Spotted Crakes have
been appearing at some of their usual haunts over the last week or so, with the
first birds arriving towards the end of April.
Often the only indication of their presence is the far-carrying nocturnal
‘whipping’ song of the male. Spotted Crakes return
earlier in spring than perhaps many people expect. In the Mediterranean countries, the peak of
passage is in late March and in the Netherlands, they can be present and
singing from the first week of April if the weather is right. Birds singing later in spring (May/June) may
be arriving from breeding areas elsewhere in Europe.
Spotted Crakes breed on lowland fen-like or marshy wetland habitats with
shallow fresh water interspersed with extensive stands of low plant cover, rich
in invertebrates. They favour areas of
sedge, rush, grass and reed with 10-20 cm of water over up to half of their
territory. Lightly managed areas, either by occasional cutting or grazing
(outside the breeding season) are preferred as they maintain an open-structured
vegetation. On one reserve, where occupied
areas were ‘protected’ by removing all grazing, such areas were subsequently deserted,
presumably as the vegetation became too dense.
Annual
occupancy of sites and singing behaviour are still poorly understood in the
Spotted Crake. Certainly there seems to
be considerable annual variation in numbers at regular sites, with some
evidence that this is at least partly related to site condition, particularly
water levels. Checking out a couple of regular sites this
week, conditions looked poor with very low water levels. The annual recorded total of 10-30 singing
birds is probably an under-estimate. So
if you know a suitably wet marshy site, get out over the next week or so and listen
from sunset until past midnight, ideally on a warm, dry and calm night. Go on, get out for a whipping.
Pics above - Spotted Crake feeding in typical shallow water, marshy habitat. Lower: another regular site, but too dry this year.
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