Wednesday 19 October 2011

Not just Knot


At this time of year huge numbers of wading birds descend on our shores in Britain to spend the winter months. They come in their thousands, none more so than the Knot. At least 300,000 of these birds are thought to over-winter here and a visit to any of our major estuaries will get you views of this lovely little wader. The photo above shows a small flock of these birds, although there are other species mixed in, can you spot them? (click on the photo to make it bigger)

Knot breed in the Arctic and those that we see in Britain and Ireland mostly breed in Arctic Canada. They arrive in August and then start to make they way back in May. The oldest Knot survived for over 16 years. A useless piece of information is, that they are supposed to be named after King Canute (or Knut to give him his proper name), he of the turning back the tides fame, because of their tendency to be seen on the shoreline. Other birds are to be seen on the shore, so I don`t really know why the Knot was chosen?





Another bird that arrives on our shores is the humble Dunlin. These birds do breed in Britain, some 9,500 pairs, but birds from Iceland, northern Europe and Russia arrive in the autumn to spend the winter in slightly warmer climes. These birds bring the wintering population to over 700,000 individuals.

A visit to any estuary during our colder months will give you fantastic views of large numbers of differing species, a very highly recommended day out. Go at high tide to give the best chance of close views, but when you are looking at flocks of several thousand, you don`t need to be too close to witness this spectacle of nature.

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful birds to see.. I see mine on Ainsdale beach Southport.
    I live just a few miles from the Cheshire town of Knutsford...also named after Canute.

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  2. Thanks Andrew,
    Crikey, that chap got everywhere, didn`t he!? ;)
    J

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  3. Amazing images John especially of the Knot,
    So how many where there??? {:)
    I would have expected a completely accurate number from you. {:)))

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  4. Flocks of thousands. How magnificent!

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  5. They are quite spectacular, when they all get together, always a treat :-)

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  6. Great post John. Thanks for the details, as Michael Caine said 'Knot a lot of people know that!'.
    Can also see Turnstone & Redshank in Knot shot, anymore there?
    Mike

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  7. Hi Roy,
    Thankyou. I think there were 456.6 ;) I am sorry to say I didn`t count them, just marvelled at the spectacle!
    J

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  8. Hi Susan,
    It is quite a sight to see these birds in such a huge flock, well worth a visit to the coast!
    J

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  9. Hi Alan,
    You are not wrong there!
    J

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  10. Hi Mike,
    Thankyou. Well done on spotting the Turnstone, there is a couple of Dunlin in there too, right at the bottom right.
    J

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  11. Hello John. I'm afraid I can't tell which bird is a knot and which is not a knot!
    Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

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  12. New subscriber here and a great post to come in on. It's hard to beat a good flock of waders and Knot are amongst the best. Great photos of them. Adam @ My Life Outside

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  13. Lovelly images, love those bird ;)

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  14. Hi bazza,
    It is not (knot) easy to make out the differences in similar sized/shaped/coloured birds, but I assure you, there are other species in the photo!
    J

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  15. Hi Adam,
    Many thanks for the `Follow` and the kind comment, hopefully you will keep `popping` over! I will check out your site as soon as possible!
    J

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