Melodious Warbler
Friday 28th May 2021: Cloudy with some very light rain, 15°, light ENE.
I took one of my usual walks out to Lollingdon Hill, nothing much to shout about apart from 3 Goldcrest.
As I stood in one of my usual spots I heard an unfamiliar song coming from the hedgerow up the track.
The bird was in deep cover but singing regularly. I manage to record the song and messaged it to a couple of local birders.
In the mean time I had only seen the bird very briefly and on those views it suggested an Acrocephalus or Hippolais Warbler.
I then checked the song on my phone app and came up with Melodious Warbler at roughly the same time I got a message back concurring with that ID.
In the meantime we contacted a few local birders and requested they attend to confirm ID.
Later the bird started to show a little better and the ID was clinched.
A discussion later was then had about releasing the news generally. However, there is nowhere to park out at Lollingdon, all the adjacent fields have crops and it is a single track, private, badly maintained lane with either ditches or raised banks. Plus there has been building work going on out there and heavy vehicles as well as farm vehicles are up and down the lane.
We also have a good relationship with local landowners and residents and did not want to jeopardise that for obvious reasons.
The bird was not seen or heard after 16:30 that day and not since despite searching.
Subsequently I made the decision not to release the news until now.
The following are a series of photographs taken by four of those present.
Alan Dawson, Ian Lewington, Roger Wyatt, Geoff Wyatt, Tony Williams and Myself.
Audio:
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