Waiting for Visitors

Fieldfare, by Pawel, Pixabay

This winter, my binoculars have scanned the hedgerows in vain for some of my favourite winter visitors - fieldfares and redwings. Flocks of these thrushes migrate from Scandinavia to feast on our berry bushes. Locally we haven’t spotted any at all, and we saw just one lonely fieldfare at RSPB Rainham Marshes. Puzzling over this, we realised we also hadn’t seen many berries. Was this why the visitors were absent? When we chatted to a warden at RSPB Rye Marsh, he confirmed the cause of the absence of winter thrushes - a sparse berry harvest, due to last year's wet spring.  

Male Teal by Kev, Pixaby

Another favourite we’ve missed locally is the beautiful teal, the smallest of our ducks. We’ve seen small numbers at reserves, but none on our local lake, Connaught Water in Epping Forest. Have you spotted any this winter?

Chiffchaff by Waldemar Zielinski, Pixabay

Now spring is on the horizon, our native garden birds are becoming more active and pairing up. I’m looking forward to the arrival of the first summer migrants – the lovely little chiffchaffs, who arrive from mid-March. They are named after their distinctive 2-note call, chiff-chaff chiff-chaff (or sometimes 3, chiff-chiff-chaff). When they first come, the trees are still bare, if you hear one in March/April, there’s a good chance of spotting it hopping about piping its repetitive refrain.