Grasshopper Warbler

My patch neighbour (and rival) found two sedge warbler yesterday evening; I must confess, it made me a little envious as it's on my wanted list and I've spent many hours already this year scouring likely locations to see one myself. The last time I saw sedge warbler locally was a few years ago when a pair bred in a dyke near the equestrian centre.

So this morning, fuelled with optimism that his sighting was a sign that more were passing through, I got up early and headed for the oxbow lake. I walked around the water to the reed-beds but none were seen or heard. Not having long before work, I didn't hang around and headed despondently back to the car. Then in the scrub I'd just passed, I heard it, the characteristic reeling of a grasshopper warbler! Not a common bird locally by any means (in fact I think the only 3 modern records have all been found by me) and this is the first on my patch.

I had a hide in the car so rushed to fetch it and set it up in the hope the bird would break cover. Thirty minutes passed and all I could see was a little brown shape skulking out of view. Then just as I was about to give up, it jumped onto an exposed branch; bird 98 on my patch list and one I could only hope for (and worth being late for work to photograph).