With gorse bushes now starting to flower and a sunny afternoon, I decided at the last minute to make a trip over to Greenham Common. My target bird was the dartford warbler, a resident species there, although not easy to spot. On previous visits I've managed to spot the odd one or two, but never managed any decent photos.
Dartford warblers are secretive birds but in spring they may be seen at the tops of gorse bushes. I knew from past visits some likely places where I might find one, so headed for the main disused runway and started to walk westwards listening out for any bird song as I went. It was pretty quiet, not even a stonechat which can often give a clue to the dartford warbler's presence.
I spotted a lady with a camera standing amongst an area of gorse so approached her to ask if she'd managed to find any birds. She told me she'd just seen a couple of dartford warblers fly down in to the gorse, but they had not reappeared. We waited and listened but they seemed to have disappeared so the lady went on her way. I decided to hang around, and walked twenty or so metres further along the path. Then I heard something and looking up and could see a small bird silhouetted against the sky at the top of a small bare tree. I thought it must be a dunnock or robin, but through binoculars I could see the pink and grey colouring which told me that it was, in fact, a dartford warbler. I wasn't particularly close but it soon flew down into the gorse nearby. I decided to wait.
Sure enough I heard its song again and before long the dartford warbler flew out and perched firstly in a tree then into a gorse bush where it could be seen clearly. I quickly grabbed my camera and managed a few photos before once again, the bird disappeared. This time it stayed in the undergrowth although I did spot it flit about between bushes from time to time.
I could have waited but with time passing, I decided to return home, satisfied with one more species for the year and a few fairly respectable images on my camera.
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