The Guardian/1920/04/13/Country Diary
A Country Diary.
A clear, loud, trilling whistle, coming from a clump of ancient beeches, pleased but surprised me; it was the spring call of the nuthatch. Perched on a low branch, again and again repeating its signal with bill uplifted, was the grey-backed, chestnut-sided bird; the first of its kind that I had ever seen in the neighbourhood, though forty years ago a few pairs nested annually. In a few minutes an answering call came from the distant trees, and, evidently satisfied, the nuthatch dropped to the foot of a beech and, mouse-like, ran to and fro upon the smooth bole. Round about Chester the bird is not uncommon, and until recently a pair or two occupied trees in Oulton Park, but within a few miles of Manchester it is casual. The return of the nuthatch to its long-forsaken home is a good sign; it pleased me more than the sight of a few swallows, flying with the sand martins, or of a large flock of fieldfares, halting for refreshment on their northward trail, though the fieldfare has been curiously rare this winter.
It did not surprise me to hear that the sandpiper was seen at Alderley on Saturday.
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