A local wander with Jeff today produced lots of swifts, curlew, mipits, swallows and willow warblers followed by lots of young great tits, blue tits, and a few coal tits. Surprise find of a group of 5 newly fledged Treecreepers and a Nuthatch nest site with adults removing faecal sacs but still the best was yet to come, as we neared the end of our walk Jeff's bionic hearing locked on to the unmistakeable sound of a singing Wood Warbler.
11 comments:
Cheers for the heads up on this guys. Got some better footage of this one than I did of the Crimsworth bird, and never did manage to catch up with Ian Scott's bird. Question is, "Are these birds all one of the same?"
All sightings are separated in time, with no sign of any females. Could this male be wandering around, setting up territories, singing it's heart out for a few days and then moving to a different location in search of a mate? Could do with re-visiting the other locations, although the absence of a singing male could also indicate a successful paring!
Well done guys. Especially the treecreepers and nuthatch and the wood warbler is always a special find.
Great photos as well.
As you'd have noticed steve, this individual would go quiet for periods of 5 mins or more. It seemed to sing from fairly low down and fed at the sametime ie feeding followed by bursts of song then bit more feeding. Does this show signs that it wasn't focused entirely on singing? as for why only time will tell.
The male sometimes sings when he is mated and the female is on eggs/ feeding young. (Personal observation.) I'll see what the book says tomorrow.
The male can sing when he is already mated, with a nest and eggs/young, in my experience. (one occasion.) I'll see what the book says tomorrow.
in my experience all Phylloscopus Warblers sing throughout the breeding season (and some during winter) whether paired or not. I remember a bird feeding fledged young in the Crags and still managing brief bursts of song, it is all to do with defining their territories,
great photo's especially the Treecreepers
So, I guess we can assume then that if the first 2 sites are quiet, then no birds are present?
My observations of this male was that he sang for most of the time I was there, song being punctuated with the plaintive tew tew contact(?) call. Silent periods were fairly short (5 mins max), compared to the Crimsworth bird that was quiet for hours on the first day, and for bouts of around 20 minutes subsequently.
Singing was done at various heights, from just above head height to high up in the canopy, much like the Crimsworth bird.
I only noticed it feed once....grabbing somthing from the foliage in front of it during a break in song....i.e. it stopped singing in order to snatch some food-on-the-go. During silent periods between songs, it occasionally took time out to preen. During protracted silent periods, I could not locate it, but I think it was in the canopy. At no time did I see it on the ground or carrying food or nesting material. Nor did it seem defensive of a particular area.
It seemed to stick to one small group of trees, unlike the Crimsworth bird that was more wide ranging.
Steve C - In answer to your (?) on the contact call I always thought the Wood Warbler's song was in 2 parts, the accelerating "spinning coin" routine and the descending tew-tew-tew notes (rather than the latter being a contact call).
I am sure that the tew tew tew is part of the song as was the case with the bird at Shroggs Road last year. However the tew part of the song doesn't seem to be used as regular as the 'spinning coin'.
I have rarely heard the call which is also a hard piercing single call tew! Another call is a sharp 'zip' according to Collins Guide.
I get the impression that the tew calls are used to "bracket" bouts of singing .....as a prelude to several "coin spins" and sometimes used to finnish off a session. As Dave says.."...not used as regular.."....so perhaps "contact call" was a bad choice of terminology...but it sounds (to me) like it has a different purpose than the main body of the song. (??)
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