They're back, the world is still working
It is great to be back out birdwatching with friends again. Over the last few weeks we have been running several day trips with friends and locals to help us dust the cobwebs off our binoculars and our van Thunderbird 1.
April has been a tough month for the spring migrant birds coming into Somerset , battling against cold northerly winds and almost daily overnight frosts. That said, it has still been a most rewarding month.
Our first swallow of the year turned up near the coast, on the Hunspill River on the 30th of March, and four more appeared over Walls Farm later that same day.
There was a definite lull during the first week of April with our coastal patch pretty quiet with just a few curlew and shelducks to keep the last remaining wigeon company before they headed back to Russia. Stephen and I remarked on how obvious the lack of birds was from the bounty of over-wintering waders that only a couple of weeks earlier in March would have lined the mud-flats either side of the River Parrett - there had definitely been a shift, the winter birds had gone, but the summer birds were yet to arrive in any number.
The northerlies still blew, but eventually the birds started to filter through. More and more chiffchaffs started to sing almost from every tree, along with blackcaps, and on the 10th of April we spotted our first wheatear - a handsome male in full breeding plumage, and a single whimbrel. Another notable feature at this time of year was the number of ravens around, we seemed to quite often see groups of ravens larking around (as they do), probably non-breeding youngsters, as by mid-April most breeding ravens would be on eggs or feeding chicks. There is one raven’s nest that we know that is located near the top of an electricity pylon, who have successfully reared chicks over the last 3 years form the same nest.
Another pleasant passing visitor we enjoyed were the red kites - again presumably unattached youngsters who it seems like to tour around the country at this time of year - it won’t be long before red kites are nesting in Somerset - perhaps up on the Mendips, or in Cheddar Woods.
Red kite’s often float around Somerset in early spring
Mid-April I enjoyed an alfresco coffee in the garden of a friend and watched for some time the antics of a rather fierce looking little owl, hopping from tree to tree in my friend’s orchard. Orange-tipped butterflies were now in the hedgerows on sunny days along with bright yellow brimstones, although I am sure they would not appreciate the frost nights.
In one of God’s acres there stands an amazing holm oak and once more it is covered in heron’s nests and egret’s nest - both little and cattle egrets. It is the most stunning tree in Somerset at this time of year. It looks almost like a decorated Christmas tree, absolutely covered in squabbling herons and gurgling egrets. On a day trip with a close friend I called in to check on the heronry, and my friend Hugh was absolutely blown away! He said it’s like something you might see in Africa… I thought our birdwatching trip had peaked by nine-thirty!
Fortunately we had a marvellous day seeing many nesting avocets along with two spoonbills at Steart Marshes, and I was even able to find him a distant pair of cranes through the telescope feeding a small chick who teetered around their feet.
On the 21st April we were in the Quantocks, walking through one of the wonderful oak-clad combes - although the leaf canopy had not stirred into opening yet because of the cold weather, however we were delighted to see both male and female pied flycatchers showing interest in the nest-boxes, and from somewhere on the moors above the oaks our first cuckoo of the year confirmed that spring had well and truly had arrived.
More whimbrel streamed up through the Parrett estuary, with more wheaters and another red kite. Yellow wagtails arrived on the grasslands, whitethroat and lesser whitethroat where back in the hedges and both Stephen and Graeme saw whinchats on separate occasions not far from our homes.
A Whinchat is always a pleasant surprise
The last of our expected migrants that pass through at this time of year were the black-tailed godwits which flew overhead in their squadrons, just touching down to re-fuel, before continuing north to Iceland and beyond.
Whimbrel and godwits pass through Somerset every spring
May and June will bring back our visiting birdwatching clients and friends - it has been a long sabbatical due to Covid, however judging by Somerset’s birdlife, the word is still turning.
I write this on May Day - the 1st of May 2021 - and just to prove the point, a single swift flew over my head when I was down on the Avalon Marshes. It reminded me of Ted Hughes’s poem ‘Swifts’
“Materialise at the tip of a long scream
of needle. Look! They’re back! Look!’
They have made it again,
which means the world is still working.”