Autumn Arrivals

Rhianne Jacklin | Marketing & Communications

Autumn is a bittersweet time at Knepp as many of our breeding birds, including a new generation of white storks depart for the warmer climate of southern Europe and Africa. But autumn also brings wonderful new arrivals, taking winter refuge with us from harsher conditions further north. 

The summer chatter of swallows, swifts, house martins, yellowhammers and chiffchaffs is replaced by the beautiful song of winter thrushes, and redwing and Fieldfare arriving from Scandinavia and Iceland. These delightful songbirds hoover up the remaining berries on the blackthorn, hawthorn and bramble bushes he rewilding project’s Southern Block and probe for earthworms in the open grassland. 

We host some large redwing roosts, the spiky thorns of the scrubland providing them with protection from predators even after the last deciduous leaves have dropped.  

Our sprawling scrub continues to yield surprises. Last year we discovered a roost of over 300 starlings. The flocks’ distinctive chattering has been the soundtrack to autumn evenings at Knepp for centuries. 

Woodcock spend the winter with us, too. These secretive birds hide amongst the bushes during the day and emerge to feed in damp meadows and marshland at dusk. You might be lucky enough to spot them leaving their roosts at sunset, heading out to probe the sodden clay soil with their long bills in search of insects, worms and small snails. 

Bullfinch and hawfinch can be seen in flocks with other finches, perhaps mingling with resident chaffinches. Some of our smallest birds – the lovely firecrest and goldcrest – overwinter with us, too, along with shorter distance migrants like stonechat and waxwing. 

The most committed birder might even catch a ‘deceit’ of lapwings foraging in the mud by moonlight.