With a big dumping of Yellow Browed Warblers on the east coast and conditions continuing to look good I decided to head for St Abbs on Wednesday morning to find one for myself. After dropping Rachel at school I arrived at St Abbs at 10:45 and in the rain was soon hearing my first Redwings of the Autumn.
I searched around the boathouse and thought I heard a Yellow Browed but with not having heard any for nearly a year one always doubts one self. As I headed north towards the reedbed end I continued to hear them and it was obvious that there were several. Indeed during the day I must have seen at least 6. Goodness knows how many there were probably double figures.
I met a birder who casually told me that there was a Sardinian Warbler calling and singing further along the track. He hadn't seen it but it was calling regularly and he had been told that it was bearing a ring. Could this be the same bird that was trapped ringed and released at the same site and not seen again back in June?
I was quickly hearing a bird that I was familiar with from Greece, Turkey & Spain. Same sound that I had been hearing in Crete 2 months ago. Hearing was one thing, seeing was another and in the next 3 hours I followed it around seeing it briefly once maybe twice in flight. By 3pm it had stopped calling altogether and there was no further sign by the time I left. Travelling home I began to doubt myself. Could I have been listening to a Lesser Whitethroat ? A quick check on the songs and calls when I got home proved to me beyond doubt that I had been listening to contact calls of a Sardinian Warbler.
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