Birds Blog IV - Warblers and Flycatchers

So, here I am writing my Birds Part IV blog, Warblers and Flycatchers, with the image of a Wood Warbler and its brood (above) from the appropriate chapter of John Gooders' The Complete Birdwatcher's Guide. These birds mostly eat insects, although some do vary their diet slightly, particularly in the autumn before they migrate southwards, when many take advantage of fruit and berry crops. Sadly, I am not aware that I have seen any Wood Warblers since March the 23rd, so I shall write no more about this specific member of the group today, however...

What I have seen are Whitethroats (above) and Blackcaps. I saw my first Whitethroat quite early in the lockdown period, right at the eastern edge of Hastings Country Park Wildlife Reserve, sitting on a shrub singing his little heart out for me! More likely he was telling me to 'take a walk.' Anyway, go to YouTube to hear the Whitethroat song. A summer visitor to Britain from the fringes of the Sahara in Africa, probably spotted early due to our 'summer' coming so early this year. Indeed, the Whitethroat is an example in this group that does eat berries as well as insects. More recently I have seen other birds collecting nesting material for a second 'brood' this summer, there is so much food around for them, and they nested early the first time when humans were quite rare for them to see due to the lockdown.

Blackcaps are another of these birds who also eat berries in addition to insects and are mostly summer visitors, although they sometimes remain in southern England over warm winters. Warblers can be difficult to differentiate, and so I may well have seen others but not been aware. But I have seen the insect eating Chiffchaff with its distinctive call that it was named after, a summer visitor, and the insect and berry eating Garden Warbler, another summer visitor with a call similar to the Blackcap (YouTube).

What I have not noticed, although I may well have seen one fly by me, is the rarer Dartford Warbler (above). Why may I have seen this rare warbler? Well, a local dog walker I have met regularly at Firehills told me that, about a month ago, a large number of birders had descended upon Firehills to see the Dartford Warblers that had been spotted there, so I am mentioning the bird in this blog, and it is quite a fine looking bird, as well as being rare, I just wish I had seen it...

Anyway, that's enough today for this chapter of my bird observations, and the next chapter of the book* is called Chats and Thrushes, so the Birds Part 5 blog will be called similar, please do watch out for it, and many thanks for reading the blog today.

By the way, although not originally from the county, ornithologist John Gooders* used to live in East Sussex before he died 10 years ago sadly, and had previously chaired the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and been the Mayor of Winchelsea, consequently, the Speaker of the Cinque Ports for a year (website).

* John Gooders The Complete Birdwatcher's Guide.

The photograph of the Dartford Warbler is reproduced with many thanks to Derek Middleton, and of the Whitethroat with many thanks to Nigel O, and thanks too to the Sussex Wildlife Trust and RSPB respectively.