This is the time most of the harbour’s summer visitors have arrived and set up their territories, and having a proper sing song!

The Reed Warbler is one of our commonest visitors and, as their name suggests, habit the reed beds around Christchurch Harbour, where you are most likely to hear one. The song is a chatty number, slow and rhythmic – so keep your ears and then your eyes and open. They are also one of nature’s great engineers – building their nests in the reeds, using spider webs to bind the cup-shaped structure to the reed stems.

Reed warbler

Sand Martins are also prominent in the area – they are superb flyers and catch insects on the wing. Sand Martins nest along the Hengistbury Head cliff face, digging holes a metre long for their nests. Listen out for their soft chattering call, “trrt trrt,” to each other as they fly overhead. 

Sand Martin

May heralds the arrival of the aerial artist that has been on this planet since the dinosaurs – Swifts! Apus apus is the scientific name for the Common Swift, meaning “without feet” in Greek. This refers to their tiny, weak legs, adapted purely for clinging to vertical surfaces, rather than walking. They are highly aerial birds which eat, sleep, and mate in the air, only landing to nest. Keep an eye out for these in your Christchurch neighbourhood – the last summer visitor to arrive and the first to leave (May to July), they need our support and a place to live – please consider installing a Swift box under your homes eaves. To learn more, visit CHOG Swifts…

Swift