Thursday 16 May 2013

Not a good bird, a great one!

Wood Warbler is a good bird for Norfolk I believe. For me, no matter where they are, they're not a good bird, they're a great one. I've always loved them, their spinning coin song and plaintive 'puw' call. Lemon yellow throat, white underparts and moss green upperparts. A real gem!
One had been reported in song from a local reserve for the last few days. I was hoping to get there sometime during the week but the weather didn't seem to be suitable, it was either wet or windy or both. However conditions for Thursday morning were looking a little bit more promising, so I headed for bed early Wednesday night setting the alarm for 5am.
At 6am I reached the site, a little later than intended but enough time before work to see the bird. I had good directions but in the end I just followed my ears. I travelled the path through the woods as told and could hear the bird about one hundred yards or so off to my right belting out his familiar tune.
Once I pinned down the exact location I quietly set up my camera and tripod and waited. He would fly from one branch to next, sing for up to thirty seconds before gliding off to the next branch and doing the same, all the while pitching in with a few bars of 'puw-puw-puw'. In my opinion there's no finer birding experience than sitting in a quiet woodland listening to and watching a Wood Warbler doing his stuff! I got a couple of reasonable shots as the light steadily improved and a few movie clips also. By 7.15am, it was time to go to work. I packed up my gear and made my way back to the car with the bird still singing as I left. Not a bad start to the day you could say.









Wood Warbler, Norfolk - 16th May 2013

3 comments:

  1. Very true Graham, a super bird anytime. Hoping to bag one this year as it would be a Irish tick for me. Lovely shots of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arse! Could you not have booked that one in for when I was there? Great shots ahem, even if it is a "pesky warbler" ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely fabulous pictures Graham - I was debating about going the same day, but opted for East Hills and Blakeney Point instead. I wish I had gone now!

    ReplyDelete