Spotted......

             Many would say that the Spotted Flycatcher is not much to look at. It's a sparrow size bird, essentially shades of brown in colour with darker streaks and spots on a pale grey chest. Its voice is not impressive either, just a squeak really. But it is one of my real favourites. I like its unassuming character and endearing unpretentiousness. Hearing one squeaking away high in a tree is a sure sign for me that summer is here.

            It is a late migrant, arriving in the UK from Africa at the start of May after most other migrant birds have started nesting and once common in gardens it is sadly very hard to find anywhere. Fortunately, Crow Wood plays host to at least one bird every summer. Its always a treat for me to spot it, usually located first by its squeak and then by seeing it dashing out and back from a branch catching its insect prey. Every summer I think that a pair must be nesting somewhere in the wood and in 2010 a pair did indeed raise a brood in an oak tree, but since then I have not had any luck locating a nest.....until this year that is. A couple of weeks ago I spotted a bird repeatedly flying up into a very tall pine tree and in a fork near the top of the tree picked out what must be the mossy lining of a nest. Since then I have watched the site regularly and with binoculars have been able to just see the head of a flycatcher sitting on the nest, hopefully on a clutch of eggs.

the nest around 60' high in a Corsican Pine

                      Raising young birds is a hazardous business. There are plenty of predators in the wood that might take a clutch of eggs or the hatched young and to my way of thinking this particular nest is not at all well hidden. Squirrels, Magpies, Jays and Great Spotted Woodpeckers will all raid nests very readily to feed themselves or their young. Research has shown that in woods where predators are controlled (ie. squirrels are shot) 76% of Spotted Flycatchers nests are successful in fledging young. This figure drops to just 25% in woods like mine where there is no predator control. It is thought that Grey Squirrels have a particularly damaging impact on the breeding success of woodland species and play an important role in the national decline in the number of flycatcher pairs in the UK.  Seeing a group of very young Wrens in the wood today gives me some hope .....maybe the Crow Wood pair will be in the 25% group.

 A typical views of a Spotted Flycatcher

This bird, probably the male, was catching flies to take to its mate on the nest

On quiet days it is possible to hear the flycatchers beak snap shut on its prey

Recently fledged Wrens, part of a family of 6, keeping a low profile in the undergrowth

...and near where I saw the Wrens a few Foxgloves are in flower

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