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Thursday 27 June 2013

Inverkeithing surprise - Lesser Whitethroat

This morning as I left the house I saw the first dark spots on the ground before I had even reached the car. Rain. It's been a while, but I went to Inverkeithing anyway. I decided to go to the south side of the harbour because it's a short walk to the harbour from the car if the rain is tricky and I haven't been there for a while. How lucky I did! As I passed the metal recycling place I heard a song from the path-side gorse. A little bit like a Sylvia warbler had mated with a finch ... wait, what? I remember the first time I heard that song, somewhere in Oop North on the way to Norfolk. The bird which seems to have two different songs stapled together - Lesser Whitethroat!

I tried and tried to see it. I tried by standing still. I tried by moving. It continued to sing. I continued to not see it. Finally during one of my less stealthy moves a bird shape darted from the gorse and into the trees. And so it disappeared - a small dark bird with not quite white outer tail feathers. One of the first birds I saw at Inverkeithing was a Lesser Whitethroat, which I supposed was a tired migrant, given it allowed approach to about a foot and probably would have allowed me to pick it from the bush it was in. But maybe it wasn't. A year later another was found at Carlingnose Point, and they historically bred at nearby St. Margaret's Marsh. So maybe Lesser Whitethroat is, after all, still a local breeder.

A good way to get things moving again after a month of no new additions to the INK year list.

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