Boom times for cheery chiffchaff
Fierce frosts had left bare willow sprigs and long-dead leaves tingling icily to the touch. Red spindle berries glistened as if sprinkled with a sugar coating.
In the hoary whiteness, something in shades of green caught the eye. Surely it was too early in the year for a burst of spring leaves? One verdant flash was followed by another and then a third.
Birds in olive hues found only in fancy paint charts were on a singular mission to absorb every calorie from this wintry wetland. Midges dancing over a sunlit patch of open water meant nutritious food for insect-eaters was available.
Soft, lilting calls followed the birds flickering through branches, their notes so different from the song they will use to declare their territories in coming weeks.
Onomatopoeia abounds in bird names. Cuckoo, curlew and hoopoe are decent attempts at reflecting birdsong. Chiffchaffs say exactly what they are with perfect enunciation – chiffchaff, chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff.
Along with wheatears and sand martins, chiffchaffs have the right to say they are true harbingers of spring, entering the country in early March and immediately trumpeting their two-syllable song for hours on end.
That said, the chiffchaff’s growing status as a wintering bird in the UK seems to have run in tandem with the phrase ‘climate change’ becoming part of everyday usage.
In 1986, the first Wintering Atlas of
Birds in Britain and Ireland mapped chiffchaff distribution across a few southern counties, estimating up to 500 birds over-wintered. Subsequent decades have seen the chiffchaff’s winter distribution increase by 85%.
Microclimates created by the warm waters of sewage works are particularly popular haunts for these birds to congregate in the coldest months. Yet where do they originate?
As British breeding chiffchaffs and their young head south to Iberia and North Africa in the autumn, it seems likely that Scandinavian and Russian birds, adopting a similar migration strategy to the blackcap, are heading to our warmer shores rather than take longer, riskier flights to the Mediterranean.
Along with wheatears, chiffchaffs are true harbingers of spring