Warbler Central – Garden Warblers at RSPB Fen Drayton

I’ve talked about warblers before. Basically, the warblers are a non-scientific grouping of similar birds. In the UK, we often see and hear  a variety of warblers, mostly summer visitors, among them Blackcap, Cetti’s Warbler, Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin), Grasshopper Warbler, Great Reed Warbler (occasionally), Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, and Willow Warbler.

Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin, singing in a tree at RSPB Fen Drayton close to Ferry Lagoon
Garden Warbler, Sylvia borin

I headed to RSPB Fen Drayton Lakes nature reserve on a promise of Arctic Terns as a big influx had been reported on Tuesday, some 36, arriving in two waves, 29 and then 7, from Grafham Water. This is a huge number for one inland patch, especially in East Anglia.

Arctic Tern in flight RSPB Fen Drayton, Drayton Lake
One of several dozen Arctic Tern at RSPB Fen Drayton in late April 2024

More often, we’d have Common Terns and only a sporadic appearance of single figures Arctic. I had alerted the local birding community to a Sandwich Tern on 17th April 2024. A relative rarity that unusually stuck around for several days at the reserve. We also get Black Tern on these lakes.

Anyway, I saw just a few of the Arctic Terns on the water. However, a nice patch facing out over Ferry Lagoon fringed with some very noisy trees and bushes had Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler calling noisily alongside Chiffchaff, Lesser Whitethroat, and Willow Warbler. There were several of each species. There were also two or three Cuckoo calling from far off trees. That aside, I got a shot of one of the Garden Warblers. I thought it was my first attempt at photographing this bird, but I discovered that I had photos of it in the warbler post from 2022.

At least 43 birds on sight or sound this morning:

  1. Arctic Tern
  2. Blackbird
  3. Black-headed Gull
  4. Blue Tit
  5. Bittern
  6. Carrion Crow
  7. Chaffinch
  8. Chiffchaff
  9. Common Tern
  10. Coot
  11. Cormorant
  12. Cuckoo
  13. Dunnock
  14. Garden Warbler
  15. Goldcrest
  16. Goldfinch
  17. Great Crested Grebe
  18. Great Tit
  19. Greenfinch
  20. Green Woodpecker
  21. Greylag Goose
  22. House Martin
  23. Kestrel
  24. Lesser Whitethroat
  25. Long-tailed Tit
  26. Magpie
  27. Mallard
  28. Marsh Harrier
  29. Moorhen
  30. Mute Swan
  31. Pheasant
  32. Robin
  33. Rook
  34. Sand Martin
  35. Sedge Warbler
  36. Song Thrush
  37. Starling
  38. Swallow
  39. Swift
  40. Whitethroat
  41. Willow Warbler
  42. Wood Pigeon
  43. Wren

Footnote: We do see Grasshopper Warblers (Groppers) locally, but I didn’t today. Dartford Warbler was seen a couple of summers ago, but a fairly rare sight. I’ve seen the rather rare Wood Warbler, but not in the UK, it was up the hill in Split, Croatia, back in 2017 before we drank all that dark ale on the way down and had catfish and chips for tea.

More about the British warblers on the BBC Countryfile site here.