Natural England

“It may only be the first week in March but some of our summer visitors will be arriving on the coast around Devon and Cornwall any day. It is possible that the first few have already arrived at the end of February”, said Natural England Ecologist, Pete Stevens.

The first harbinger of Spring, familiar to Dartmoor walkers, is the wheatear. These smart starling sized birds with a bright white rump feed up around the coast before moving inland to their breeding grounds in rocky areas and walls around the moors.

Often an early sandwich tern will arrive on one of our estuaries early in the month. A clean white and pale grey gull-like bird with a black cap. They winter off the coasts of West Africa and mainly breed in the far north of Britain. Non-breeders make a home around our south coasts in the summer and large numbers can congregate to roost at the bigger estuaries such as the Exe.

Swallows may indicate the arrival of summer for many people but the first members of this family to arrive are usually the sand martins. Small brown and white relations of the swallow with a shallowly forked tail they dig burrows in sandy cliffs and river banks. They are communal breeders and in good years colonies may number several hundred birds.

At this time of year there is a cross-over as our winter visitors, such as the redwing and fieldfare, members of the thrush family, leave our coasts to travel to their breeding grounds while summer visitors arrive to breed. Some of our summer visitors will stay on through the winter in the southwest. For instance, the chiff-chaff, named after its call, can be found in gardens and around scrubland during the winter months. Its migratory cousins come home to breed at this time of year swelling their numbers and making it easier to hear them during a walk in the wood.

Another bird considered to be a herald of the Spring is the cuckoo. However, you will be lucky to see or hear a cuckoo before the middle of April and most arrive nearer the end.

Notes for Editor:

1. Natural England has responsibility for 964 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Southwest. Nearly a third of these sites have birds as a special notified feature, while many of the others will be managed in ways that take account of or maintain habitats for birds. Some sites like Poole Harbour in Dorset are managed for both breeding and non-breeding birds. Others may focus their management on only one rare bird among the variety of wildlife on a site.
2. To see some of our first summer migrants when they arrive coastal sites are often the best. The National Nature Reserves at Dawlish Warren and Berry Head, near Brixham can be excellent in the right weather conditions as can coastal SSSIs at Prawle Point in South Devon and our most southerly headland, the Lizard in Cornwall.
3. Natural England works for people, places and nature to conserve and enhance biodiversity, landscapes and wildlife in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas. We conserve and enhance the natural environment for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people, and the economic prosperity it brings. To find out more visit www.naturalengland.org.uk.
4. For more information please contact Christine White on 01392 457408 or James Phillips on 07786 661864