Monday 30 September 2019

Yellow Browed Warbler!

I was working in the garden yesterday morning for a few hours, and around 11o clock I decided to break for a coffee.
While I was tidying up, I heard a rather loud very distinctive two syllable tsweet with the second syllable rising. It seemed to be coming from somewhere nearby and I guessed it was in one of the neighbours trees. I was in a bit of a panic I was sure  its a call I've heard many times on the east coast at this time of the year-Yellow Browed Warbler. I tried to pin it down and realised that it had got louder and was overhead in my Rowan tree, but I couldn't see the bird. As I moved away to get a clear view, a small fairly bright green warbler flew out and headed west into the big trees a few gardens away. I could make out some pale bars on the darker wings but without binoculars there wasn't much else I could see.
Naturally I ran indoor to get the bins and the camera and spent the next hour waiting but it had clearly moved on as it was loud enough to be heard for some distance. I'm assuming it had just dropped into the gardens about the time I heard it, spent around five minutes here and then carried on.
Just as a sanity check I played recordings of Yellow Brows to confirm it was what was heard, and also to eliminate anything else that was even remotely likely such as the Greenish Warbler complex.
I've put in a rarity submission to the bird club and am hopeful that what little I could report will be adequate. Had I  been a bit more on the ball, I should have got the phone out and tried to get a bit of video, at least then I would have had a recording of the call.

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