{"id":15831,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15831"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:53:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:53:44","slug":"get-ready-for-redstarts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/get-ready-for-redstarts\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready for redstarts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Look smart: now is the time to see the dashing redstart in oak woods and on upland farms<\/p>\n\n

\"\" Michaela Strachan talks redstarts on Tweet of the Day <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The robin-sized redstart steals a meal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

MAY IS AN EXCELLENT TIME TO SEEK out redstarts, among the most beautiful of our summer migrants They are mainly birds of old oak woods, especially in the north and west, but can also be seen in hill country with scattered trees.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

On upland farms, they often feed along dry-stone walls, dropping to the ground to catch flies on sheep dung. In his book English <\/em>Pastoral, <\/em>the farmer-author James Rebanks delights in their \u201clittle red tails\u2026 flitting along by the sheep from one thorn tree to the next. Their tails flash with each wing beat, little triangular wedges of freshly cut mahogany.\u201d This is the feature for which the birds are named, \u2018start\u2019 being derived from the Old English for \u2018tail\u2019.<\/p>\n\n

However, while male redstarts look smart, their song sadly isn\u2019t. It is a simple warble that ends in a flourish \u2013 like a chaffinch to some ears, but less tuneful.<\/p>\n\n

BH <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photo: REDSTART: LAURIE CAMPBELL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Look smart: now is the time to see the dashing redstart in oak woods and on upland farms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"15","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"15","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_15-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_15-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-15-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-15-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:42:24Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"c820c68c-958c-4972-9b7c-09a696de0c08","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:53:50Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AyCDGjJWMSXKbfAmmlt4MCA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI.jpg",1594,1405,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI-300x264.jpg",300,264,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI-768x677.jpg",768,677,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI-1024x903.jpg",800,705,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI-1536x1354.jpg",1536,1354,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/H26IB03ZTO321Q56024807S9YQPI.jpg",1594,1405,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Look smart: now is the time to see the dashing redstart in oak woods and on upland farms","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15831"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16573,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15831\/revisions\/16573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}