Irish life amicable for chiffchaff

THE cuckoo’s evocative call announces the arrival of summer but it’s no longer heard where I live, writes Richard Collins. 

We have to make do with the jerky two-note song of another migrant; the chiffchaff. Cuckoos may have fallen on lean times but chiffchaffs are doing well; they are nesting now in areas well north of their old European haunts.

These little olive-brown warblers frequent woodlands, mature wild hedges, and scrubby river margins. There are almost 60 lookalikes in the extended “leaf warbler” family, but only two are common in Ireland. Serious birdwatchers can tell chiffchaffs from willow warblers by sight in the field. However, to identify the bird reliably, I have to examine the wing formula of any “willow-chiff” caught in my garden mist-net. Each warbler has its own, unique, configuration of feathers with distinct emarginations, or notches, on them.