Warbling

Willow warblers are now back and singing, only a few days behind the chiffchaff. The picture is not a perfect one but is actually a fair representation of what we're likely to see of them before the trees green up.

He has paler legs than his close, almost identical cousin but it's actually his song that differentiates him best. I think of chiffchaffs as warblers who never learned to sing properly.

Warbling has got something of a bad name, unfairly I think, being a word often used to describe wobbly high singing in humans. The avian warblers are some of the very best singers of all.

Later in the day swallows are flying over the moor and wheatears have returned.