Not Stiffed In Staffs

 My brother has enjoyed something of a warbler twitch fest of late seeing River, Great Reed and Marsh in fairly quick succession so reports of a Blyth's Reed relatively close to home was enough to have him reaching for his car keys. Happily I was able to accompany him on this particular jaunt and we set out hoping for the same sort of success that he'd already experienced with the others. 

Blyth's Reed Warbler giving decent view...

This bird had spent several days at Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve, Staffs and judging from the photographs on the internet was showing pretty well at times. On arrival at the site we tagged along with a local birder that knew the area well and had similarly twitchy intentions towards that warbler. Walking along the reserve's paths produced views of a Great White Egret and we heard Grasshopper Warbler and Cuckoo. Plenty of Cetti's were in fine voice too though we didn't linger for too long as a string of favourable report's coming from smiling birders returning from the Blyth's were too promising to resist. Hopefully the prospect of a second Monday dip in a row could be averted!

....and better views

We heard the bird singing before we saw it, a musical song quite different from the bog standard Reed, it had originally been identified as a Marsh when first found. I'd fully expected some skulking LBJ offering only brief views as it moved through thick vegetation but happily I could not have been proved more wrong! The Blyth's was perched at the top of a Willow singing its heart out when we arrived and went on to spend quite a lot of time there during our stay. Occasionally it would drop down out of sight but never for too long before returning to its favourite perch. We watched it for about twenty minutes before moving on, we were very unlikely to improve on the views that we had already had and my brother David had a shift to do at work. My first new species of the year and a good one too, while Blyth's Reeds are not quite the mega rarity that they were a decade or two ago they're still a rare bird. To get great views of a singing bird instead of brief glimpses of a bird lurking deep within a bush on the East coast on some dreary Autumnal day was a definite bonus!

If only all rare warblers were so obliging!