Twitching the Dusky Warbler

This morning I decided I was fed up of seeing nothing at Morton Bagot. Instead I would drive to the other end of Worcestershire, where I had every chance of seeing nothing at a place called Ripple.

I don't know about Man of the Year, but if there was an award for Place of the Year, Ripple has being putting itself forward as a strong candidate in the last few weeks. First there were four Scaups, followed smartly by a good shout for an immature Lesser Scaup. The finder, Andy Warr, then went on to distinguish himself still further by finding an impossibly skulking Dusky Warbler in unbelievably dense scrubland. It didn't stop there. On Tuesday, Rob Prudden was twitching the Dusky Warbler, and found a far rarer bird, an eastern race Black Redstart. A big twitch ensued next day, and although the bird had flown, they nevertheless established that there were actually two Dusky Warblers present.

Meanwhile, in sunny Redditch I have been dithering. Any temptation to go last weekend was forestalled by news that the Dusky Warbler was tending to be seen briefly early morning, and then heard occasionally, before disappearing for hours, or in some cases for the rest of the day. I was then at work until yesterday, when it wasn't reported at all.

Nevertheless I headed down there this morning, arriving at about 09.15. I eventually found a group of four twitchers staring silently into the scrub.

It's in there somewhere

I joined the vigil, and after about 15 minutes I briefly got onto a small brown bird in the scrub to my left. As it flicked right I announced "small brown bird" to anyone who was listening. I stared and stared but whatever it was didn't reappear. Instead, about five minutes later, a quiet "tuc" call to our right had the twitchers pricking up their ears. "That's it," they said. Several more calls followed as the bird evidently made its way southwards through the scrub. No one managed to see it.

All rather annoying really. I did not get anything useful on the bird I saw. It could have been the Dusky Warbler, or it could have been a poorly seen Wren. As for the call, a lot of things go "tuc" which aren't Dusky Warblers, but Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, and other sylvia Warblers tend to be louder. On balance I think it almost certainly was the bird we were looking for, and though I would love to tick my millisecond view of whatever it was, I can hardly add it to my Worcs list if even I'm not certain.

I eventually got bored and turned around to look at the 400+ Wigeon, 57 Teal, seven Shovelers, 20+ Tufted Ducks, 10 Pochard, seven Great Crested Grebes, two Little Grebes, and a drake Goldeneye which were swimming around the flooded gravel pits behind us.

The M50 viewed from the east shore (plus a big flock of Wigeon)

A great place, but I doubt I'll be back.

PS: I gather it showed well to one couple of early risers at 08.00 am. The early bird and all that.