Wood Warblers seem to be comparatively few and far between this year. There have been none at the “usual” hotspots in the forest and my birder friends have reported difficulty finding them elsewhere. The Wood Warbler is my favourite spring migrant and I always look forward to seeing these charismatic little warblers flitting around in the foliage while singing their very unique and characteristic “spinning coin” song. How sad would it be if they are no more a feature of my spring forest walks!
I tend not to go to the forest much after late May when the trees are in full leaf and most birds are heard only but last Thursday I decided to make one final attempt to find a Wood Warbler. One had been reported in the western part of the forest at a place called Brands Wood. This is a large expanse of mainly old oak woodland and the location details were very vague. It is also part of the forest I have not visited before.
I could not work out where to park close to Brands Wood so I decided to park near Far Forest Caravan park and try to walk in along the footpaths and bridle ways. I was walking on a well made up bridle way but struggling to get close to my destination when I was attacked by two large dogs that rushed out of a house. They ripped my trousers and left a deep wound in my calf before I heard the owner call them in. I tried to explain to the owner what had happed but she said, and I quote, “I don’t believe ya” and slammed the door! I’m sure that if an infant had been walking by that it would have been very serious so I have reported it to the police – let’s see if anything happens! I carried on birding for the day but that evening my wife called 111 for advice and I was told to go to the community hospital to have it checked. I’m now on a course of antibiotics.
Literally scarred by this experience, I decided to walk back to my car, park at the Dry Mill lane car park and attempt the long walk into the west part of the forest. I had walked quite a long way passed the second railway bridge and into a part of the forest which I had not been to before when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Wood Warbler singing -yes success and much joy and elation!!!
I took a small path off of the main one and the singing became louder and louder until I was sure that I had reached the Warblers territory. It was singing more or less continuously but I spent a rather frustrating 30 minutes looking for it amongst the Oak leaves before I finally laid eyes on it.
My hearing is badly damaged by my love of live rock music amongst other things so I wear hearing aids when out birding to help me find birds. The disadvantage of the pair I have is that, while they are invaluable in hearing the birds, it seems to be very hard to tie down the direction as it seems that the sound is coming from all around me.
Once I had actually found the bird it became much easier to see as it rarely moved more than a few tens of meters from the same spot. He was singing insistently as he hopped from twig to twig. I finally twigged (sic) that there was another male singing some distance away much to the displeasure of my songster who was frantically trying to out sing him.
He would cock his head then open his beak and spin his coin with all his might such that his wings extended and his whole body vibrated with the intensity and effort of his song. On and on he went jumping from twig to twig hammering out his song in an effort to outdo his competitor.
Now I say him but I recently learned that my assumption that only males sing in most species is completely wrong and recent research shows that females sing in an astonishing 41% of species.
The Wood Warbler is one of the Phylloscopus species of leaf warbler and is strongly migratory with the whole population overwintering in tropical Africa. Unlike some other members of the Phylloscopus family, Chiffchaff, Yellow- browed Warblers, Hume’s Warbler etc., none have overwintered in the UK …. Yet.
In the same location as the Wood Warbler I was also treated to good bin views of my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year.
After a very late leisurely lunch much enjoyed in the late spring dappled sunlight I spent the afternoon casually birding other parts of the forest. Since my last visit the behaviour of the Pied Flycatchers has noticeably changed and they were concentrating on feeding flights into the nest boxes.
I had a number of heard only Redstarts. At Wyre they seem to spend a lot less time lower down, mainly singing from the treetops, than they do in the New Forest or the Welsh woodlands.
I was so relieved that there are at least a few Wood Warblers left in the Forest. To some extent in made up for the attack by the hound of Wyre Forest!
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
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