Shriek of the Week: Brambling
Nasal, piercing
Nasal, piercing, slightly unsettling, the brambling’s call is as harsh as a frozen winter in the boreal forests. Which is exactly what they’re escaping when they come to Britain.
For a time in the mid-1980s, I suspected bramblings to be an elaborate hoax. Supposedly people saw them in their gardens, and photographic evidence appeared in birdwatching magazines - real-life bramblings on real-life lawns, snapped by real-life people from their real-life kitchen windows.
But in my own early real-life they were nowhere to be found. Not for the want of trying - I stared hard at many chaffinches. Very hard, for years, hoping to clock one of their ‘northern cousins’ among them.
To this day I’ve still not seen a brambling in the garden of any house I’ve lived in. Domestically, I am a brambling no-go zone.
But I am now reasonably confident that they exist, and typically November is the month for the season’s first encounter.
Like other northern visitors, bramblings are more common in some winters than others, and patchy in their distribution.
If you don’t have them hopping around merrily while you are doing the washing up (for which I would curse you) then a good place to find one is under a beech tree.
Brambling bodies are beech-ready. In their winterwear of buff oranges, blue-greys and darkened edges they blend right in to the leaf-litter of a beech woodland, where they like to forage discreetly for beech mast.
It’s often only when they are disturbed that you realise there were birds there at all.
Flying up to nearby branches they reveal narrow white rumps as they go, distinguishing them from any accompanying chaffinches.
From the safety of the trees you will likely hear the familiar pink! pink! of those chaffinches, and perhaps among them the decidedly indignant calls of the bramblings.
(With that nasal sound lodged in your ear, it’s easier to locate bramblings in other, beech-free environments. They tend to be vocal as they fly, whether they’re migrating or simply shifting between favoured local spots in the countryside.)
Once the cause for alarm has passed, bramblings usually drop back to the ground and resume their watchful poking about, allowing you the chance to take in all their appealing stripiness and to practice picking them apart from the chaffinches.
For the fully authentic brambling-watching experience, at this point you may want to mime that you are washing up and taking photos through the kitchen window, before smugly sending them off to a birdwatching magazine.
🔎 Find out more about the life of bramblings on the BTO website
Mixes well with: Chaffinch
Other winter visitors to listen out for in December
Field notes
Recent Atlantic storms brought some unprecedented numbers of ocean-going seabirds to the coasts of Britain and Ireland. (I was among many people on the south coast to see their first ever Leach’s Storm Petrel, while getting soaked to the very pants).
Meanwhile all but the last lost summer migrants have now departed, and birdsong is a minimal feature of the short pre-Christmas days.
Still, between the rain some local Song Thrushes have started up again. Dunnock and Starling song is a feature of bright days, and even the odd Treecreeper, Firecrest & Stock Dove have been having at it.
It really won’t be many weeks before the Blackbirds stir again for the turn of the year.
Webcams
As those of you who have joined an Early Bird Club* will know, it’s fun to ‘do your own Springwatch’ and flit between nature-rich livestreams in the company of others.
A selection of the best are now gathered here. I will endeavour to keep this post up to date - if you see anything amiss, or have other livestreams to recommend, please add a comment.
Birdsong as alternative to socks
Treat yourself or a loved one to bird attunement this festive season -
* Gift subscription to Shriek of the Week (£25/ year or £5/month)
* Half-day walkshop with me in Sussex in Spring 2024 (£45)
* Birdsong Essentials, the 10-week course (£170 / £225)
* Gift voucher for Birdsong Academy to spend on any of the above
Until next time
~ Charlie
*Early Bird Club is our monthly live session for paying subscribers. See subscription options here.
Media credits
Brambling recording by Mike Douglas, reproduced with permission - original at xeno-canto https://xeno-canto.org/685093
Brambling image via Wikimedia by Snowmanradio, reproduced under CC BY 2.0
Finch video by Mike King
Chaffinch image by Wild Pixar from Pixabay
Delighted to have had 3 bramblings under the nut feeder in the garden at the weekend (Aberdeenshire). I’m fairly certain they passed through last spring but by the time you’ve blinked all you see are chaffinches.