Spring has finally made it, and as the weather warms up, flowers now have a chance to push though the ground, and bees and butterflies are starting to emerge. Those of you who follow the news may have heard about how the prolonged winter has been effecting stone-curlew, and other wildlife. Stone-curlew start arriving in this country from mid march, usually when the weather is warming up and insect food is becoming available. Sadly, because the weather stayed so cold, there has not been adequate insect food, and many of the early arriving stone-curlews have starved to death. What this means for the 2013 season is still unclear, but we are hopeful that the majority of birds will have held back completing their migration until the recent weather change.
By now we would normally be seeing most of our stone-curlew plots occupied, and several nests would have been found. As I write this, the birds are still very mobile, and many have not settled down yet. However, one of our pairs are now starting to act like they are preparing to get ready to lay, and I am very hopeful that by the end of the weekend we will have our first stone-curlew nest of the season.
Last week we heard the first chiffchaff of the year, singing away along the disused railway line. Since then, many more have started to filter through. We are also starting to see swallows arriving in larger numbers, and this lunch time we watched one collecting mud from a puddle outside our office window. Wheatear are everywhere now, and just this afternoon I counted four sitting on one small stretch of fence line. Fence lines on farmland and around rabbit holes are a classic places to find these birds, so keep your eyes peeled on your travels.
Keeley