Whitethroat Sightings

Greenham Common was alive with birds today as I enjoyed the pleasant spring sunshine with a lengthy early morning walk.

One sighting of particular interest during my two hour walk were several pairs of Whitethroats. One pair was first spotted in the central runway area and then a further sighting was made just to the west of the cordoned off area for ground nesting birds near EPC. This area adjoins woodland. Each sighting was in dense thickets of undergrowth with one in Gorse.

The Whitethroat is a summer visitor to the UK and has Amber Status, so it is nice to see this uncommon bird on Greenham Common (a first for me!).

These birds spend winter in sub-Saharan Africa, so they may still be on migration to other parts of the UK, stopping off at Greenham Common - or if we are lucky they may stay for the summer.

Whitethroats are about Robin size and the bird photographed was quite vocal, moving from bush to bush.