On the way down

In the late hours of Saturday morning me and my parents prepared for our journey down to Cornwall to visit my brother. The idea was for me to stay with my brother until Thursday whilst my parents stayed in a hotel for there wedding anniversary. Luckily I managed to persuade my parents to make a short stop off on the way down. It was late afternoon when we arrived at the windswept Aylesbeare Common RSPB. I hastily got all my camera equipment ready not wanting to lose anymore light then I already had. My mum decided to stay in the car whilst my dad came with me to see the bird which the reserve is well known for. We walked around the rolling hilltop heath land waiting to hear the call or song of this scarce breeding species. As we walked we caught glimpses of Stonechats flying past or sometimes perching on the top of the gorse bushes. We eventually encountered our first view of our target species when we had strayed into the middle of the reserve, with no background noise of cars driving past we managed to hear the distinctive drawn out 'chaihhrr' of a Dartford Warbler. We stayed around waiting for one to come out into the open and after a short wait a lovely colourful DARTFORD WARBLER came and sat on the top of a tree. My dad was overjoyed and was making noises much to the discomfort of me and probably the bird. But over the hour that I stayed waiting around we saw up to 2+ birds at one time just in one small area. Photography wise they showed well but the low sun distorted my auto focus and I was left with many rubbish pictures. The pictures below do not do this wonderful bird justice.

Dartford Warbler