Going Loco for Nightingales and Wood Warblers

Wood Warbler

 I’m having a really enjoyable spring just concentrating on local birding. I’m not missing twitching at all but that’s not to say I wouldn’t jump in the car at a moment’s notice for a most wanted mega! With a UK bird list now well into the four hundreds opportunities for new additions are becoming few and far between. There have been two quite rare birds that I would have been previously tempted by, a Broad-billed Sandpiper  and an Alpine Accentor, but the motivation to twitch birds  I’ve seen well before just does not appeal at the mo.

 

Spring is my favourite season and I’m quite sure there is some, possibly relativistic, effect on how long it lasts as Winter always seems to be at least twice as long as spring. I can’t believe we are into May already.

 

I set myself the aim of really getting to grips with the wonderful Wyre Forest this spring. I tend to stick with the familiar and  comfortable and walk the same paths when I visit. This Spring I set myself the target of making multiple visits and really exploring the habitat in other parts of the forest. This has really paid off in terms of my mental well-being and the Wyre Forest has rapidly become my go to happy place. This sunny Tuesday I visited again and spent a lovely 7 hours in the forest. 

 

Before I went there I popped in to see our local Nightingales. They are quite hard to see at our local site being much more often heard only. They tend to lurk in the dense understory, their favourite habitat. This means that they are much less showy than some other sites but I’m not complaining, not too many birders have Nightingales just a walk from home.

 

I arrived at the Nightingale spot just after dawn with a glorious dawn chorus in full swing. I soon heard the truly unmistakable song of a male Nightingale from deep withing the brambles. In the hour I was there I found at least 3 active territories and got the usual obscured, often rear end, views of the birds. I have reconciled myself to the fact that this is not a photography site. In fact over 4 years I’ve got just this one decent photo shown below. It’s always a relief when you hear their song for the first time in the spring as they are in severe decline in the UK. The reasons are complex and not fully understood but our obsession with tidying up mother nature is undoubtably reducing the accommodation they seek. They are well camouflaged mainly chestnut brown birds so it can sometimes sound as though they are just a few feet away but you still can’t see them!

Nightingale

It was then off to the forest where I parked at Hawkbatch and slowly walked down the hill into the forest towards the Dipper stream. My main target bird was the Wood Warbler, my favourite migratory leaf warbler. I walked slowly down the gravel path stopping numerous times to check the almost continuous bird song for something unusual. The forest at this time of year is at its glorious best with carpets of dazzling Bluebells complemented  by swathes of pure white wood anemones and the last few primroses in bloom. I grew up in Hindon, a tiny hamlet in Wiltshire, and every spring we would go out and pick huge bunches of Bluebells to take home to our mums. How times have changed, I would be horrified if I saw someone doing this now!

 

Maybe halfway down to the path towards the stream I head a Redstart singing. My experience in the Welsh woodlands and the New Forest tends to be that Redstarts are found close to the ground so this was where I looked. I heard the song again from right above me and realised that the Redstart was singing from the top of a bare tree. The male Redstart in summer plumage is a very handsome and photogenic bird. He has a slate-grey head and upperparts, except the rump   and tail, which, like the flanks, underwing coverts and axillaries are orange-chestnut. The forehead is white; the sides of the face and throat are black. The two central tail feathers are dark brown, the other tail feathers bright orange red. It winters in central Africa and Arabia , south of the Sahara Desert  but north of the Equator, from Senegal  east to Yemen. It is widespread as a breeding bird in UK with a preference for western woodland habitat.

Redstart

I walked down to the stream and along the footpath pausing to watch a Garden Warbler singing. Returning up to the woodland I saw a small leaf warbler flitting about the canopy and through my bins I soon had my target bird of the day, the Wood Warbler. The Wood Warbler is one of the Phylloscopus species of leaf warbler and is strongly migratory with the whole population overwintering in tropical Africa. Unlike some other members of the Phylloscopus family, Chiffchaff, Yellow- browed Warblers, Hume’s Warbler etc., none have overwintered in the UK  …. Yet. With Global warming I guess it is only a matter of time though! The Wood Warbler is one of the largest Phylloscopus warblers with striking bright yellow upper parts, throat, and upper chest and white under parts. It is widespread in deciduous European forests but in the UK it is mainly limited to the ancient oak woods of Wales and the west midlands.

 

I watched as the Warbler restlessly flitted through the trees and bushes picking up insects as in rushed around. For the first hour or so it was silent and I did wonder if it was a female but he eventually stopped feeding and turned his attention to attracting a mate with his characteristic  trilly song, often likened to a spinning coin falling over. The very effort of this seemed to make his whole body vibrate with his tail in particular becoming a whirling blur of feathers every time he sang. I guess I must have watched him for a good two hours doing his small circuit of the territory he was laying claim to. This is my mental birding therapy at its very best. I watch mesmerised by my little friend and all my worries and cares seemed to recede further with every serenade. 

After the Wood Warbler I walked further into the forest where there was much Pied Flycatcher activity around 3 boxes. Real estate rights seemed to be far from settled with three birds visiting the same box, two females and a male. It was far from friendly at the nest box when the two females met and handbags were well and truly spun on more than one occasion.

Mr Pied Flycatcher

Mrs Pied Flycatcher

 

Seven hours seemed to pass by in no time and it was soon time to pull myself away from this magical place and go home via picking up a fish and chip supper for two at our favourite chippy. I have no doubt that I will be back soon!

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!