. Birds through the year . on a May the middle of Aprilthere is a marked increaseof summer migrants, in-cluding several new return fromabroad to their moorlandhaunts in the north and U^west, and are occasionallyseen lingering on ranges of hills in more southerly quarters,as if tempted to remain and breed. Yellow wagtails appearin small parties in the water-meadows and by the river banks,where they replace the equally brightly coloured grey wag-tails which haunted them during the winter months. Onsome soft morning the brilliant cock redstart is seen quiveringhis
. Birds through the year . on a May the middle of Aprilthere is a marked increaseof summer migrants, in-cluding several new return fromabroad to their moorlandhaunts in the north and U^west, and are occasionallyseen lingering on ranges of hills in more southerly quarters,as if tempted to remain and breed. Yellow wagtails appearin small parties in the water-meadows and by the river banks,where they replace the equally brightly coloured grey wag-tails which haunted them during the winter months. Onsome soft morning the brilliant cock redstart is seen quiveringhis ruddy tail on the yew hedge by the lawn, or the roughstone wall of the cow-yard, and sallying into the air or dippingto the ground in quest of insects, much like the hen redstart is a duller bird than the cock, but has thesame way of posting herself on little watch-towers andquivering her conspicuous tail. Redstarts are curiously fitfulin their visits to many districts, especially in the south and ( 5. 34 SPRING east of England, and are sometimes not seen for a wholesummer except when passing inland in April or early haunt the same damp or shady places as wagtailsand robins ; but whinchats, though closely allied to them, arebirds of rough wastes and open commons, like species leave the more exposed commons before theautumn gales and frosts; but the whinchat is purely a summer visitor to thiscountry, while the stone-chat is only a partialmigrant, and usually re-turns to his breezy furze-brakes by the end of March,before the whinchat reap-pears from its winter homein Africa. Many stone-chats go no further for thewinter than the shelteredvalleys or the cock birds are gay ofplumage and conspicuousin their ways ; but the whinchats slenderer build makesit the more attractive of the two to watch, as it flits fromspray to spray of yellow furze, or clings sideways to a stemof dead knapweed or fennel, that bloomed when it w
Size: 2010px × 1243px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirdspi, bookyear1922
