First year of lockdown several cettis moved into ditches around North Somerset but seem to have retreated again the following year, whether that’s due to disturbance of people getting out again or just mild winter I don’t know

Just a thought. Perhaps these birds have been displaced from their regular breeding areas by the exceptional floods in recent weeks. Now the flooding is going away at last, perhaps these birds will move back. We will have to wait and see.

Another thought. As there have been a large number of views of my original post, but no replies, I wonder if the majority of you are ‘armchair birders’ (a bit like me) during this long wet winter? Let’s look forward to some better weather and more days out in the field asap. It was very spring-like again today.

PS. Any thoughts on these Cetti’s warblers? Anyone?
Thank you all for your views.

2 singing Cetti’s Warblers today (22 February) in Langport area. First was on Cocklemoor (south side of town) in scrub beside the old ‘backwater’ ditch. Second was in ditch-side scrub on north side of town on far side of railway line in the new tree-planting area. First that I have heard in Langport, so possibly an expanding population on the Somerset Moors? Not exactly spring migrants, but nice to hear on a dry sunny day.