Dear Readers, Heathrow might have been closed completely by a substation fire, but this doesn’t put off the birds! I heard my first Chiffchaff in Coldfall Wood last week, and I’ve seen and heard Blackcaps (though as some of these little chaps are staying all winter now). It would be interesting to hear a Willow Warbler – they look so similar to Chiffchaffs, and yet their song is so different that it’s the best way of telling the birds apart. Here’s a Chiffchaff.

And here’s a Willow Warbler.

You might find either bird in a lightly forested glade, a park or a woodland, and all you’re likely to see is a fast-moving LBJ (Little Brown Job), but the song should do the trick.

Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) from Common Chiffchaff – Facts, Diet, Habitat & Pictures on Animalia.bio

Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) by By Aviceda – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6615095

As I write this, the sky is the colour of charcoal and there’s a rumble of thunder, but the frogs are really having fun in the pond, and the flowers are gradually coming on the Flowering Currant that I would have sworn had died. If we have time to get out for a walk, we might not see an Osprey arriving, or a Nightjar, but you might notice something that tells of the quickening of the pulse of the season. Everything starts to get a little more intense, a little more hectic. Am I ready for spring? Part of me wants to carry on hibernating, but part of me is definitely up for longer days, warmer weather, and the chance to shed at least a few layers of clothing. Watch the skies, and bring it on!