Help with bird identification.

Last summer i was unable to identify a bird, here are the details. Location, Shropshire Union Canal, near Nantwich, Cheshire. The bird was Robin sized, slightly darker brown than a Robin. It was in the undergrowth at the bottom of a hedge a few yards from the tow path. It was skulking about and making what i can only describe as a "whirring" noise. The bird soon disappeared when i approached. Can anyone help, please. Regards. Tom.
  • Hi Tom, not a lot to go on. I suspect it would have been an alarm call as you approached but of what. I'm not sure what a whirring noise sounds like. Did it sound anything like this?

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Well that’s weird! I’m currently moored up in the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal not far from Nantwich and was woken this morning with what I thought was the rattling sound of a Magpie but this was interspersed with what I can only descibe as a whirring noise like a twang of a spring combined with a gulp!
    I’ve checked the Cetti Warbler sound above and there are similarities but it doesn’t account for the whirring sound.
    Could it be something other than a bird.......