Bog Myrtle & Peat

Over the past few days, something has been brewing up on the Chayne. I first noticed it last week, when I was driving up to the farm. Dozens of wheatears had gathered together along the topstones of the roadside dyke, and they fluttered and rolled away from the car as I drove. Last year’s adults were obvious with their black and white “T-shaped” tail markings, but the majority were this year’s young; still speckled brown and faded in appearance.

Since seeing that mass congregation, I have seen no others. Their migration has begun. Wheatears arrived on the farm on the first day in April, and since then they have become familiar friends. A walk across the farm will seem incomplete without seeing the little bobbing shapes, and I’ll look forward to their return. In the meantime, they have got a hell of a long way to fly. Wheatears overwinter in central Africa, anywhere from Senegal to Kenya, and as I write this, they are on their way down there.