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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

wood warblers (1 Viewer)

Local perhaps rather than rare - but a few singing birds in the N/W away from traditional grounds (e.g. Marbury CP in Cheshire) have delighted local birders.
 
Maybe it's the mature trees london. Out of interest what kind and age of trees age do they frequent.
ps. happy birthday aswell
 
Capercaillie71 said:
They are very much a bird associated with western oak woods and become scarcer the further east you go. I think they have also declined in numbers in recent years. Here is their breeding distribution from the 1976 and 1993 bird atlases:

http://blx1.bto.org/atlases/WO-comp.html

There's quite a noticeable reduction there below a line from the Severn to The Wash - I wonder, is the habitat becoming unsuitable or is this just a general contraction in range concentrating them back into their 'core' area?
 
cheers Rob ... well, the hotspot for them is Regents (annual spring singer, occasionally multiple singers) seen them singing there from Oak, Lime and London Plane (no understorey), on my patch (Kensington Gardens) there are many very old standard oaks which they have, so far, favoured (not that I've had too many there as yet)
 
Adey Baker said:
There's quite a noticeable reduction there below a line from the Severn to The Wash - I wonder, is the habitat becoming unsuitable or is this just a general contraction in range concentrating them back into their 'core' area?
My guess would be a range contraction (though no idea why)... in Norfolk, they used to be a regular scarce breeding bird until about ten years ago. The habitat's still there, but they're now a pretty tricky bird to catch up with on passage in the county.
 
I've had cause to look up the occurence of Wood Warblers as Spring passage migrants in Kent, and they seem to average out of about 10 sightings per year over the years 1996 - 2003. I'm unaware of any breeding sites - there either aren't any these days, or they're kept pretty quiet....
 
Ruby said:
I've had cause to look up the occurence of Wood Warblers as Spring passage migrants in Kent, and they seem to average out of about 10 sightings per year over the years 1996 - 2003. I'm unaware of any breeding sites - there either aren't any these days, or they're kept pretty quiet....

Hi Ruby,

There's still one or two haunts left in Surrey, although still pretty difficult to find.

Cheers,

John.
 
the local woods around here used to be full of wood warblers,but just the odd one for the last 3 years,i wonder if there decline is been caused in the wintering grounds,over the same period willow warbler,chiffchaff and blackcap have increased in numbers i would say.
 
Heard one singing in the Wyre Forest yesterday, As far as I know, only one was reported from this site last year, a definite decline on previous years.
Jackie
 
3 in recent days near the east coast / Norfolk-Suffolk border singing, unless anyone knows of more (?),

Would this be more than usual ? ...in what i've read is not a good area for them
 
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Wood Warbler is one of those species that mostly seems to bypass coastal watch points and just turns up miraculously on breeding grounds!
 
Jane Turner said:
Wood Warbler is one of those species that mostly seems to bypass coastal watch points and just turns up miraculously on breeding grounds!

Very true, although growing up in the Midlands I used to get Wood Warblers on spring passage most years. Probably at least as regular migrants in those areas as say Redstart or Pied Fly.

Also, a couple of years ago we had some big falls in August after some particularly severe weather. I think I saw 3 or 4 Wood Warblers at Fife Ness then - they were even commoner than Greenish Warblers (and I suspect from the same sorts of areas)!
 
Andrew Whitehouse said:
Very true, although growing up in the Midlands I used to get Wood Warblers on spring passage most years. Probably at least as regular migrants in those areas as say Redstart or Pied Fly.

Also, a couple of years ago we had some big falls in August after some particularly severe weather. I think I saw 3 or 4 Wood Warblers at Fife Ness then - they were even commoner than Greenish Warblers (and I suspect from the same sorts of areas)!

When you do bump into one on say the East coast though, they look as rare as Arctic Warblers!
 
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