For all my time living at this house I’ve marvelled at the airborne agility of the swallows, however this year those ‘red arrows’ may have a dog fight on their hands...
For several days I have seen a bird from the window but have dismissed it as ‘just another warbler’- brown colouration, fairly small - and I’ve never got close enough to identify it properly. Yesterday an opportunity arose, as it perched conveniently on the car aerial. Bird book in hand, I watched for ten minutes and worked my way through each warbler, discarding them in turn. It was only when I turned the page onto flycatchers that I saw a photo jump out at me.
A spotted flycatcher. At close range you can see the streaks on its head and breast that seems less pure than most warblers. And this bird was more captivating than the warblers, rather than hiding in trees or reed beds this was out in the open and its large black eyes were constantly turning, tilting and taking in the surroundings. Sure enough I was shown why it gets its name. Whereas the swallows dart around in constant flight the flycatcher is like a guided missile, from its perch - the aerial - it locked onto some prey, darted off and returned in a single swift movement. Sadly the spotted flycatcher is declining - between 1980 and 2005 numbers fell by 79% - so I’m very privileged to see such a bird at such close quarters. The real moral of this story, however, is never make assumptions. Nature is full of surprises and is constantly out to trick us: if I had lazily assumed and called the flycatcher ‘just another warbler’, I may have never spotted the spotted flycatcher
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