Nosterfield Bird and Natural History Review November 2025

by Andrew (Andy) M Hanby

A grey November morning based on original image by David Saunders

November is often, as the image above reflects, grey, damp and can be bitterly cold.  It is a time when old batteries go flat, and the engine won’t start.  Equally, joints are stiff and the beckonings of a warm house often wins the argument against that of the frigid outdoors. Luckily, for some, the birdwatching batteries didn’t fail this month and there were some excellent rewards.

On Day One, there was an impressive count of 152 Goldfinch.  Also noted were three Cetti’s Warbler, which contributed to a total of 17 bird days for this species during the month.  You might rightly think ‘so what’, but only five years ago these were very scarce in the area and there were literally no records in November 2020.  The expansion of the Cetti’s Warbler range is a good example of the biological effects of global warming - in the early 1980s it could only be reliably found in East Kent.

Another exemplar of changing times, on 1st eight Greenfinch were reported, another species on the rise.  In my early days of birding, Greenfinch was the common finch, which some folk now might find hard to believe.  They increased rapidly in the 1990s, only to decline rapidly, probably due to Trichomonosis, but now we are seeing signs of a recovery.

On 3rd a Jack Snipe was found and three Whoopers Swans were present.  The latter species was recorded on seven days during the month, with a peak of six moving south and nine north on 16th.

The reward for persistence was presented on 6th, when one diligent observer, trawling through the large numbers of Golden Plover on the Flasks Lake ‘beach’, demonstrated the truism ‘the harder you work, the luckier you get’.  In amongst the gold was a superb Dotterel.  I suspect this wintering bird is still around, but the pool of Golden Plover is large and circulates over to the River Swale and also on to the tops - so persistence would be needed to find it again.

Dotterel                                                             Tim Jones

A single Brambling was located on 9th and the first of three different Blackcap during the month.  Since we normally get zero Blackcaps in November, this is very good indeed.

The first of several Chiffchaff sightings occurred on 10th and Curlew numbers reached 225.  On the subject of numbers, more impressive was a count of 2040 Golden Plover, nearly three times last November’s peak and the highest count for any month in the last five years

The 13th saw Pintail and our highest-ever November count of Meadow Pipits – 60.  However, ‘saw’ was trumped by ‘heard’.  Sound recording and identification systems have been running near the plant nursery and also the reed bed for the best part of a year now and monitored by a diligent volunteer, for which great thanks are due.  On 13th a large series of interesting calls was detected.  Often, we get spurious identifications, but this time there was no doubt – a Yellow-browed Warbler!

On 14th/15th a Ringed Plover was present, our first November record since a single in 2022.  Also on the latter date were 208 Pink-footed Geese and a Barn Owl.  Last November I wouldn’t have mentioned the latter species, but worryingly this November there were only two sightings of single birds, whereas last year there were 11 bird days and up to three on any one day.

Barn Owl                                 Steven Farrington

A visit to the South Henge on the afternoon of 19th showed little reward in terms of what was present, but by way of compensation, in the region of 20,000 Starling headed south, most probably to roost at Ripon City Wetlands.

It is always a good day when a Woodcock is seen, so one flying into Camp Wood on 22nd was a great bonus and became even more so when it was found sitting amongst the vegetation by a tech- enabled birder using a thermal imager.  It clearly was undisturbed by its fans, as it was still there a week later.

Woodcock                                                        Mike Smithson

The last day of the month was excellent, a Knot on the Flasks ‘beach’ was a good find, but two Glossy Ibis over there, U-turning over Well bend and flying back south, were even better!  These two were possibly the same duo as seen at St Aidan’s/New Swillington Ings later.

Glossy Ibis                                                    Nathan Beer