Birds of Wherwell

Those of us who live in Wherwell and are interested in ornithology are indeed fortunate. Behind the village to the North on the high ground lies arable and pasture land, also Harewood Forest, a beautiful area of mixed woodland with public footpaths winding through it. The land slopes steeply down to- wards the houses in the valley and there is a deep cutting where the railway formerly ran. On the South the river Test runs through water meadows. The area there-fore provides habitats for a great variety of birds. In fact, we have seen more than eighty different species in or near our own garden. Some of these are resident, remaining throughout the year, others are temporary visitors.

Early in Spring flocks of long-tailed tits, with undulating flight, move along the railway embankment looking for nesting sites, often accompanied by other members of the tit family. Some stay in our garden and we are always pleased to see the marsh and cole tit among them; the rest move on towards the Forest. Tiny gold crests come and flutter in and out of the evergreen trees and shrubs uttering their high pitched zi-zi-zi. In the fields high above the valley lapwings make their nests and on their way to the water meadows to forage for food they will give an aerobatic display in which their wings make a loud "lapping" sound. At the same time they cry "pee-wit". Redshanks often nest near them and they wheel in the sky making various loud and at times rather raucous calls.
 
A little later the sound of the chiff-chaff is heard and the willow- warbler with his wistful song of descending notes. In the village we all vie with each other to be the first to hear the cuckoo, a sure sign that Spring is well on the way. The female bird utters a "water-bubbling" trill, not unlike the tone of the nightingale. How eagerly, too, we listen for these beautiful songsters who fill the Forest with their melodious notes, rich in range and volume.

Most years they arrive in our garden punctually on 27th April, giving us a few short bursts of song. Sometimes one or two pairs decide to nest on our bank in the hawthorns; then we are treated to almost continuous singing by day and night for about three weeks. Blackcaps, whitethroats and flycatchers all make a home in the Forest and in our gardens. At the end of April the swallows, swifts and house martins fly back from Africa and fill the sky with movement. The martins build as many nests under the eaves of houses as their "landlords" will allow. Some people welcome them but others cannot endure the noise they make near the bedroom window so early in the morning and the inevitable mess they deposit down the walls from their droppings, which are not allowed to foul the inside of their nests. Mud is used as building material and there is plenty of this by the river.
Across the valley over the water meadows the heron flies, his wings moving gracefully up and down as if in slow motion; or we may see him standing like a sentinel on the bank of the river waiting for an unsuspecting fish to come within his reach. Overhead a kestrel hovers, or occasionally a buzzard wheels with similar intent, only this time for an unwary mouse in the grass below. Wagtails, pied, grey and yellow swoop and dip just above the fast flowing water, catching flies. A swan majestically sails by, carrying for safety her family of baby cygnets on her back, seemingly unaware of the comic antics of the mallards "upending" and the coots, moorhens and dabchicks diving under the water and popping up again some distance away. Occasionally a kingfisher flashes past, a streak of brilliant iridescent blue, or we may see a snipe