A Farm Full of Hweet - 26 April 2013

On a glorious spring morning, I spent a couple of hours at Inner Marsh Farm but it was a somewhat different visit than normal, with more time spent on the path down to the hide, than in it.

I was first to arrive and looked forward to that magical feeling that I get when creeping into a dark hide and quietly opening a shutter into the world of waders, wildfowl and whatever else! But that experience would have to wait today as I took in the sights and sounds around me...

Swallows were busy feeding low over the meadows as big flocks of Goldfinch passed through. A Kestrel floated above with eyes fixed for prey but found nothing and soon moved on. Grey Herons were flying back and forth from the marsh to their nesting site in the nearby woods. There is nothing unusual in any of this I know, so what was it that turned a ten minute walk into over an hour?

Answer: Chiffchaff.

After leaving the car-park where Chaffinch, Blackbird and a Robin were singing, I picked up on the 'hweet' calls of a couple of birds but soon realised they were everywhere. Again nothing too unusual. But this bird was once my nemesis and it drove me crazy in my futile efforts to see more than a half-hidden profile, often from well below. And as for photographs, 20 stitched together would not have made a full bird! I tried ever so hard before conceding defeat and that was when things changed. Suddenly they started to show for me, as if saying "why aren't you playing hide-and-seek anymore?"

I have since developed a real affinity with the Chiffchaff, so on mornings like this when they show really well, I feel duty bound to take cover and enjoy them. There were maybe a dozen busy pairs about, many taking nesting material to various points along the adjacent railway embankment but I did find three nests being built along the path to the hide. And it was the third one, beyond the railway bridge, that gave me the best spot to hide and watch, and I did for some time. This pair were totally oblivious to my presence and often rested within a few feet of me. I was amazed at how industrious they were. I wanted to time how often they returned but my timer (iPhone) was tucked away in my rucksack and had I moved I would have blown my cover. I wanted to enjoy this hour, knowing that this nest in the low scrub would be submerged under a metre of vegetation within a week or so.

I did eventually move on and as no one had come down the path, I was still the first into the hide and opened the shutters to view Oystercatcher, Mute Swan, Avocet, Moorhen and Black-tailed Godwit. I was also lucky enough to see a couple of Spotted Redshank drop in.

However, what sent me off to sleep that evening was hweet, hweet, hweet...

Chiffchaff, my friend at last, taking a break from nest building

Spotted Redshank moulting into summer plumage and roosting with Blackwits.