Did I see it?

In recent years my enthusiasm for chasing rarities has definitely waned, but a Melodious Warbler is a bit special. There have been, I think, two previous West Midland records, neither twitchable. If there was any chance at all, it had to be taken.

The species breeds in south-west Europe, no further east than France and Italy, and the majority of British records occur on the south and west coasts from August to October. Spring records account for less than 10% of UK records, although both W Mids records were in that season.

I arrived at 7.00 pm, and was greeted by the news it hadn't been seen or heard since 5.45pm. Oh dear. An hour later there was still no sign and I decided to take a "crowd" scene for the blog.

Then about five minutes after the shot was taken, a burst of song was heard from the direction of the birders in the distance. They are playing a tape of the bird, we said, and wandered over to see if it had got a response. But it hadn't been a tape, it was a real live Melodious Warbler.

A small bird flew past, and the song resumed from where it had landed. The hunt was on, and over the course of the next hour the bird was glimpsed and lost, glimpsed, and lost again, and finally pinned down to give acceptable views. I even got some record shots.

Although I have seen a handful of autumn birds before, on Scilly and Lundy, none had called, so I was very interested to discover what they sounded like. It was quite vocal, and I would describe it's call as a sparrow-like chatter. I had heard them singing in France 10 years ago, but could barely remember the song. It's very hard to describe songs, but I'll have a go. It was rather monotone, a series of fast notes strung together like "tittertetitttertetitttertetitter" on the mellifluous side of scratchy. I would hardly describe it as melodious though. Whoever named it had obviously never heard a Blackbird, or even a Blackcap!

Melodious Warbler

Melodious Warbler showing lack of pale wing panel, and short primary projection

What a relief to have seen it. It had been found, I understand, by Alan Dean (legend). The sort of discovery that gives hope to all other struggling patch workers.

As I am putting the finishing touches to this posting, on Friday morning, my pager tells me it is still there. The location is along a bridleway directly opposite the Marsh Lane lorry park, i.e. on the opposite side of the dual carriageway. It is then a five minute walk to a bank of bushes which it frequents. Go and see it.