Chiffchaffs are gorgeous little birds. They may not have the bright colours of a Goldfinch or obvious features like the Robin's orange-red breast, but they are bang full of character and are typical harbingers of spring. Or are they?
Although most Chiffchaffs in the UK are summer visitors, arriving on our shores from late March and leaving in October to spend the winter in Spain or North Africa, increasing numbers can be found here in winter, too. Some of these may simply no longer bother migrating, but others will be spending the winter here before returning to northern Europe to breed.
There has been one Chiffchaff singing in the North Bushes for the last three weeks or so, which is undoubtedly one of these wintering birds. However, yesterday it was very obvious that there had been a notable arrival of Chiffchaffs - the first true summer migrants - with several birds singing around scrubby parts of the reserve, including North Bushes, the Work Centre area and Westleton Heath.
One benefit for us, as birdwatchers, with Chiffchaffs arriving so early in the spring is that you can often see them more easily than you can with many warblers, including the closely related and similarly plumaged Willow Warblers that will arrive in April. They love to sing from the tops of small trees, which remain leafless in March, but by the time the Willow Warblers arrive the freshly emerged leaves will already be obscuring them from view.
Although they are understandably referred to by beginners as "little brown jobs", being mainly olive-brown, paler below with a pale eyebrow, they are far from boring. Singing birds visibly quiver with the effort, often vibrating their wings as they sing. Feeding birds flit around bushes in search of insects and spiders, and often sally out form a branch to catch a fly mid flight, much like a flycatcher does. Better still, if they are singing then they are perhaps the easiest of all "little brown jobs" to identify with their characteristic, repetitive "chiff chaff chiff chaff" song.
Hearing "chiff chaff" reverberating around the woodland and scrub is a sure sign that spring is here - even if there is still time for a late cold snap - but it's not the only sound that typifies early spring at Minsmere. Another is the deep, resonant "boom" of a male Bittern, and the early signs are that this is going to be a good season for them. At least ten males have already been recorded by our wardens and volunteers this spring, which blows my mind when I remember the nadir in the mid 1990s when there were only eleven males in the whole of the UK! Bitterns really are a conservation success story.
Although Bitterns are most often seen in flight, sometimes they will show off in front of the hides. Photo by Steve Everett
So, too, are Common Cranes. It was recently reported that 2023 had seen record numbers of the UK's tallest bird breeding in scattered locations, mostly in East Anglia and SW England. A pair has nested elsewhere on the Suffolk coast for the last three years, and perhaps one day they might nest here. There is certainly a pair of Cranes at Minsmere at the moment, although you have to be in the right place at the right time to see them flying above the reedbed. You may, however, be luckier hearing them.
For me, the sound that most obviously says "spring is here" is the raucous calls of Black-headed Gulls on the Scrape, especially when mixed with the cat-like mewing of a few Mediterranean gulls and the "kl-uit" calls of Avocets. High water levels have delayed their return this spring, but with water levels falling and the islands reappearing, numbers are increasing by the day. So much so that we can now hear these birds from the car park on arrival.
Check the Black-headed Gulls on the Scrape for the beautiful Mediterranean Gull, which does actually have a black head
Of course, they're not the only birds on the Scrape, with other waders returning to breed or starting to move through on migration, and many ducks remaining on their wintering grounds. Highlights this week have included ten Mediterranean Gulls, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls, Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Redshanks, the first Grey Plover of the spring, good numbers of Pintails, a handful of Pochards and a pair of Egyptian Geese.
There's much more than just Bitterns and Common Cranes in the reedbed, too. Several pairs of Marsh Harriers are skydancing and collecting nesting material, upto five Great Egrets remain, Cetti's Warblers and Reed Buntings are singing, Water Rails squealing, and Bearded Tits pinging - though many of these can be hard to spot at times. At Island Mere there are several pairs of Little Grebes, Great Crested Grebes, Coots and Tufted Ducks, although we've not had any reports of Whooper Swans for a few days.
Finally for this week, it wouldn't be a March sightings update without news of our Adders. Three of these popular snakes continue to show well below the Sand Martin bank - sunny mornings are best. Although Adders also occur elsewhere on the reserve, we ask visitors to only look for them at this location in order to minimise disturbance.
Male Adders are best seen in early spring