Barred in Beds!

Well, that's turned around a truly dismal birding year in Beds.  John Lynch did a sterling job a keeping on this Barred Warbler at Blows Downs today - Bedfordshires first.  Many thanks John!  But the big question is "what did you have vismiging?"

Beasts from the east

Feels like ages since I've done any 'proper' birding.  So I headed up to Norfolk on Sunday with Wardy to look at waifs and stays.

First up was this rather splendid OBP in Wells Wood.

[Canon 7D, 300mm IS f.4 and 1.4 converter]

Then some Barred Warbler action at Salthouse

Barred Warbler shots all taken digiscoping with a Nikon V1, 10-30mm lens, Swarovski ATS 80 HD and 25-50x eyepiece.

I love a good owl

Lovely views of this Barn Owl this evening near Cardington.  I was hoping for some flight shots but these will do.

Birdrace

4 birders, 4th May 2014, Bedfordshire, 110 species.  Ordinary.  Birdrace: The Movie.

95% tristis

Thanks to Neil Wright, I finally got to hear the remaining Siberian Chiffchaff sing yesterday morning. And it sounds more or less like it should for a tristis. Take a listen:

But there is no doubt this wasn't a 'classic' bird, at least in my eyes. When it first arrived it looked good (see above) but you would have walked straight past it if you were only 'listening' for Siberian Chiffchaffs. Take a listen here:

The calls represented here were typical of what it was giving constantly.  Interstingly since first picking it up in early December I have hardly heard it call in all the visits I have made over to look at it.  However it called several times yesterday and I managed to get two snatches on my Remembird:

None of these calls are the true tristis 'peep'.  They are virtually all a clear rising 'wheep' just like collybita. The two calls recorded yesterday are actually much closer to a true tristis call but still aren't really flat, as you can see in the sonogram above.  So where does that leave us?

Well, it looks like a tristis, and it sings like a tristis, but doesn't really call like a tristis.  Is it a tristis?  I think so.  This bird is a prime candidate for having some DNA work done so we'd know once and for all, that tristis can call just like collybita.