Pettichap And Blackcap

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning here in Essex. I was out and about fairly early and it was the first time this year that I was able to go jacketless. I saw a white butterfly high up in our disused  car park weeping willow and was convinced that it was going to be a macro day.

Once I'd done my chores I went to Butterfly Alley, between a hedge and a disused glasshouse, looking for bugs. Whites, orange tips and brimstones were patrolling hurriedly up and down, never settling. My attention was taken by my pair of chiff-chaffs. I heard them at Easter but so far haven't managed a decent pic. Some of these warblers stay here all year round and others migrate from Africa. I always find chiff-chaffs in this area centred on an oak tree and never on any other part of our property. They have quite a small breeding territory. The pair were communicating with the hweet call and I noticed that when they sing the chiff-chaff song the tail flicks in time with it. John Clare knew these elegant little birds as pettichaps and wrote a lovely poem about their nests 'lined with feathers warm as silken stole, Softer than seats of down for painless ease.' 

While I was photographing them I could hear the 'tinkling fairy bell' of a goldcrest, the seee of a robin feeding its mate, the rustling of leaves caused by blackbirds foraging and the beautiful complex song of a blackcap. I first heard this migrant last week but hadn't seen it. I've included a pic of the 'northern nightingale' in extras.

To top it all I saw my first swallow of the season. :)