Blyth's Reed Warbler

For around a week or so there has been a Blyth's Reed Warbler holding territory about an hour outside Copenhagen at Vindbyholt. Having only ever seen one autumn 1st winter bird in the UK, I was keen to go and see it. These birds are mainly night songsters, so to have the best chance, I had to arrange a crack logistically challenging mission under cover of the limited darkness at this time of year. I ended up catching the S-train from Copenhagen to Køge and then the last local train to Faxe Ladeplads (with my bike) on Thursday evening and cycling from there. This meant I arrived in Faxe Ladeplads at 00:30, giving me about 2.5/3 hours of darkness. The first train back in the morning was at 05:00 so I knew I would have several hours to spend in the vicinity. Luckily there was also a Savi's Warbler, another night-time songster, reported very close to Faxe Ladeplads station so I started by cycling to that site. Sure enough, I could hear it immediately on arrival and it sang constantly for the 10 minutes I was there, alongside Thrush Nightingale, Marsh Warbler and a chorus of frogs. Good start. From there I cycled the 8km or so to Vindbyholt. It was a beautiful night - clear, still and warm - and I could hear more Thrush Nightingales, several Tawny Owls and a Long-eared Owl along the way. On arrival at the Blyth's site at 01:45 I could hear the bird immediately, singing from some thickish vegetation alongside a small brook. It was only a short walk along the edge of the brook to get closer and it was from here that I stood and listened as it sang, without interruption, until 03:05. Apart from the gentle sound of the running water, it was a completely silent night with no traffic noise and no other birds singing in the vicinity. It was like being in the company of a world-class musician playing a solo just for me..! The song reminded me of a slow and more relaxed Marsh Warbler - lots of mimicry with each phrase repeated up to 10 times but the phrases were not as 'hurried' as in Marsh and with longer gaps in between each burst. I started to note the different species that were being plagiarised - in that time I identified Great Tit, Willow Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Marsh Warbler, Reed Warbler, Blackbird, Swift, Thrush Nightingale, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet, Starling, Whitethroat and White Wagtail and I am sure there were more.

I recorded a sample of its song which you can hear below (recorded at 02:00am).

As it got light (it never really got fully dark!), I managed to see the bird - a dullish acro sp with a long, thinish bill, obvious supercilium and noticeably short primary projection relative to Marsh and Reed. It was really cool to see a singing Spring male instead of the skulky autumn juveniles we get in the UK.

Both Savi's and Blyth's Reed were new species for Denmark for me, so that takes my total, including the Pacific Swift, to 249. One more to the magic 250!

Blyth's Reed Warbler, 18 June 2010 from Terry Townshend on Vimeo.