18th August

A brilliant, full day on site rewarded me with yet another patch tick, and a very decent local record these days, in the form of a WOOD WARBLER. The valley was dripping with Warblers, a clear arrival having taken place, and I ended the day with 6 species as well as a pretty decent support cast, particularly given it's mid-August.

The Silver Birch & Holly that hosted the Wood Warbler

I started at Rowe Barn Farm/Slade's Farm and Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were seemingly in every hedge and tree. I scanned the Paddock hedge and picked up an extremely weird Warbler - plain grey, a clear white arse, head-stripe and tail flicking tendencies. It completely threw me, but I settled on it being an extremely pale Willow or Chiffchaff. The Ridge was fairly quiet, bar a few Sylvia's, so I headed to Allden's Hill for a sky-watch.

As I walked past the plantation on the left at about 11:00 my attention was drawn to a mournful like call from the trees flanking the path ahead of me, and I immediately knew it was something interesting. I dropped my bag and moved forward, the bird continuing to call as I glimpsed it twice among a big flock of Blue, Great, Coal and a single Marsh Tit (juvenile, nice!), with a few Goldcrests also present. I am not overly familiar with a Wood Warbler call, unlike the song, and I won't lie - I played both Icterine and Melodious calls on my app before Wood! Nothing wrong with ambition eh? However, as soon as I played Wood the bird instantly responded, and with a few pishes it dropped into view in a Silver Birch. The face was strikingly citrus, with pale underparts and a very light bill. Only a few feet from me, the bird was on the move constantly, and after a few minutes, with the rest of the flock, it disappeared south, calling as it went.

A young Chiffchaff, one of 30+ around today

The call was the clincher, and this is another fine Warbler record in the last week. I did always anticipate getting a Wood but always thought it'd be a singing spring male. Wood Warblers bred on my patch until the 1980's, and Jeremy Gates had a few most years on passage whilst working at Winkworth in the 1990's. All in all, a great bird for my 125th Thorncombe Street. The sky-watch was fairly quiet, though a south-flying Swift will surely be my last of the year, and alter than the last bird of 2015.

I went on to check out the New Barn area after that, for the hope of a new Warbler treble via a Lesser Whitethroat but it wasn't to be. There were however a few Garden Warblers here, making it 6 Warbler species for the day. What else is autumn going to bring? Final Warbler tally below -

Wood Warbler - 1 (c.11:02-11:07 in mixed Tit/Crest flock on Allden's Hill, calling)
Willow - 6
Chiffchaff - 30+
Blackcap - 18+
Garden - 3 (all New Barn area)
Whitethroat - 5 (1 adult male)