Sunday, December 06, 2015

Cetti's Warblers

I have been wanting to get some shots of Cetti's Warbler for a long time -- today taught me a valid lesson; I left the camera in the car intending to walk a long way and count the wildfowl -- within 5 minutes I heard a male Cetti's singing but not the typical song with the staccato ending but a regular and more melodic series of phrases -- stood looking where it was singing it appeared in the back of a bush showing quite well for a Cetti's then another bird was below it; the male (it was singing) slightly duller and greyer on the upperparts and distinctly more grey toned on the underparts was wing waving and tail flicking constantly as it moved close to the second bird that was brighter more russet on the upperparts particularly the rump and whiter on the underparts; it was only giving the chink call  and was also wing waving and tail flicking - they remained within 20 cms of each other but with no apparent aggression the male singing and the second bird, a female?, dropping lower down until she was walking in the leaf litter; they both then came out into the open, right in the open! on the outermost low twigs of a dead hawthorn in full view for at least a minute -- never leave the camera behind!! -- before the female? flew across the track and the male followed -- I went back for the camera but the action was over although both birds were still around and the male later went into a typical song regime singing from different parts of his territory --I am assuming this was courtship display, BWP says it can occur at any time from September to April, rather than aggression -- the female was ringed on the left leg and as far as I know none are ringed on the Humber but I have seen a few locally with BTO rings so where are they coming in from? Work in progress -- some duff images here of the male





1 comment:

Michael Flowers said...

Tophill Low has ringed a couple, I believe