Yesterday morning the garden was alive with an unfamiliar song - a near non-stop medley of whistles and bells. There were scratchy notes too and I suspected reed warbler. Now reed warbler isn't a rare bird in the UK but it is very scarce on Ramsey with only a handful of records over the past 20 years and it's at least that long since I've heard one singing! I got some recordings and was about to send to mainland friends who live in reed beds and check the call against my Collins app when I caught a glimpse of it. It was indeed a reed warbler so that was nice and all sorted.....or so I thought!

It went on singing all day so I got a few more recordings and even managed a second glimpse of the bird. By now I was just enjoying our scarce visitor and thinking nothing more of it.

This morning I thought I heard it again (long story but I didn't!) but it reminded me I hadn't shared the video clip with anyone and I thought it might be nice for the RSPB's #BreakfastBirdwatch on Twitter. Good job I did as within a few minutes I had a polite message from Chris at Rare Bird Alert telling me the bird was in fact a Blyth's reed warbler! A species that breeds in north east Europe and winters around the Indian sub-continent. Until quite recently it was a very scarce visitor to these shores but records have increased considerably of late and in the past week there have been around 5 in the UK. Nevertheless it is still a very good record, there have only been 2 other records in Pembrokeshire - on Skokholm and Skomer and it is only around the 10th record for Wales.

Largely indistinguishable in the field, their song is actually quite different. I am very grateful to Chris from Rare Bird Alert for spotting my mistake and allowing us to secure a first record for Ramsey - every day's a school day! Lesson learnt!

Big thanks too to Rich from Skokholm for the Pembs and Welsh bird records confirmation

Blyth's reed warbler singing in the Ramsey garden on 29 May 2020