With heavy rain bringing everything to a standstill down here in Lanjaron, we thought we'd take the time to have a closer look at one of our familiar seasonal favourites, the Blackcap. One of the more common members of the Sylvia genus, the Blackcap is only slightly smaller than a House Sparrow and is one of the larger warblers found in the region. It's also one of the few species to display a clear sexual dimorphism: the male has grey-brown upperparts, ash-grey underparts and a jet black crown. The female is browner overall and has a rich reddish brown cap.

Active and lively, the Blackcap breeds throughout Europe...northern populations are usually migratory, southerly ones mainly resident. As birdwatchers back home will know it is by and large a summer visitor to the UK, arriving in British woodlands to nest during April and May. Interestingly, in the last 30  years or so part of the European population has changed its migratory direction to west-south-west and a small population from Germany and north-east Europe now winters in Britain, boosting increasing seasonal figures to around 3000 individuals for the colder months. UK breeding birds however fly south-east through Britain, then south-west over France and some do reach West Africa...but many overwinter in Spain and Portugal, joining the huge numbers currently enjoying rich pickings in our orchards and olive groves.

The Blackcap falls back on the usual warbler diet of insects in the summer, taking caterpillars, flies and beetles...but it's an oppurtunistic feeder in the winter months, allowing it perhaps to find enough fruit and berries here in southern Spain without having to follow so many other warbler species down into the invertebrate-rich habitats of Africa.

I've certainly never seen concentrations of any species of warbler like this before...Sylvia warblers are not known to be particularly social, but I've seen Blackcap numbers run to double figures in a single fruit tree in recent weeks. Newly arrived males sing beautifully, their rich, sweet  song sounding for all the world like a bright, late spring morning back home. By the end of April I expect, just like last year, numbers will thin out dramatically as our winter guests return to their breeding grounds further north...I wonder how many will be making the journey back to my old birdwatching haunts in the UK.

I remember finding a single pair in woodland above the village last June. Both foraging busily in the foliage of a Sweet Chestnut tree...shy, wary and difficult to see, so much more the fleeting glimpse you usually make do with in the UK. For now, we'll enjoy the spectacle while it lasts...hope you enjoy the best of Kiersten's photos, which we're pleased to post here. The weather has to break soon...and we'll be out again, bringing in all the news. Keep checking the updates!