It is the start of spring, not the beginning of autumn. At least that is what the chiffchaff in my Somerset garden seems to think as he belts out his eponymous two-note song.
This tiny olive-green warbler, weighing just 9g – about the same as a £1 coin – should be on his way south by now. But chiffchaffs do not go as far as their cousins: most spend winter in Spain, Portugal or north Africa, rather than making the hazardous journey across the Sahara.
But I suspect this particular chiffchaff may not even travel that far. Instead, he will probably head just a few miles down the road to the Avalon Marshes, where a plentiful supply of insects will keep him going until March.
Unlike many long-distance migrants, which have experienced big falls in numbers in recent years, chiffchaffs are doing rather well: the UK breeding population has more than trebled since the 1970s. Like another short-distance migrant, the blackcap, they have benefited from milder winters and earlier springs.
A couple of years ago, a chiffchaff spent the whole winter in our garden, feeding on insects from the dung heap supplied by next door’s pony. One bright, sunny morning, to my surprise and delight, I heard it momentarily burst into song, showing that while migration can be a winning strategy, sometimes it pays to stay put.
