Nightingales at Fingringhoe Wick

10th April 2026

Well into April now and Nightingales are arriving on our shores so time for a visit to our local hotspot Fingringhoe Wick. A survey the day before recorded 27 singing males across the whole site which I seem to remember is about par for the course in recent years. However, this year their numbers and behaviour have been different is some respects.

I normally keep to the area in and around the picnic area early in April when most of the trees and bushes are still not in full leaf. At this time of year you might expect there to be 6-8 singing males in this area, but today there were at least 10-12 in what I would consider to be a conservative estimate. However, despite the larger numbers photography was more difficult as they would often ALL stop singing for 20 minutes or more.

Also I have found in the past that the early arrivals are keen to establish their territory and will often be seen out in the open, even sometimes singing from the top of a bare tree, but today they were all keeping undercover, so it was a matter of trying to find a tunnel through the branches and twigs.

I managed to photograph three individuals as shown below.You can tell which bird is which by the background.

On bird 2 you can see the chestnut tail.

Well, no birds on tops of trees, but that will do nicely.