Whitethroat!

Not a warm day, but I walked from work in Stocklake along the canal nearly as far as bridge 15.

A blackcap was heard singing just outside work, with a chiffchaff not much later. A red kite passed over in the distance as I neared the area out the back of my house, where I finally saw one male blackcap singing loudly.

There were several starlings in striking plumage along the raised bank that runs parallel to the canal. Then I heard a familiar metallic warbling noise, followed it, and was rewarded with a lovely male whitethroat who popped out and sang for me on the top of a bush just next to bridge 16! It's the first bird I've seen so close to the house (and of course only the second trip I've ever had when I've seen one), so a great one to watch before it flew away. Though I heard it singing slightly out of sight across the canal for a while afterwards.

Whilst standing on bridge 16 I spotted a silent sedge warbler hopping through the trees just near the bridge, and a pied wagtail landed on the bridge brickwork mere feet away, then proceeded to stand there wagging and staring at me quite contentedly for about a minute. There were also many dunnocks, including one which sang in sight, so that's good news as I hadn't seen or heard (m)any for quite a while. A common tern also flew along the canal towards the end of my time there.

It turns out my own myth about blackbirds singing later on in the day is not true. It just seems that they sing more prolifically in the late afternoon and evening - a beautiful sound!