I don’t know about you, but almost wherever I go at present I hear from the trees a constant “chiff-chaff-chiff-chaff-chiff-chaff”. Some friends have suggested that there is a big increase in Chiffchaff numbers this year. I certainly haven’t counted but that’s the impression I get too. Here in Cumbria I started to hear them in March but my first photograph wasn’t until the second day of April. Here it is, not an especially good photo but it was my first Chiffchaff of the year.

Some of our Chiffchaff population in England stay here through the cold months, more commonly in the south of the country than the north, but the majority winter in southern Spain and Africa then return from February onwards.

The Chiffchaff is a warbler, and is easily mistaken for a Willow Warbler. The Chiffchaff usually has dark greyish brown legs whereas the Willow Warbler’s are lighter in colour but this is not a reliable way of distinguishing between them because they both vary quite a lot. The supercilium (light stripe over the eye) is much bolder in the Willow Warbler and that can help, but the only sure method of distinguishing is to listen to the song.

Here is my favourite Chiffchaff photograph so far this year. This little bird did not seem to be particularly frightened of me and repeatedly perched on branches easily accessible to the camera as I walked along the path, not quite the “friendliness” of some Robins but not dissimilar.