After a lovely first visit to Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Strawberry Hill a few weeks ago, I retuned today to see what summer migrants I could find; I wasn’t disappointed!

We arrived just after 7:00am on a slight chilly but very sunny May morning. We could see our breaths as we left the car behind but the sun brought warmth whenever it shone through the trees.

As soon as we stepped onto the footpath into the reserve we were enveloped by the rich cacophony of spring bird song. The voices were so numerous and so loud that it was at first quite difficult to tell one from another. Chiff chaffs, song thrushes, blackbirds, blackcaps, garden warblers, great tits and robins were all singing at the tops of their voices and together creating a wave of sound that was almost overwhelming. The senses were further bombarded by the sweet smell of blossom, particularly from the swathes of white hawthorn blooms throughout the reserve.

As we walked on further, the sound did not decrease and the deeper we ventured the richer and more intense the sounds became. It was not until I stopped to take a picture of a dew-dusted spider’s web that the spring soundscape reached its peak. As I knelt down as sweet, fluting and trilling song came from a nearby bush; a nightingale was calling from deep within its thorny cover. We stopped for a little while to listen to its lovely song. At times, it was quite hard to decipher its call from all the others, especially as a loud song thrush started up nearby but it really is an unmistakable song when you become attuned to it.

As we walked on we came across other birds that had made their way here for the summer with willow warblers, grasshopper warblers, lesser and greater whitethroats, and, often the star of spring, a couple of cuckoos.

However, today, the real stars were the nightingales of which we found seven singing alongside the footpaths and bridleways through the reserve. They were the main reason I wanted to go, although I had hoped for turtle dove too. They far exceeded my expectations and it was a drag to leave them behind.

The experience this morning was everything I’d hoped for in visiting this rewilded site. It was full of wildlife at the height of the breeding season, an example of what is possible if we give nature space and tome, and just let it return on its own terms.

Strawberry Hill is a soul-liftingly magical place and I can’t wait to make another visit.