Thursday 21 August 2008

Warbler? Updated!

I think I might've seen some sort of warbler in the garden this morning… I popped outside as I do every morning to slug/snail hunt before setting off to work and it seemed rather busy in the area with birds singing - something that's been lacking for the last few weeks or so.

There was one call I didn't recognise and thought it may be one of the tits - although not the usual tune or perhaps a song thrush as it was very melodious compared to the finch calls.
I came back inside and saw a Coal tit come down, and again a few minutes later with some blue tits (on a side note, in Scotland the Coal tits were always picked on by the blue and great tits, yet here they seem to be happy in a flock.. odd).

Anyway, something then flutters into their hiding Hawthorn - all the birds usually fly into this before coming down onto the feeder. I check things out with the camera and thought I could see a mystery bird, I have photos but they were too small to tell for sure on the screen and most of the time it wasn't facing the camera - grrr.

So I'll have to upload them tonight to check what it could've been. I thought the warblers would have gone by now? Unless it's passing through, it'll be a shame if it doesn't hang around for a couple of days at least.

Right, I've uploaded them now... What do we think?

I'm thinking Garden Warbler just going by the song I could hear as it sounded like a song thrush or a blackbird would sing, but there appear to be two different ones... Is one a juvenile and the other the adult?

Please bare in mind these images are heavily cropped, just to enable you to actually see the bird...

Showing the back




The second bird, check the eyebrow compared to the other... Also very yellow.

2 comments:

Yoke, said...

Liz, could your Warbler be a Willow or Sedge Warbler?

The eyebrow in the Garden variety is less prominent in the Garden than in any of the others.

I've done a post on my Willow Warbler or Chiffchaff, so have a look at birdingonwheels.blogspot.com the twin of wildlifeonwheels!

My sense too was that the bird was more yellow than its appearance on my photos.

I didn't hear mine sing, unfortunately; then I'd have known which it had been!

Liz said...

Thanks for the help Yoke, I have to admit to knowing very little about warblers, as I've never seen any - well apart from a wood warbler in Scotland, I've certainly never seen one in my garden… And quite how you tell the difference between the likes of Wood, Willow and Sedge I'm not too sure! :D

I'm just excited to see any here, whether it was two different species or a juvenile and an adult, it's exciting all the same!