Warblers

The warblers are arriving in large numbers now, filling the woods with their songs. I can only recognise two of them, the very distinct chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff of the chiffchaff and the falling notes of the willow warbler. However, while their songs are distinctive the physical differences between the two are small.

Identifying this one on our walk this morning was easy as he was quite happy to continue chiff-chaffing until I was close enough to get a picture. He's brownish-green on his upper parts and buff below, and has a bit of a pale ring around his eye.

If he was easy, the next two, who refused to sing while I took their pictures, were much more difficult. I think this is a chiffchaff, largely on the basis of his colour while....

....this one is a willow warbler, as he shows much more yellow and has pale legs.

There was so much more to see with spring now rushing upon us, including far too many of these in the road banks. It's field horsetail, a rather unpleasant weed which reminded us of a walk from Felixstowe to Newbourne almost exactly a year ago - link here.