Nature notes: early spring migrants

Early spring migrants are starting to appear in Britain, while migrants from northern Europe that wintered here are preparing to go back. Several solitary sand martins have been seen over lakes in Somerset and Devon. These small brown members of the swallow family have flown here from Africa. When they arrive they feed over water, where they can find flying insects most easily. These single birds will soon be followed by flocks. Redwings that came here from Iceland are singing in groups in the treetops, as they often do in the weeks before leaving. They are thrushes with a red splash under their wings, and their departing chorus is a rather formless burbling. There are still many waxwings from Scandinavia here, eating berries in town centres — a typical place just reported on birdguides.com is “in a rowan behind the undertakers in the high street, West Malling, Kent”. But reports of these pink, crested birds are getting fewer.