Some people will disagree, but it has by my personal criteria - I heard the first chiffchaff singing on the reserve yesterday. In fact, we seem to have had one overwintering, but this is just the right time for a migrant to arrive, so that's how I'm viewing it.
Of course, everyone knows that our resident songbirds have been in full voice for weeks, at least when the wind drops. My impression is that strong wind inhibits bird song more than low temperatures in late winter. I've also noticed that water rails have become more vocal (can we really call their offering 'singing'?), and lapwings have been displaying by the mere in the adjacent fields. We completed the main areas of reed cutting yesterday, so they are free to do their stuff now. Our activity didn't deter a redshank by the mere, a scarce species on passage here but one that we would dearly love to stay and breed. Redshank and snipe are two of the species we hope to encourage by our management of about 2ha of relatively unproductive reed bed, changing it into wet grassland and fen. This process is showing results in the flora, and is the reason why lapwings have nested successfully on the reserve for the last three years.
Yesterday finished nicely with a male marsh harrier quartering the reed beds until it was chased off by crows, jackdaws, and pied wagtails. Marsh harriers have nested once here, fledging three young in 2007; will a pair settle again?