20/01/20 - Wintering Chiffchaffs

Whilst many of our summer migrants and warblers are enjoying warmer winter climates further south, over the last few weeks up to five Chiffchaffs have been enjoying the unseasonably mild conditions in and around the NNR base garden at Bank Island. 

We’ve enjoyed having some great views of the birds through the office windows, whilst they have been working their way across the building, windows and picnic tables - picking off flies and other insects, and they also provided many of the bird race teams a useful bonus species. It won’t be long now until the first returning migrants start to appear though, as they announce their arrival with their characteristic and repetitive chiff-chaff song from mid-March. Please do let us know if you come across any wintering birds in the area, and we’d be delighted to hear about those first spring records in around eight weeks’ time. As well as the Chiffchaffs, there are plenty of other birds to be seen at the NNR base at the moment, with flocks of Tree Sparrows, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and various tits all present at the feeders. Many thanks to local wildlife photographer Terry Weston for sharing his super image with us.