Name That Song

During the past five years Richard Crossen has received much acclaim for the creation and running of our Blog site, and deservedly so. And again today ....... Cheers Rich!!! and thanks for all your efforts.

Understandably, the vast majority of postings have related to "sightings" and little is mentioned of bird song, but we all know song is a very important tool in any birders' arsenal of ID capability. Today Marion and I put our skills to the test.

We spent this morning in Canaston Wood, an annual event for us at this time of the year. We've had many years of practice but still there is one test we enjoy more than any other - Blackcap or Garden Warbler? Blackcaps seem particularly common this year: we saw/heard dozens of them together with 5 Garden Warblers which we confidently identified by song, with no mistakes. But experience has taught us, that as spring advances, the strident notes of the Blackcap will mellow and then there will be errors.

One special moment for us this morning was finding one of each of these species singing within ten paces of each other; the perfect lesson. Another special moment was watching a Wood Warbler build a nest. And incidentally, we located 6 Wood Warbler territories and suspect there may be more.