Cetti's Warbler feeding young

 

Cetti's Warbler

 a fairly unusual view of a Cetti's Warbler 

a foggy walk

 in spite of there probably being in excess of 200 Cetti's Warblers on my patch in winter given the fact that there were 50 singing males this spring - summer, seeing them in winter is still a challenge but today two sought me out and one was good enough to allow a few photos; a Mute Swan was the best wildfowl image and the dew on the birch branches provided a nice winter nature image 

the elusive Cetti's Warbler

on of my autumn goals was to try and upgrade my Cetti's warbler gallery -- getting there slowly

Cetti's Warbler habitat

my photography is usually a reaction to what I see while I'm birding with little set up or deliberate targeting so I was quite pleased with this Cetti's as it shows the bird in its typical habitat and just how you often see one if you see one at all! -- I look at so many stylised picture  of passerines pose don set up perfectly pretty branches and perches by feeding stations or birds attracted by tape luring and although nice posed portraits they do little for me and the sense of achievement must be somewhat different? reduced? this type of work is very prominent in the states where flash is also invariably used to make all images look the same, well illuminated and pretty but characterless to my way of seeing birds -- a personal opinion and had this bird been fully out in the open then maybe I would have been a bit happier?

Cetti's Warblers

these two were having a stand off battle on adjacent reeds with wing flicking tail waving and constant song - I took a bit of video

that pesky Cetti's Warbler again

only seems to appear in the worst light -- not a bad day locally with a 2cy Little Gull over Far Ings, a flock of 47 Snipe, 2 Marsh Harriers and it didn't rain all day!

Cetti's Warbler

tricky little blighters -- maybe should spend more time n this individual but anything in front of a hide depends on the amount of internal disturbance

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

Cetti's Warbler

somewhat more showy than any local birds