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| It was a gorgeous sunrise |
I was right, no fall. But there were some migrants, with the highlight being a somewhat surprising tristis-type Siberian Chiffchaff.
It remained stubbornly silent, but it couldn't have been drabber, with the only green on it being its Bonelli's Warbler-like green edging to its primaries. It was amazing to watch it behaving just like any migrant Phyllosc, feeding low along the edge of a hedge line, gradually moving inland with a colybitta Chiffchaff...
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| Quite a highly cropped photo, but shows colour and tone well |
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| Nice dark legs and bill too. A striking bird that stopped me in my tracks. |
Unfortunately I managed to completely fluff what could have been an excellent photo. I hadn't seen it for a minute or so when I suddenly noticed it low down just a few meters in front of me. By the time I lined my camera up, and took one photo which the auto-focus failed me with, it hopped off...
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| At least it shows colour and bareparts well... just a bit fuzzy! |
Something else I have read about spring tristis, I think on Portland Bird Obs blog, is that they are tatty looking things in spring. Quite different from all the other fresh-looking warblers passing through. This bird certainly had that tardy appearance, as can be seen in the above photos.
More expected warblers present during my wander were three singing Willow Warblers and my first Whitethroat of the year, which looked to be one of the local breeders as opposed to a passing migrant...
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| It was singing well in one of the usual spots for this species here |
Singles of Swallow and Wheatear complete my list of migrants for my 90 minute wander here...
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| This migrant looked at home on the recently spread muck! |
More of this please. Although it looks like the temperatures will be dropping off again sadly, which is ashame as I really want to find a Hoopoe!
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