Here in the Wyre Forest district visitors from Africa are arriving.

Migrating birds, which have spent the cooler months in tropical Africa, are now arriving to feed on the abundance of insect life, which are begining to emerge from their dormant winter life cycles.

Swifts and swallows are swooping and diving in the skies above all the nature reserves, hunting for small flying insects with their fantastic aerobatics. With the skills of flight they have mastered, it is not that hard to visualise them easily accomplishing the great distances involved in their migration.

There is also the possibility of nightingales making the journey from deepest Africa to one of the districts' nature reserves.

If this does happen it would be a real treat, as Worcestershire is at the north-western limit of the birds range.

Most sightings of nightingales in recent times have been in the south of the county, with very few being spotted here. It is very difficult to see a nightingale though, as they are small birds and a rather drab unspectacular brown colour. Their preferred habitat is also dense scrub and it is in the middle of this that the nightingale will spend most of its time.

They use the scrub almost like a cocoon to protect themselves from the dangers of the outside world, finding their invertebrate food of beetles in the thicket and even building their nest on the floor in the scrub.

With such a reclusive lifestyle you may well ask how it is we ever know whether a nightingale is present or not.

Despite being reclusive, the nightingale does need to attract a mate.

Many birds accomplish the same task by having elaborate plumage, but with its dowdy brown color the nightingale is never going to win a beauty contest. Hence, the male birds aim to attract a female to their scrubby homes with one of the most beautiful, vigorously performed birdsong.

The rich variety of notes, are more outstanding than that of any other birdsong. They can be heard singing in the day, but as their name suggests, they are one of the few birds that can be heard singing through the night.

It's usually the song which gives away the presence of these birds and in 1999, some 59 singing male birds were seen and heard in Worcestershire.

During 2000 one bird was even seen and heard on Burlish Top nature reserve.