Summer is just about here and our Spring/ Summer migrants will have arrived. Here is a guide to where you should be able to see and hear some of these birds. In the High Street Swifts have nests in the Swift boxes at Stokes and at the back of The Club and under the eaves of Southdown Galleries, you can see these small dark anchor shaped birds and hear them zooming around ‘screaming’.
Also in the High Street there are House Martin nests under the eaves of RPS Food and Wine, MyDentist and Marcus Grimes These small black and white birds can be seen as they fly into their nests and you can hear them ‘chattering’. I’m sure quite a few of you, during May, will have heard the Cuckoo calling from the Furners Lane area and north of the river towards Partridge Green. There have been Nightingales singing to the south of Henfield behind Braziers garage and at Southview, they are in full song in May but you may be lucky to hear them in early June.
Resident and migrant birds should be paired up by June but the many male birds will continue singing to continue claiming their territory. Go south along the Downslink and you will see and hear Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Whitethroats. Turn left on to a footpath before Stretham Bridge and walk along the Mill Stream where there are Cetti’s Warblers and Reed Warblers in the reeds Turn left on to a footpath that goes back into the village and you may see Swallows.
Even if you can’t identify these birds you will be able to hear the beautiful birdsong of our migrant and resident birds. The Henfield Birdwatch website can help you with identification.
Debbie Colgate