Spring moves on apace even though the weather leaves a lot to be desired.

Migrant arrivals

The first swallows have been seen including one flying north over our Wyver Lane reserve near Belper.
Flocks of up to 50 sand martins have gathered over wetlands searching for insects hatching out from the water.
A couple of ospreys have been recorded flying north and several wheatears and a few ring ouzels have been seen.
However the migrant you are most likely to encounter on a local walk is the chiffchaff.

Thousands of these tiny warblers have arrived and are singing their names from woods, hedges and even gardens. In sunny periods, listen and look for them in flowering blackthorn or pussy willow where they will be flitting about catching tiny insects attracted to the flowers.

Not so Common

During my recent early morning visit to Common Farm I was pleased to hear two skylarks singing and even more delighted to see a pair of curlews displaying noisily over the west side of the farm. Local birders tell me they nest there and that four birds, possibly two pairs, have been seen this spring. Curlews used to nest in fields close to me and only a few miles outside Derby but no longer. Their demise continues apace.

I’m also told that a barn owl can sometimes be seen but I imagine simply flying over the farm since there currently appears to be no suitable trees for them to nest in or hunting habitat.

The Peregrine’s revival

In the 1960s and 70s, whole years went by without a single peregrine being seen in the county let alone breeding here. DDT, dieldrin and other persistent organochlorine pesticides had taken their toll. These chemicals also negatively affected the otter population.
While a few birds had accumulated these chemicals in their system, eventually killing them outright, the main cause of the peregrine population collapse was the thinning of their egg shells which broke easily and led to a complete failure to hatch any young.
Once the poisons were outlawed, the birds that had survived in remote reaches of the UK began to repopulate their former traditional sites around the coast, in the uplands and mountains and later to old quarries and inland cliffs.
A few used old raven or crow nests on pylons and bridges and then some started to nest on tall buildings in cities.
To a peregrine, a cathedral or church tower is simply a suitably ‘tall cliff’ where it feels safe to roost, feed and, if there’s a suitably flat ledge, to nest.
Derby was one of the very first urban buildings in the UK where, in the absence of anywhere flat, we installed a nest platform (back in 2006).
 

Since then a succession of adults have reared 55 chicks. Most were colour ringed enabling them to be identified through a telescope.
One was discovered breeding on an inland cliff in North Yorkshire and another spent its first winter harassing the bird life at Rutland Water, often perching regally on an osprey nest platform there.
Now with a full clutch of four eggs, incubation is underway and will last a month before any chicks appear in late April.
With your kids (if you have any), check out the blog, web cams and video clips over the weekend: www.bit.ly/derbyblog .

At eighteen years and counting, our Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project must be the longest running species project carried out by any wildlife trust!
The stats are surely impressive: 55 chicks reared, over 4.5 million hits to the cams and blog from more than 70 countries, 830 blog posts written and 22,000 comments received, over 200 Watch Point events held, 53 species of prey identified and in excess of £45K raised from private donors.

Seas of anemones and snakes heads

In a local wood I pass regularly, the wood anemones are just opening up, like everything else, earlier than usual.

In my garden, it’s the snakes head fritillaries which are the stars just now.

There are now just a dozen or so meadows in the UK still clothed with thousands of these exotic flowers, notably in North Meadow at Cricklade, in Oxford and at Fox Meadow, one of four sites for them in Suffolk: Fox Fritillary Meadow Nature Reserve | Suffolk Wildlife Trust .
Fritillaries are considered to be native but only in southern England. Elsewhere they have been planted. There are only four records in Derbyshire.
The brilliant nature writer, Richard Mabey, devotes seven pages to the fritillary, its history and the fascinating customs that surround it, in his lovely book Flora Britannica (1996). I need to get my copy off the shelf more often!