Ely10 Birding: For the Sake of the Song

Thursday 1 June 2017

For the Sake of the Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYZD-Hh1gKA

After the excitement of seeing Glanville Fritillary, the following day was equally exciting. An early start again to hop over the border to Lakenheath where both Marsh and Savi's Warbler had been singing. It was a glorious morning and you could almost feel the vegetation growing it was so lush and verdant. I've not seen a singing Marsh Warbler in the UK so I was happy that this bird had continued it's residency and it sang it's heart out. The camera picked up some of the song but the phone wasn't bad again at capturing something audible, this bird didn't have quite as much mimicry in the song as others I've heard but there's lots of Chaffinch and a great Blackbird alarm call in there too.

Further along the river bank looking out across a really fantastic looking reedbed with Bitterns booming, Bearded Tits pinging away and a little bit of Crane bugle for good luck. Underpinning this was the intermittent electric buzz of a reeling Savi's Warbler. On my last scan of the reedbed I picked up the bird, closer than I had expected and atop a reed head. Through the scope it was quite a good view and it's gape was huge rotating it's head around to project it's drone across the fen. The return along the riverbank and across the fen was glorious with Dragon and Damselflies in abundance (see previous post).

Before heading home I popped into Brandon where a Wood Warbler had been holding territory. Having seen the Wood Warblers in Poland occupying lowland beech and oak woodland in proliferation it seems that there is plenty of potential habitat for Wood Warblers to occupy if there were the numbers passing through. This male seemd very much at home and had a very small singing circuit which kept low down most of the time. A delightful bird and song reminding me very much of childhood walks in the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and Moors.