Another visit to Shropshire was good. The birds were all in full song, and thus quite easy to find, or at least locate. I saw 49 different species of birds from the Wednesday of last week to Monday this week. My friend's cottage is in the countryside, and therefore there were several handsome male Yellowhammers, singing from the tops of the trees along the road. There was plenty of excellent habitat for this species, with thick hawthorn hedges lining many roads and fields in the area, and trees dotted about the landscape for the males to sing from.
Another nice bird was the Skylark, which seemed to sing from the minute the sun rose above the horizon to the moment when it sunk beneath the western sky. This species also appeared to be nesting, and there were at least two pair in the nearby vicinity.
Warblers abounded. Whitethroats delivered their rather scratchy songs from dense thickets, before displaying to a hidden female, whilst Garden Warblers, sang from the depths of the scrub, not revealing themselves at all, and Blackcaps sand from the more prominent perches. Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers were also heard, although more distantly in woodland not more than a mile or two away.
The best bird overall was a singing Quail, which was only possibly seen very distantly, but was distinctly heard singing almost every day I was there.
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