observing Migration—Migration of Species in
Present Volume—Order of Appearance of Migratory Birds—In Spring—In
Autumn—Spring Migration of Birds on the Coast—The Earliest Species to
Migrate—Departure of Winter Visitors—Coasting Migrants—Arrival of
Summer Visitors—Duration of Spring Migration—Autumn Migration of Birds
on the Coast—The Earliest Arrivals—Departure of our Summer
Birds—Arrival of Shore Birds—Direction of Flight—Change in this
Direction to East—The Vast Rushes of Birds across the German Ocean—The
Perils of Migration—Birds at Lighthouses and Light Vessels—Netting
Birds—Rare Birds._
In order to make the subject of Bird-life on the Coast complete, it is
necessary for us briefly to sketch the phenomenon of Migration as it may
be studied on the shore. A person could select no better situation for
the observation of this grand avine movement than the coast.
Unfortunately, however, all coasts are not equally favoured in this
respect, and unless a proper selection of locality be made, the observer
in quest of information will meet with nothing but disappointment.
Unquestionably the best portion of the British coast-line for the study
of bird migration is that washed by the German Ocean and the English
Channel. The western districts are everywhere less favourable than the
eastern, due partly to their much more isolated position, and the wider
extent of the frontier seas. Two reaches of the British coast deserve
special mention for the numbers of migrant birds that frequent them.
These are the coasts between the Humber and the Thames, and the seaboard
of Hampshire, Sussex, and Kent. The observer of migration on the coast
will do well to bear in mind the following facts. Many birds do not
absolutely confine their flight to the indentations of the coast, but
fly from one headland to another, so that on the coasts of the
intervening bays but little migration may be witnessed. Headlands appear
everywhere to be exceptionally favourable points for observation.
Rock-bound coasts, again, are not so much frequented by migrants as
those that are low-lying, or present a considerable area of beach;
whilst there is some evidence to suggest that where the shore is
composed of cliffs falling sheer to the water, fjords and river valleys
are exceptionally favoured. During the migration period, both in spring
and autumn, the early hours of morning, or the dusk of evening, will be
found to reward observation best. Due regard should also be paid to the
direction of the wind, and the prevailing state of the weather—a change
in either being often followed by migratory movement.
A very large percentage of the birds described in the present volume are
migratory, although the seasonal movements of many of the species cannot
be remarked, to any great extent, by the wanderer along the coast. Such
thoroughly aquatic species as the Auks, the Petrels, the Divers, and the
Grebes, move south or north, according to season, some distance from the
land; and it is often only by the chance of rough weather driving these
birds near to the land, that we are enabled to learn that their
migrations are in progress, or that certain species have once more
returned to our area for their winter or summer sojourn therein. The
Ducks, Geese, and Swans, are birds of migratory habits, and in certain
localities much of their seasonal movements may be observed from the
shore. Then, again, the Gulls and Terns, although often migrating some
distance from the land, may not unfrequently be seen passing up or down
the coast on passage. This is especially the case with the Black-headed
Gull, and the various species of Terns. These latter birds are often
seen, in spring and autumn, in flocks of varying size, flying north or
south, close inshore, fishing as they go, sometimes remaining a day here
or there, where food chances to be plentiful. The migrations of certain
species of land birds that reside in littoral districts are also
pronounced and regular, and easily remarked along the coast; the arrival
and departure of Martins and Swallows being a specially interesting
feature. But the most remarkable birds of all, so far as concerns
migration, are those to which our second chapter is devoted, viz., the
Plovers and the Sandpipers. Perhaps in this group more than in any
other, the habit of migration is most strongly displayed. The journeys
some of these birds undertake in spring and autumn can only be described
as marvellous. The Sanderling breeds in the North Polar Basin, and in
winter is found in the Malay Archipelago, in the Cape Colony, and in
Patagonia; the Knot has a similar distribution in summer, but in winter
visits such enormously remote localities as Australia, New Zealand, the
Cape Colony, and Brazil! Well may these little birds excite exceptional
feelings of interest in the observer who watches them, each recurring
season, running blithely over the sands and the mud-flats, when he
remembers the distances they travel.
But migration on the coast is by no means confined to the birds that
habitually reside upon it. All the migratory species that dwell in
inland districts must pass the coast on their annual journeys in spring
and autumn. At these seasons, in suitable districts (of which we have
already indicated the most favourable for observation), birds may be
watched day after day, and week after week, entering our area to render
summer glad with their cheerful presence, passing along our shores to
yet more distant destinations, or departing in autumn for warmer lands
and sunnier skies. Many of these birds, of course, enter our islands
during the night, and thus escape observation; many others, it may be,
pass to inland haunts by day, but without alighting upon the coast at
all, flying at altitudes which render their identification, or even
detection, impossible; but then there are many more, and especially in
autumn, when the flight is generally far more leisurely than in spring,
which crowd upon the coasts, or pass along them, within easy view of the
most casual scrutiny. It may here, perhaps, be advisable to allude to
the general order in which migrants usually appear upon the coast. Of
course, it is utterly impossible, within the narrow limits of the
present chapter, to enter very minutely into the many and intricate
phenomena connected with the migration of birds. The reader anxious for
further and more detailed information on this very interesting subject,
may be referred to the present writer’s works upon Migration, and to
that on the birds of Heligoland, by Herr Gätke.[8] Now, as regards the
actual order of appearance. In spring, the observer will almost
invariably find that the adult males are in the van; the females are the
next to arrive, whilst the young of the preceding summer, and the more
or less weakly individuals, bring up the rear. Many of these young and
sickly birds pass the summer far south of the usual breeding-grounds; so
that it is by no means an uncommon thing to find individuals of certain
Arctic-nesting species, frequenting the British coasts throughout that
season. The presence in our area of these northern birds during summer,
has not unnaturally led to the supposition that they actually breed
there. In autumn the order of migration is, to some extent, reversed. At
that season a few old birds of either sex are the first to arrive,
sometimes preceding, and always invariably accompanying, the flights of
young birds, which are then moving south. Many of these young birds
start off from their birth-place almost as soon as their wings are
strong enough to bear them, and individuals of certain Arctic species
have been met with on our coasts with particles of the down of their
nestling plumage still adhering to their feathers. The adult males come
south next; the females following; and last of all come the cripples and
the weakly—the individuals that have been retarded in their flight by
accidents of various kinds, such as the loss of wing feathers, by
deformities, or by disease. The observer on the coast will also remark
considerable diversity in the social or gregarious tendencies of these
migrants. Some migrate gregariously in numbers that are as uncountable
as the pebbles on the shore; others journey in family parties, in small
flocks, or even singly. The migration of each species is usually first
remarked by the appearance of an odd bird or two; then the numbers
increase, perhaps with two or more great rushes when the flight of that
particular species becomes exceptionally marked, the migration then
gradually falling off almost, if not quite, as imperceptibly as it
commenced.
We now propose briefly to sketch a few of the more salient features of
migration on the coast, during spring and autumn. If the weather be
favourable, the spring migration of some birds commences in February.
The species moving at that early date are birds that we have in the
British Isles all the year round, such as Thrushes, Hedge Sparrows,
Titmice, Wrens, Finches, Buntings, Jays, Rooks, and Carrion Crows. The
difficulty in distinguishing migrating individuals of these species from
others that are sedentary, is sufficiently great to render the movement
unseen, except, perhaps, to experts, or to the keepers of light vessels
off the coast. The observations of these men, however, prove that these
birds actually pass from our islands to the Continent from that date
onwards. These birds all migrate nearly due east. The next birds to
leave their winter quarters in Britain are those whose line of migration
extends north-east, and amongst these we must include such familiar
species as Blackbirds, Robins, Goldcrests, Greenfinches, Chaffinches,
Starlings, Hooded Crows, Jackdaws, Ring Doves, and Lapwings. For quite a
couple of months these species continue to leave us for Continental
breeding-grounds, and their presence on the coast, during early spring,
is an unfailing sign of their departure. Then comes the departure of
such birds that are found only in winter in the British
Islands—Redwings, Fieldfares, Bramblings, Siskins, Snow Buntings, and so
on. The departure of these birds begins in February, or early March, and
lasts until the beginning of May. About the same time, also, many coast
birds pass from our islands, such as Golden Plovers, Lapwings, Curlews,
Redshanks, Woodcocks, and Snipes—that is to say, the migratory
individuals of these species that only visit us during winter. Ducks and
Geese also begin to move north, and many indications of their passage
may be seen by the careful observer of birds along the shore. March,
April, and May, the two former months especially, is the period of their
departure. At this season, also, many individuals of these species pass
along our coast districts from more southern countries, on their way to
northern haunts. These birds are known as coasting migrants. The most
typical of these coasting migrants, and those that may be readily
distinguished, are such species as Whimbrels, Ringed Plovers,
Sanderlings, Stints, Skuas, and Curlew Sandpipers. Whimbrels are very
regular in their appearance, arriving at the end of April, and the
migration continuing through May.
Early in March, on our southern coasts, the purely summer visitors begin
to be seen, Woodcocks and Pied Wagtails, amongst others, making their
appearance. Towards the end of March, or very early in April, the first
of the purely southern species reach us. Two of the most familiar are
the Wheatear and the Chiffchaff; Ring Ouzels, Willow Wrens, and Yellow
Wagtails follow them closely. As April passes on, the numbers of our
summer migrants increase; Whinchats, Redstarts, Wrynecks, Cuckoos,
Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Swallows, Martins, and so on, appearing in
force. Towards the end of the month, and in May, Terns, various
Sandpipers, Turtle Doves, and Quails, may all be found upon the coasts
on their spring migration. Among the last to appear are such species as
Lesser Whitethroats, Spotted Fly Catchers, Garden Warblers, and
Red-backed Shrikes. This spring migration of birds along the British
coasts lasts for a period of quite four months—from February to the end
of May, or the first week in June. Some birds may be observed on passage
almost throughout this period; others not more than half this
time—especially the Warblers, Wagtails, and Pipits—others, yet again,
complete their migration in a month or less, amongst these being the
Red-backed Shrike and the Greenshank. For the spring migration of such
species that visit the British Islands to breed, the southern coasts, of
course, are the best points of observation—none of these birds breed
south of their point of entrance to our area, as they all reach us from
winter quarters in more southerly latitudes than ours.
The spring migration of birds over the British Islands has scarcely
ceased, before the first signs of the autumn flight begin to be apparent
along the coast. Of course, this early autumn migration is first
noticeable upon our northern and eastern coast-lines. Certainly, by the
middle of July, a few of the Arctic wading birds may be noticed on the
shore, or flying south along the coast. Towards the end of the month,
and early in August, the number of these returning migrants increases.
Young Knots and Gray Plovers, with odd adult birds, appear upon the
sands and mudflats. Almost at the same time we may notice the Common
Sandpiper back again upon the shore, followed by Lapwings, Ringed
Plovers, Greenshanks, and Curlews. Then various small birds begin to
drift along the coast, on their passage south—Swifts, Wheatears, Willow
Wrens, and Whinchats. Throughout August the migration of birds gets
stronger and stronger, and towards the end of the month, and early in
September, our own summer migrants begin to leave the country. Warblers
and Swallows, Wheatears, Flycatchers, Thrushes, Wagtails, and Pipits,
may be met with from time to time, along the coast, all bent upon early
departure. The wide reaches of mud and sand, often so dull and
uninteresting, and devoid of bird-life, in summer, are rapidly filling
with a new population, Plovers and Sandpipers appearing upon them from
day to day in ever-increasing numbers, whilst the seas near by are
becoming sprinkled with the earliest hosts of Ducks and Geese. The
Terns, once more, are on the move, this time flying south to warmer
seas. With the advent of October, most of our summer birds have gone, a
few belated Swallows and Wheatears, a few venturesome Chiffchaffs and
Wagtails, being all that remain. All the autumn through, however,
coasting migrants of many species—the same that passed north in
spring—continue flying south. Most of this migration is from the north
and north-east.
Early in October, however, the direction of this great migrant tide
falls nearly to due east, and from this time onwards, the English shores
of the German Ocean, say from Yorkshire to the estuary of the Thames,
become by far the most interesting of all our coast-line to the student
of Migration. Normally the number of species is not very extensive, but
the number of individual birds can only be described as stupendous. The
vast feathery tides of migrants that break in countless waves upon our
eastern coasts in autumn, are composed of birds that breed in
continental Europe and Western Asia, and return to the British
Islands—the centre of their dispersal—to winter. The mighty inrush of
birds must be seen to be properly appreciated. For days, for weeks, the
wild North Sea is swept by these migrating myriads. By day, by night,
the feathered hosts pour in; the bulk of the migrants being composed of
such birds as Starlings, Larks, Goldcrests, Thrushes, Finches, Rooks,
and Crows. Some idea of their numbers may be gained from the fact that
these waves of birds often strike our coast-line simultaneously, north
to south, for hundreds of miles. Waves of Goldcrests have extended from
the Faröes to the English Channel; Larks for weeks have poured in, in
successive waves, by day and night. The Hooded Crow is another species
that crosses the North Sea in myriads every autumn. This bird prefers to
migrate by day, and appears to do the journey across in an astonishing
short time. Starlings, again, often migrate across in a succession of
clouds, which defy all attempts to estimate their numbers. This
migration of birds, say, on the coasts of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, is
one of the most fascinating sights the shore can yield. To be out by
dawn on the crisp October mornings, and to watch the vast inrush of
birds to the English coast for hour after hour, is a treat no lover of
birds can fail to appreciate. Here and there the sea-banks and the rough
saltings are strewn with birds skulking and resting amongst the grass,
or in the hedges, that have made the passage of the North Sea during the
previous night, and are soon about to pass inland. Tired Woodcocks rise
reluctantly from the dry grass in the hedge bottoms; Hooded Crows, in
companies, are hungrily feeding on the mud-flats; Goldcrests, perhaps,
are swarming on the thorn-bushes. Overhead, Sky Larks are arriving in
countless numbers from over the sea, often breaking out into gladsome
song as soon as the welcome land is reached; whilst Rooks, Ring Doves,
Jackdaws, and Finches of various species, arrive from time to time. This
state of things continues through October, and well into November, the
steady influx of birds from time to time culminating in an overwhelming
rush. It should also be remarked that in some years birds are more
numerous than others, and the duration of the migration of any
particular species varies a good deal, sometimes lasting but a few
weeks, sometimes as many months. The autumn migration of birds lasts for
about five months, beginning in July, and continuing to November. Of the
two seasons of passage, perhaps the autumn movement will prove the most
interesting to the ordinary observer of bird-life on the coast. Birds
are much more numerous in autumn, and travel slower. The movements of
birds during winter along the coast, are also intensely interesting, but
this scarcely comes within the scope of the present chapter.
We cannot well conclude this brief account of Bird Migration on the
coast without some allusion to those perils which beset the birds on
their journeys, and which arise principally from light-houses and
light-vessels. Vast numbers of birds kill themselves every spring and
autumn by striking against these gleaming beacons of the coast. From
this great mortality, however, naturalists have learnt much concerning
the annual movements of birds; for the records kept by our light men,
extending, as they do, over a number of years, of these fatalities and
periodical visits of migrants, are most instructive and suggestive. Some
of the scenes witnessed at these light-houses and vessels, during the
seasons of migration—especially in autumn—are intensely interesting.
These beacons are most fatal during cloudy weather; few birds strike on
clear and cloudless nights. Odd birds are continually striking against
the lanterns. Now and then, however, there come nights when birds swarm
like bees round the lamps, and kill themselves in thousands by striking
against the glass, sometimes with such force as to shatter it to
fragments. The illustration at the head of the present chapter also
shows another peril of migration. Many nets are placed on the shores of
the Wash, and great numbers of birds are, or used to be, caught during
the autumn months. Information, however, has recently reached me that
the birds are learning, by many years’ experience, to avoid these
snares, flying over instead of through them, and that nothing like the
numbers are caught nowadays. Fifteen years ago thousands of birds must
have been taken in these nets.
Another peril of migration is the danger of losing the way. Many young
and inexperienced birds go astray each autumn, and the British list
contains the names of numbers of rare species that have visited us on
abnormal flights. Many of these birds have been captured on the coast.
From Eastern Europe, from Siberia, from Africa, and even from America,
these wanderers have come. Each period of migration, the observer, on
the coast, may be agreeably surprised to meet with one of these lost and
wandering individuals; and it is this glorious uncertainty that adds
considerably to the pleasure of a ramble along the shore in spring and
autumn.
Footnotes
[1]_Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory_, p. 151, _et seq._
[2]_Dictionary of Birds_, p. 712.
[3]_Dictionary of Birds_, p. 774.
[4]_Dictionary of Birds_, p. 399.
[5]Ray, _English Words_, p. 74.
[6]_Ibis_, 1870, p. 301.
[7]_Icebound on Kolguev_, p. 43.
[8]_The Migration of Birds_; _The Migration of British Birds_;
_Heligoland an Ornithological Observatory_.
PLYMOUTH:
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON,
PRINTERS.
Transcriber’s Notes
--Corrected palpable typos.