Willow and Cettis Warblers

The stormy weather calmed enough this morning to try recording some of the great range of bird song at the moment. The viewpoint at Castle Water offered a little shelter, so I sat and listened to a freshly arrived willow warbler singing repeatedly, while the loud burst of the resident Cettis warbler sounded out at 5 sec and again at 1 min 10sec. There is the background chatter of reed warblers and the occasional woodpigeon, herring gull and coot.

Reed warbler

Despite the rough weather most of the warblers are in now and it is trickier to pick out the reedy ones. In this track the foreground bird is the reed warbler with repeated rhythm and a bit more tune than the earlier sedge. At about 23 seconds a background sedge starts and towards the end the overhead skylarks take over.

Whitethroat

These warblers have only been back a couple of days, but this male was already nest building this morning (even during this recording). The song of the whitethroat is quite similar to some sedge warblers (below) and is usually delivered from bramble.

Sedge warblers

Now is the time to learn sedge warbler song because lots have just arrived and there are very few reed warblers. Sedge are grating and erratic and usually sing from brambles, whereas reed is more tuneful and rhythmic and sing more from reedbeds.

Yodeling redshank

It is the start of their breeding season and displaying male redshank go through a series of calls before reaching the full yodelling in flight with quivering bowed wings. Starting with the "Tu-Tu" then building up to  "Tudululululu........." the yodeling!