Warbler song (County Durham, England) (1 Viewer)

Walking the dog this morning, I heard this singing in a dense bush. It was making scratchy Sedge Warbler type noises at first (I caught a bit of that in the WarblerA file), but when they moved (there were two) it was clear that they were unmarked grey/brown birds with paler underparts, and a flash of white along the edge of the wing when they flitted between branches. And then one of them started the more tuneful singing in the WarblerB file...

I can't get the song to fit with my next guess of Garden Warbler or Lesser Whitethroat, and that flash of white was unexpected.

The sound quality on the attached files isn't great - I didn't want to get too close and the dog wouldn't stay still, but hopefully someone can get a more positive ID from them.

I think this thread merits more attention!..If not for the ''song,'' there's always the description?

Cheers

My guess would be Common Whitethroat subsong, with the "flash of white along the edge of the wing" being on the tail edges, rather than wing edge.

Must admit that they sound like some of the Common Whitethroat I was watching/hearing this morning at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park.

I often find this time of year when birds first return that it takes them a bit of time before they properly settle into their usual song. It happens with several different species of warbler. Even some of the Chiffchaff seem to struggle at first and lets face it there's not much song for them to get straight!

The second recording is much better, I can pick out tones which would suit Garden Warbler in subsong.

Thanks for the replies!

The birds were still there this morning, and while I couldn't actually see them today, the song was much more suited to Garden Warbler - and I really got my ears more tuned in to their sounds with some close up observations at Rainton Meadows of two different GWs in song yesterday afternoon.

Still at a loss to explain the white flash I saw (not sure if any other similar birds have that as an ID feature), but for now I'm happy to accept them as Garden Warbler, which is still a first for me in Consett.

Yes sounds similar to garden warbler bubbly can,t get his notes out quick enough slightly up on black cap.