Birdwatching: Doff your hat to the returning blackcaps and their distinctive song

nightingale while the males have a smart black cap and the females a chestnut cap.

The song is unmistakable, at least until the arrival of Garden warblers in a week or two when it becomes difficult to tell the two apart..

The songs are so similar that the two species respond to the other, with the Blackcaps dominating and trying to chase Garden warblers out of their territories.

However they are totally different in appearance, the Blackcap's smart plumage contrasts with the Garden warbler's undistinguished dull brown colour.

Blackcaps are a woodland warbler and frequent mature deciduous or mixed woodland, Now that the population is high they are also found in overgrown hedgerows and urban settings, especially where there is scrubby ground with brambles growing on it.

Just now the male Blackcap constructs several cock nests which he will show to any pasing female until one decides to stay and line it,

Egg laying soon follows and thanks to global warming is much earlier than in the past- in 2004 it was 15 days earlier compared with 20 years previously.

There are advantages with the earlier start which enables more Blackcaps to successfully fledge a second brood each season.

As a result numbers have risen steadily since the 1970s and there is now an estimated population of 1.1 million pairs here each summer.

In addition there are increasing numbers of European blackcaps spending the winter here so that the blackcap is now a year-round resident in many areas.

Other warblers to listen out for are the first returning sedge and reed warblers

while the arrival of wheatears on their way back to breeding sites on the moors can be expected any day.

Birds moving through the region have included several ospreys on their way to breeding sites further north while several black redstarts have been seen along the Yorkshire coast,