Your Birding Month
Birds to find this month include Kingfisher and Hooded Crow
The gorgeous Wheatear is one of the classic early spring migrants. Along with Sand Martin, Chiffchaff, Sandwich Tern, Little Ringed Plover and Garganey, it is one of the summer visitors we usually associate with March. Other birds, like Oystercatchers, Ringed Plovers, Shelduck and Lesser Black-backed Gulls may have found their ways back to potential breeding sites earlier in the year after being absent for the winter. But as they are not traditionally regarded as summer visitors, we conveniently brush over these birds…not the Wheatear, though, which will always be thought of as a harbinger of spring, even though, for most of us in the south and east of the country, these are not birds which are going to hang on to breed, but are ‘passage’ birds, just passing through. Male Wheatears, like most chats in spring, are fabulous looking birds and full of character. They are large for chats, almost closer to a small thrush like a Redwing, than to a Robin. In spring, the buff feather tips of the fresh autumn plumage are nicely worn away to reveal the subtle but beautiful colours of the breeding season. Males are powder blue above, with a black mask, black wings and a striking black-and-whitetail and white rump. The underparts are buff washed to white, and the bill, legs and strong feet are black. Females are more subdued, but share the white rump and black and white tail, which is particularly obvious in flight. The majority of passage birds are seen at coastal sites, but Wheatears regularly turn up inland, as well, where there is suitable habitat. They are ground-loving chats, and each spring seem to pass through the same ‘favoured’ areas where the conditions are just right. Usually, very short cropped turf (kept short by Rabbits or domestic animals), ploughed fields or similarly sorts of habitat where they can run around looking for invertebrates on the ground. The breeding habitat is somewhat similar. The migration period is pretty long. So if you miss them in March then you might want to look for them in April or even into May (when larger, brighter Greenlandrace Wheatears can dominate the passage).