As I stood in Highnam Woods yesterday early afternoon I was very surprised to hear a Nightingale start up with a burst of song just up the nature trail a little way from the car park. A little later, further around the nature trail I heard a second bird singing in another location. It is unusual to hear them at this time of year, most references I have seen suggests going out to listen for them between mid May and early June, as the males are less often heard after this. Nightingales have 2 broods of young in an average year, and when the first brood of young fledge from the nest the male will spend his time tending to them while the female sits on the second clutch of eggs, hardly surprising he doesn't find time to sing then! I was quite concerned to hear 2 birds yesterday, with my mind automatically jumping to the worst of conclusions - failed nests. Putting it into a little perspective though, the birds we monitor in nest boxes are at least 10 days (if not more) later than they were last year, if we apply that time slip to nightingales it is maybe not unrealistic to think that they are just late this year. Given that they arrived back in April to some very cold conditions and probably not a lot of food available to help them replace their fat stores depleted from the long migration north from Africa that is a likely conclusion and I will remain optomistic for this species at Highnam.
We do have good news for Nightingales this year. We recorded 6 males singing, not a large population, but this is the first year for some time that there has been no decline in numbers at the reserve. In addition to that it was great to record a territory adjacent to some ditch damming work we carried out last autumn. The aim of the work was to hold more water in that area of coppice in order to make it more attractive to this species, it would appear that this was successful, which is great news.
The news for Pied flycatchers at Nagshead hasn't been so good at all this year. Another species which faces a very long migration each year, and this year faced a chilly welcome with a shortage of food available. Not only have we seen a low number of nests being built in boxes, but some of those have remained unoccupied and there have been a number of failed attempts. There have been a few chicks hatch, but we are still waiting to see how many of them survive to fledge.
Other birds in the boxes have had a struggle this year too, as mentioned above, everything seem to be late this year. There are still a few young not fledged from boxes in Highnam, although most have left the nest now and can be seen around the reserve in groups. At Nagshead everything is a little later still, with many nests not even being built until May, the young are just starting to think about fledging now, finally!