Tricked by a couple of Whitethroats.

By lunchtime today I was fed up with gardening so I went over to Marsh Lane for a short break.

A quick look round showed up a couple of distant Dunlins and that was about all I saw of any interest so knowing a Lesser Whitethroat had been seen earlier near the car park gate I thought I'd have a go and see if I could get some shots.

Luckily it's rattling call is easy to recognise even for me and I was able to locate it fairly quickly.Seeing one, however, is a different matter as they skulk around low down in hedges.Well they do for me.After an hour of trying to get a shot in blistering heat and racked by a raging thirst all I'd got was a single pretty poor shot.There was lots of swearing as it kept darting around in the gloom of the bushes.

Then suddenly it shot out of the hedge and perched up in a nearby tree.Got you you swine I thought and rattled of a few shots.Here's one of them.

It wasn't till I'd got home that I realised the cunning fox had called his cousin (a Common) in and got him to pose in a tree so he could do a runner.What a miserable so and so.

Here is the one shot I got of the Lesser Whitethroat (well I hope it is a Lesser).