The bird arriving in Yorkshire which you can hear singing - but you might not see

This is the quail which, if you do manage to see one, is like a plump little partridge.

Singing males have been reported across Yorkshire including four in the hay fields at the Lower Derwent Valley Nature Reserve between York and Selby.

The song is not very loud but is a distinctive sip-sip-sip repeated seven or eight times from the depths of the barley.

The singer rarely emerges although its head, striped black and yellow, might occasionally pop up above the corn or take flight with its short stubby wings.

It is best listened for at night and, especially in the Lower Derwent Valley, there is also a chance of hearing calling Spotted crakes and maybe a corncrake at dusk.

The quails arriving in the region now might not be the last. There is sometimes a second influx that arrives in July and August – birds that have already reared one brood further south and are ready to try for a second one.

One of our earliest spring migrants, the wheatear, has been noticeable by its very low numbers so far this year.

They are a delightful bird to see, both on the moors and coastal observatories such as Flamborough and Spurn.

At first the low numbers were put down to easterly winds keeping them away from the east coast, But checks with colleagues on the West coast found very low Wheatear numbers there as well.

Wheatears migrate here through the Iberian peninsula and severe storms in April would have blocked the progress of many birds, including wheatears.

But there should have been a surge of wheatears arriving late after the storms abated and this did not materialise.

This suggests there have been problems on the wheatear's wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa which stretch from Senegal east to Sudan and south to Zimbabwe.

Hopefully answers will be found to what has happened and numbers of this moorland favourite will bounce back next Spring.