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An Ode to the Common Whitethroat




 Lockdown birding has provided some surprising and unexpected benefits. The extra time spent on my local patch has led to a much closer familiarity that I now realise was lacking in recent years when so much of my available time was spent twitching. This familiarity being emphasised by a much greater knowledge of individual species territories and the habits and behavioural characteristics of our more common birds.


The Common Whitethroat, as the name suggest, is a common summer migrant from the Sylvia genus. In previous years, to be absolutely honest, I would not have gone out of my way to see or photograph it.  Yes I have acceptable photos, but these were obtained as a consequence of expeditions looking for other birds. Once it was ticked for the year in April I would not pay the poor bird any particular attention for the rest of this year.

This year has been very different and I’ve invested quite a lot of enjoyable time watching and learning the behaviour of my local warblers. There is a patch of scrub at Dix which is very popular with the Whitethroats. The males are hyperactive at this time of year with their very characteristic song and alarm call seemingly coming from all directions. This makes it hard to estimate how many pairs have set up territory in this prime real-estate but I know there are at least 4 males based on concurrent song and alarm calls. They are very restless and never still, fliting in and out of the undergrowth and occasionally perching up in the scrub to give 2 or 3 renditions of their short song before diving back into the scrub. They also have the appealing habit of delivering their song in flight. They will fly up perhaps 20 of so meters into the sky and almost stall while delivering a quick ditty before  divebombing back into the undergrowth. Their alarm call is a harsh repeated tschehr  which is usually delivered from deep within the undergrowth. Seen well they are very attractive and appealing little birds with a prominent white bib almost looking as though they are preparing for a messy meal with a napkin around their neck.  They have a quite long tail which they flick and cock as they dart rapidly in and out of cover. 


I have a little story which, I have to be honest, sums up the ineptitude I commonly show in my birding. I mentioned to Mick a couple of weeks ago that my year list was lacking Lesser Whitethroat and Mick kindly gave me very precise details of several territories he had discovered locally, one of which was only 500 meters or so from my house. Lesser Whitethroat is a much more sulky bird than its common cousin, rarely giving a clear view , rather preferring to deliver its scratchy ditty from deep within a hedge. My first visit to site on an overcast and rainy day was true to form with the bird regularly delivering its very recognisable song from deep within the undergrowth with only occasionally glimpses of the hyperactive songster. 

I resolved to go back in better light to try and get a half decent photo. I was about to leave the house when I realised my bins were in Carolyn’s car and she had just departed to the local farm to feed and water our horses. Undeterred, I set off on the 5 minute walk with just my camera. Sure enough on arrival the bird was singing away. After a short while it perched up on a telegraph wire over the hedge and delivered a short rendition before slipping back into the dark depths of undergrowth. With hindsight this should have been a red flag to me as I’ve never seen a Lesser Whitethroat perch so in the open before.  When I got home I looked at the photo and was very surprised to see a Common Whitethroat staring back at me from my laptop screen. I checked with Mick who at first thought that Common Whitethroat never imitate other birds but, after a bit of research, he came back and said that there were know examples of Common Whitethroat intimating other Sylvias. Now, it is certainly possible that the Lesser Whitethroat was delivering its song from the hedge immediately below the Common but I’m equally sure the Common was singing as well and I never heard Common Whitethroat song. In the absence of bins to coordinate beak movement with song I will, unfortunately, never know the truth for sure!

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