I’VE used this column before to write about my journey learning to identify birds. In February I was in Skye, practicing ID of birds in winter plumage. Not easy when the birds were often distant on the sea or disappearing behind waves.

Bird identification gets a bit easier in the spring with more information to use as birds are now singing to claim territories and mates. It’s not always straightforward to write descriptions of songs and calls. Fortunately some birds say their names in their songs.

One of the first summer visitors is the Chiffchaff. Well, it’s song is a little like its name. I’m going to try dzip-dzap, dzip-dzap. Hearing my first Chiffchaff of the year is reassuring that we’re nearly through winter. As you read this, at the end of March, I’ll probably have heard my first Chiffchaff a week or two ago, near where I live in Leeds.

Arriving mid-April from over-wintering in Africa is the Willow warbler. I feel the warmth of summer in the descending cascade of notes in its song. I’m not even going to try to write something replicating the song. I think I can whistle it reasonably convincingly though! More usefully, search for the Xeno-Canto web-site - a database of recordings of bird sounds. I recommend listening to a few clips as, confusingly, many of the clips have more than one species singing.

The songs of Chiffchaff and Willow warbler are so distinctive that when I’ve heard one of them sing, I’m confident to record it in my notebook without seeing them. That’s reassuring because these birds look so similar. Brown-green Chiffchaff versus yellow-green Willow warbler. Dark brown legs versus light brown legs is not very useful when the birds are flitting through scrubby bushes in woodland edges.

Another way these species look different is the length of the wings, indicating their different migration strategies. The longer wings of Willow warblers are required for their longer migration from Africa to northern European breeding grounds all the way to the very north of Scandinavia. Chiffchaffs make a shorter migration, over-wintering around the Mediterranean and in southern England. Friends tell me they’ve heard and seen Chiffchaff in the winter at RSPB St Aidans, east of Leeds. Perhaps there’s a better supply of insects at wetlands to keep them fuelled.

Another species to listen for is the Cuckoo, perhaps most clearly the bird which sings its name, but that’s something to listen for into summer properly.

wharfedale-nats.org.uk