Surprise....

A nice sunny day today with a light northerly shifting to the east in the afternoon.

After a day at Alnwick Food Festival, we decided to have a glass of wine outside and catch the last of the afternoon sunshine. Sitting quietly and a few birds began to appear along our overgrown drive wall. A Wren attracted attention by clucking through a buddleia hunting the undersides of leaves for residue moths above the trap.

Soon, another, larger movement attracted attention. A bird appeared no more than 15 feet away mostly obscured but clearly different. With the naked eye, a plain looking bird lunged at some blackberries and dropped back into cover. Even on this brief view I suspected who this was.

I sneaked off to get my bins and camera leaving Jane 'on guard.' On my return the bird was still there but on the back of the bush in the sunshine. After about 5 minutes that seemed like an hour, it rattled the bushes and moved closer then -  out it came, a Barred Warbler. I knew it but had to eliminate Whitethroat and Garden Warbler first. It grabbed another bramble and moved back into the sunshine.

I took the camera around the other side to view from the field hoping it would come into the open, but it always stayed just behind cover, upsetting the local wrens.

I must have been obvious to it, as it soon started alarm calling 'chukk chuuk, chuukk' not a 'tack' or a 'churr' but half way between both. It then flew, unseen by me, but Jane watched it disappear into our garden where I left it to find food in peace. Hopefully it will be around in the morning for another look...

This is my second garden Barred after one in October 2010, that one only 10 feet from where this one was, Birds must follow the edge of the copse along to our garden from the coast only a couple of hundred yards away....

Bird of the year by far.