Fenton Park, Stoke

Thanks to Nick and Martyn on Twitter (amazing thing this Social Networking), found my way to Fenton Park. Asked gardener Andrew Finch for directions. Turns out he knew his birds and took me to the spot and bingo, up popped the bird. After that is was pretty skulky. Not especially remarkable looking as Lesser Whitethroats go but before I had any recording stuff ready it gave a lovely blast of Sardinian Warbler like ’churrrrr’. Flip! well worth going to see just to hear that call. It also gave more typical Lesser Whitethroat ’tack’ calls. These sounded a little ‘thicker’ than usual to me but maybe just wishful thinking. See what the sonagram says. It even seemed to start with ‘tack’ which sped up and merged into a churrrrr. The chur call, from the little I know makes it an ‘eastern bird’, probably a little more North-Eastern than South-Eastern. Might  try for more sound recordings and info on tail pattern. Some nice photos on Staffordshire Bird News. Beware when looking at Lesser Whitethroat photos. The nuances of plumage tone can be massively affected /corrupted by different cameras/ light/ photo processing! A few not so good pics from me today (poor light, v. skulky bird and host of other lame excuses). 25th Jan 2012

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