I'm starting with a quick note to all readers - the blog is about bird song, if you're not familiar with the songs of the birds mentioned, click the links and you'll be taken to a page where you can listen to a brief audio clip - much recommended!
It's time to start tuning in to the new warblers that are singing around the reserve. As I approached Botany Bay down the western end of the reserve this morning, I stopped and listened for a couple of minutes. We know the sedge warblers have arrived and I could immediately hear a couple of those singing away nearby. A chiffchaff started up (always lovely to hear and a welcome sign of spring!) and as I approached the start of the footpath down into Botany Bay, a cetti's warbler song exploded from the reeds on the right. No matter how much the cetti's shouted at me, I couldn't spot it - the reeds were swaying about so much in the wind it was hard to pick out any other sort of movement at all! I was just about to head off down the footpath, thinking I'd heard all that I expected to, when I suddenly picked out a few flutey notes and stopped. There was something else in amongst the scrub and luckily, I saw it as well as heard it. It was a lovely male blackcap!
Photo credit: Andy Bright
These birds have a beautiful song, although when I heard it I will admit to first thinking 'hurray' quickly followed by 'oh no'! It's one of those songs that can be confused with that of another bird - in this case the garden warbler - and I'm still at that point where I struggle to tell them apart unless I see them. Blackcaps have their distinguishing coloured caps - black for the males and chestnut for the ladies and juveniles, while the garden warbler is known for its lack of distinguishing features - ie, it's plain and brown! It's great if you have the time to wait and see if you can catch a glimpse, but if you're surveying and don't have oodles of time to wait in one spot, it's not easy. There are plenty of memory tricks that people use - people tell me that garden warblers sound like blackcaps that have had too much caffeine (the same is said of sedge warblers when compared to reed warblers!) Blackcaps are supposed to end their song with a couple of distinct flutey notes. Garden warbler song apparently gains momentum, like a pebble rolling down a hill, unable to stop! But birds don't always sound like they are supposed to and I think they try their hardest to confuse. I've got mp3s to listen to though and DVDs to revise from in the evenings, the BTO also do good comparison ID videos so maybe this will be the spring that I 'get it' when it comes to those two species. Let's hope so!
My experience in Botany Bay links well with something Katherine said to me yesterday. I nearly missed the first blackcap when marching away, because I'd heard what I expected to and was moving on, but it's just as important to listen out for ones we're not expecting! There are warblers that we could get at Lakenheath that haven't been recorded here yet and I need to get listening out for those too, just incase. Species such as river warbler, marsh warbler and savi's warbler could be found here. Maybe this year will be a first for one of these species!
I'll shoe-horn in a brief reserve work round-up, as the work we've been doing this week is not necessarily visible to everyone. We've been assisted in the workshop by volunteer Nigel this week, who usually helps in the visitor centre. Nigel was given the honour of applying the first coat of paint to one of our new benches/sculptures that we purchased with our WREN funding money, to go near the dipping platform. The snake bench is now green and Katherine has added some yellow diamonds along its back today - it looks great! It still needs another coat and the dragonfly bench has yet to be painted so no photos just yet but I'll report back when they are in situ, which will hopefully be next week. Tomorrow some of our regular practical volunteers will be joining us for an early morning bittern listen so we'll start to get an idea of how many booming males we have - if we can hear and locate them over the wind. Hopefully it might have died down somewhat by tomorrow....it'll be nice to give our volunteers a happy start to the day before we go back out with the trailer to continue with pot hole filling and limestone dust laying!
Despite being a bit office and workshop bound this week, it's been lovely to get out and finally hear the warblers singing away - Lakenheath is starting to get noisier! Katherine heard the first reed warbler today and willow warblers are also singing. There's nothing quite like being out and about, soaking up the beautiful songs and I think it's even better when you can tell them apart without having to see them - it means on windy days such as today, when some birds are staying low, you can still appreciate the species that come to Lakenheath. Let me know if any of you have handy tips for tuning into those warblers - I'm sure everyone has them!