April is certainly one of my favorite hen months, because it witnesses the arrival right here within the UK of a bunch of species that we historically name summer season guests. The time period summer season customer is deceptive, for many of those birds are breeding guests, and they’ll head again south as quickly as they’ve bred. The cuckoo is the basic instance. Radio-tagging has proven that some male cuckoos spend as few as six weeks right here on their breeding grounds. They sometimes arrive again in April, however some will likely be heading south once more in early June. Nonetheless, most will stay longer, however they are going to have passed by the beginning of July.
A Cuckoo feeding in Redgrave and Lopham Fen, Suffolk, 22 April
I heard my first English Cuckoo on 17 April, a number of days sooner than standard. I’ve a suspicion that the early Cuckoos are passing birds, heading to breeding grounds farther north. On the twenty second I heard what I believe is our native Cuckoo, singing within the fen. The fen has a superb inhabitants of Reed Warblers, the Cuckoo’s favorite host species. Cuckoos have declined alarmingly in recent times in could elements of England, however right here in north Suffolk we nonetheless have a wholesome inhabitants, virtually actually due to the numbers of Reed Warblers to be discovered alongside our rivers.
It’s simpler to see Cuckoos earlier than the bushes are in full leaf
There’s no sound I get pleasure from greater than that of my first singing Cuckoo. It’s an indication that spring is admittedly right here, and the darkish days of winter at the moment are behind us. It’s a time of latest leaf and flowering, with the hedges quickly to turn out to be lined in hawthorn blossom. The latter is usually referred to as Could blossom, for it’s the month of Could when it seems. It’s white and frothy, similar to the cow parsley that all of the sudden seems within the hedge bottoms.
I’m scripting this on 24 April. Common readers could recall that I’m looking for 200 species in Britain this 12 months: I’m at present as much as both 165 or 167, relying on which listing I select to observe. BirdTrack (the British Belief for Ornithology’s equal of e-Chicken) offers my complete as 167, because it contains two species that I’ve recorded within the wild this 12 months, however that are Class D (species which can be price recording, however not but given formal admission to the British listing) birds: the Indian Peafowl and the North American Wooden Duck.
A Peacock in an English wooden
There’s a self-sustaining inhabitants of feral Peafowl breeding on a neighborhood property, and that’s the place I noticed my birds again in January. It was a flock of a dozen cocks, wandering throughout a discipline near their breeding wooden. The birds do nicely right here, because the property the place they’re to be discovered has a keepered shoot. The Peafowl undoubtedly profit from the truth that the gamekeepers management the fox inhabitants, whereas the meals put out for the Pheasants can be appreciated by the Peafowl.
A pair of full-winged Wooden Geese, photographed in Suffolk in January
In distinction to Wooden Geese, Mandarins are nicely established in England. This hen was photographed on Suffolk’s Little Ouse river earlier this month
Wooden Geese are curious birds, as if they’re well-liked in UK wildfowl collections, the place they breed readily, they’ve by no means turn out to be established within the wild within the UK, in contrast to the carefully associated Mandarin. There have been many makes an attempt to introduce them up to now, and there have been data of pairs breeding within the wild, however these populations have by no means turn out to be self reliant. Why have they failed however the Mandarin has been so profitable?
Chiffchaffs are thriving in England
In distinction, Willow Warblers are declining. The 2 species are very related in look, however the Willow Warbler has pale legs
On the time of writing I’ve seen a lot of the summer season migrants I can anticipate, from the elusive Grasshopper Warbler to such frequent migrants as Swallows and Home martins, although numbers of hirundines appear worrying low on the time of writing. That is in distinction to the Chiffchaff, the primary of the migrants to return. I’ve by no means heard as many Chiffchaffs as I’ve this spring, for they’re a hen that’s thriving in Twenty first-century England. That is in sharp distinction to the Willow Warbler, a hen that appears virtually equivalent to a Chiffchaff however is a a lot longer-distance migrant. I’ve seen Willow Warblers as far south as Kruger Nationwide Park, whereas few Chiffchaffs ever enterprise south of the Sahara. I’ve seen one or two in Kenya, however they’re uncommon there. I’ve heard simply a few Willow Warblers thus far this spring. Willow Warblers don’t, apparently, like our warming local weather, which could clarify why they’re declining in each England and Wales, however growing in Scotland.
There are nonetheless loads of passage waders to search for. I could have seen Greenshank and Wooden Sandpiper in Spain already this 12 months, however I haven’t in England. Late April and early Could witnesses the height passage of Whimbrels via jap England, and that is one hen that I hope to see within the subsequent few days. Lots of the arctic-nesting waders, resembling Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint, are a lot simpler seen on their post-breeding passage, so if I miss them now I would nicely meet up with them later in the summertime.
Sandwich Terns are at all times the primary of the terns to return to Northern Europe
I’ve solely seen one species of tern thus far (Sandwich), so there are a number of extra to go, whereas I’ve but to see an auk of any species, nor even a Gannet. This lack of seabird sightings will likely be solved simply with a visit to Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire in June. With simply 33 (or 35) species wanted to achieve my goal for the 12 months, I reckon that I’m nicely positioned to get there. Watch this area.
A migrant Whimbrel, photographed in North Norfolk in Could 2021. I’ve but to see my first this 12 months
