Blackcap now not so rare

THE other day a male blackcap appeared at my bird table and it’s been hanging round ever since.

Twenty-five years ago this would have been a sensational sighting because blackcaps were summer migrants and to see one during the winter was very rare. But nowadays blackcaps are quite common in winter.

I used to think that, possibly as a result of global warming, some summer migrants had just not bothered with the long flight back to Africa and decided to tough it out in Ireland. Surprisingly this isn’t the case. All our summer migrant blackcaps head south in the autumn along with the other warbler species and they’re replaced by winter migrant blackcaps that come here from central Europe.