Westerly for wood warblers

My bird year is never complete unless I hear a wood warbler, but I am conscious they are being pushed more and more westerly. They used to be readily found in the Forest of Dean, but no more. I have heard them in oakwoods in mid and west Wales, and most reliably in the magical White Wood below Bench Tor in the Dartmoor National Park.

White Wood: dappled sunlight.

This year I made two brief visits to White Wood, the first on the afternoon of Saturday 8 June, a quick look-in after the Dartmoor Preservation Association AGM. I was rewarded with pied flycatchers but no wood warbler among the dappled trees; then I got a tantalising short snatch of song as I was leaving.

And so I returned at midday on Monday 10 June, dropping down by the Venford water-treatment works (where siskins sing), and following the stone track to the wood.

The way to the wood.

Again I saw a pied flycatcher as I entered the wood. Shortly after I heard the unmistakeable song of the wood warbler—a thrilling trill. At the end was the heart-stoppingly beautiful tuh tuh tuh. I listened and watched it for some time, flitting from tree to tree, often invisible, often sounding as though it came from somewhere else. I recorded it here (with noisy wren).

Wood warbler, well camouflaged.

That glorious song must sustain me for another year, with its memory of that exquisite western woodland.

White Wood.