Grasshopper Warbler

Sunday Aug 5. I finally managed to drag myself away from the Olympics this morning, and arrived to find still conditions and initially a few persistent showers. The hirundines over Netherstead were extremely vocal, and after 30 minutes the cause of their anxiety revealed itself as a Hobby which powered past. Hobbies visit every year in August and September to take advantage of the readily available young Swallows and Martins. I continued to the Flashes where I quickly found at least two Spotted Flycatchers in the hedge, one of which was a begging juvenile. I suspect they were the family from the barn. On the Flash itself 75 Lapwings, 11 Green Sandpipers, and two Snipe was pretty much the same as last week. I noticed there were at least 19 Starlings, considerably more than there have been since last winter. The return journey was fairly uneventful until I reached the wheat field behind the Dragonfly pool field. I could see several Reed Buntings, a Tree Sparrow, and a Whitethroat in the hedge, but then a warbler flew from the crop and into the hedge. Even in flight I suspected a locustella, and to my delight it then perched in full view at the edge of the hedge. Face on it was pretty bland, with little contrast on its face and a slightly yellowish tinge to the underparts. It kept flicking and cocking its tail, which was well rounded. Surely this was a Grasshopper Warbler. I edged forwards, and the bird stayed in view as it moved around the hedge. I glimpsed some dark stripes on its back, phew, and then its long streaked undertail coverts. It allowed me the time to get my tripod off my back, to attach my scope, and then to see it through the scope. I cautiously got my camera out, turned it on, prepared to take a shot, and then it flew back into the wheat. Doh ! There didn't seem to be much prospect of it reappearing and I wasn't about to trample the crop, so I tried to jot a few sketches down, and there follows a colour version of them.


The Grasshopper Warbler

I decided that the bird was a juvenile based on the cleanness and neatness of the feathers. Reading up, on getting back, it would appear that both adults and juveniles are quite variable in plumage.

The only previous record for Morton Bagot was a singing bird which Jonathan Bowley found in April 2007, which I heard a couple of days later. This was not only my first sighting here, but also the first I have seen in autumn for many years.