Whitethroat (with bits of a Lesser)

This Whitethroat is giving a passable impression of a Lesser Whitethroat amongst its usual song.  This bird was found originally in 2014 by Roger Hicks in a similar area but wasn't really pinned down until last week when he relocated it.

I haven't yet look up how frequent mimickry is in Common Whitethroat, but this bird not only includes Lesser Whitethroat song in its own, but also Swallow, Common Tern and several other common species (although a devil to catch on video!).  It joins a select group of species I've heard give copies of similar species songs - Firecrests that sounds like Goldecrests, and Willow Warblers that sound like Chiffchaffs - both of which I have now come across several times.

Failure

Started off at Broom, with Mark and Matt. For about the fifth day running there was absolutely nothing moving - no new terns, waders, or even any Swallows. Pretty dire. The only consolation was this Whitethroat shot. Several new Whitethroats had come in over night and now there were about five singing on my usual walk round to the watchpoint.

Darren came along after about an hour, and we headed off to try and find some tricky species for the county bird bird day.

First stop was Palmers Wood in the hope of a Lesser Spot. Failed. Not even a singing Marsh Tit in the wood.

Next was the local Ravens. Failed. An interesting Buzzard floated over, but soon shut the door on anything other than Common when it started 'rollercoastering'.

We moved on to Rookery where we had the best birds of the day - 13 Hobbies in the air at once, and a drake Garganey. Two drake Ruddy Ducks were also on the far side and a few Pochards were also kicking around. I guess in five years time this pit will be gone - how very sad.

Went home to see Carrie - slept for a couple of hours, then went to the Lodge in the hope of picking up a Siskin for the day. Failed. Not even a sniff of the Nightingales at the bottom of the heath. I did pick up a Peregrine sat on a pylon, which wasn't too much of a surprise given the number of records in the local area recently.

We ended the day by dusting down the bbq and slinging on some burgers, sausuages and chops! Nice.