Nature is magic! Like many of you, my plans for the week are in tatters and this morning my head was in turmoil. There was only one thing for it, walking boots on and a 10-mile walk from the front door.
As soon as I left the traffic behind, I heard a chiffchaff, one of the first sounds that spring is on the way. It may be my fanciful imagination, but I am convinced that the first chiffchaffs of the year can’t remember their call. Does it go “chaff chiff” or “chaff chaff” or “chiff chiff chiff chiff”? By early April they all seem to remember that there is a clue in their name and be confidently chiff-chaffing away.
I decided to play a little game and count singing chiffchaffs and singing skylarks. The chiffchaffs took a comfortable early lead, but then the skylarks came back strong. Despite a late goal by team chiffchaff, skylarks won 15-13.
The most common songsters this morning were the robins and wrens. Every time I heard one, the other was not far away. It was almost like they were engaged in a hare and tortoise style competition. The wren would go first firing a rapid sequence of surprisingly loud notes and finishing with a too-pleased-with-itself trill. Then the robin would sing it’s more leisurely, and to my ears more mellifluous, song. The silence when the robin stopped seemed to challenge the wren to go again.
Although our summer migrants are yet to arrive there is plenty more to hear and see from yaffling green woodpeckers to shrieking parakeets, from a patient kestrel to scurrying sparrows. However, the highlight of my walk was seeing a firecrest, the smaller cousin of the goldcrest. Although, we sometimes get goldcrests in our garden, I have never seen a firecrest this close to home before. I stood and watched this beautiful little bird flitting around an ivy-clad tree for a good ten minutes before continuing on my way. Thanks to my friend Holly for the picture above which shows the firecrest's distinctive eye-stripe and olive shoulders.
I turned for home with a smile on my face and a clearer head. If nature can work its magic on me, then I’m sure it can do the same for you, whether it’s in your garden or on a walk. Here’s how nature can weave its magic without you even stepping off your doorstep - https://markavery.info/2020/03/18/nature-as-a-source-of-solace-in-times-of-corona/