<p>CHAPTER 1 <br /><br />SPRING JOURNEY <br /><br />WATCHING birds, and studying and interpreting their lively ways is, or should be, a round the year hobby, for there is no time when there is not something of interest to see in the world of birds. But there is no doubt that when the year is at the spring, then is the time when most is to be seen, for then events crowd fast, one upon the other, with much coming and going, pairing, nesting, and rearing of families, and all the emotional intensity and physical outlay of the breeding phase of birds. We may therefore with reason decide to start our study of a bird's year at the advent of spring, and to this end let us begin our observations on birds with the return of the summer migrants, and see what we can gain from days spent in the fields, or by the sea-shore armed with nothing but binoculars, note-book and most important of all, an inquiring mind. <br /><br />In the spring, about the middle of April, we go out of doors and find that the woods and fields are becoming populated, in ever increasing numbers, by birds which were not present during the winter. Most probably it is their songs which first attract our attention ; willow-warblers, chiff-chaffs, cuckoos, and many more are all back and proclaiming to everyone that there they are. They have come northwards for over 2000 miles to breed in the same area in which they were born in some previous spring. How this migratory urge came into being has long been a source of