Warbler Quest

I'm not too good at identifying warblers so while this fine weather has continuued i've made a determined effort to see and ID as many as I can. However, I would appreciate it if those more expert in this area than me would confirm or otherwise my identification. To that end I've visited a couple of reserves to see what was about.

The first visit was to my local nature reserve Dinton Pastures in the early morning (6:30am) before the dog walkers and joggers got started. Just to prove it here's a shot of the mist lingering over Lavell's Lake with a solitary little egret.

I'm fairly sure this first bird is a chiffchaff - dark legs, fairly indistinct supercillium but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

This bird is the one I'm least confident about. I've identified it as a garden warbler - rather plain, stout bill and with a little grey patch on the side of the neck. Am I right?

There were plenty of sedge warblers about which I was able to identify easily by their song so I won't post any pictures here. I heard the songs of at least two nightingales (yes I know they are not warblers) which was good to hear although I didn't manage to see them. Just for good measure I've thrown in a picture of a tree creeper preening in the early morning sun It was a nice start to the day

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My second visit was to the RSPB's Otmoor reserve north east of Oxford. This is comparitively new reserve and my first visit. I remember the place as poor quality farmland which was only usable with extensive land drainage works and even then was a very wet marshy area. Since aquiring the land the RSPB have been restoring it to its original status and now it is an area of wet meadows and lakes with reedbeds. Work is still going on and they have just opened a brand new hide.It's well worth a visit if you are in the area although I think probably the winter is the best time to see waterfowl. I rather stupidly forgot to take any vistas of the site so you could see what it was like.

There were fewer birds there than I expected. There were quite a few lapwings out on the marsh together with a couple of greylags, a few shoveler and the inevitable canada geese. A couple of redshanks flew across as did a hobby and a solitary female wheatear put in a brief appearance.

 However, sedge warblers were everywhere. They were calling from the blackthorn which was in full bloom every 30 metres or so. Here's one that performed his full repertoire right in front of me.

I'm fairly sure I heard a brief burst from a grasshopper warbler and I definitely heard a cetti's but I didn't see either.I think I heard a reed warbler but again could see it - only the reeds moving.

I'm fairly sure this next bird is a whitethroat (rather poor phot) but as i'm not very familiar with the song that I heard it would be good if someone could confirm it was that and not a lesser whitethroat.

I hope that I'm now a bit more familiar with some of our summer visitors but there's a lot further to go.

TJ