Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

Not many in Sussex but enough to keep our binoculars at the ready.

March 22 is the average first date for this migrant to appear from Spain and North Africa. It rests for a day or two, sometimes only an hour. Then off it hurries to the Brecon Beacons or the Cairngorms.

If you walk any of the Pennines or the Lakeland hills you will often see them at their nest sites in old dry-stone walls or even stone barns.

Otherwise, they like a heathery clump with bracken, bilberry and fern growing around a rocky bank. Often an old pair will return to exactly the same place for several years.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette March 4