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Tuesday 26 April 2011

Savi's Warbler; A Successful Twitch

Sorry I still haven't had a chance to update everyone on what I've been up to since my return to Scotland... I will get it done soon I promise!

In the meantime, news that the Savi's Warbler at Slapton Ley had been showing very well on Monday, tempted me down there early this morning.

At 04:20 I picked up Bun and Gavin and we headed south west... We arrived at Slapton at about 05:40, and within a minute could hear the Savi's singing from north of the bridge.

We made our way past the ringing hut, and stopped between the first and second stile. The Savi's was still singing, and within minutes we could see it singing from the reeds. For the next hour we watched it as it showed and sang almost continuously - what a great bird!

The scope views were just fantastic, with the most notable features of this rather acro type locustella being its dark brown plumage, brown washed breast and belly with clear white throat, obvious supercilia, rather long and spikey pale based bill, and of course its tail- very 'Gropper' like in shape with long under tail coverts (which appeared to be slightly pale tipped). Despite it being a locustella though - not a streak in sight.

Although the scope views were great, it was just out of range for my Lumix, with these being my best efforts...

Top bird - worth the early start and 2.5 hours on the road :-)

I'll finish this post with a video, you will have to crank the volume right up to hear it though...


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