Emerson's Green, January 2005: © Andrew Jordon.

Eastern Chiffchaff (presumed Siberian); Emerson's Green - 1st January 2005 to 28th March 2005.

Background

On 1 January 2005, I made my first visit of the winter to an area of Emerson's Green, which I check occasionally for unusual birds. The area consists of a wide open space with two small ponds, which regularly hold Moorhen and Mallard.

On this particular visit, a Chiffchaff was spotted feeding in the reeds of the bigger of the two ponds. My immediate impression was of a greyish bird and I watched the bird for a few minutes before concluding that it was possibly a Scandinavian Chiffchaff (or abietinus).

Five visits were then made to the same area between the 8th January and the 12th February, but the bird was only seen feeding in the reeds on two of these visits (8th January and 30th January). The next time I saw the bird was about 50 yards from my front door on the 25th February, when it flitted across the road and showed briefly before it disappeared into local gardens. I was unable to relocate it in twenty minutes of searching.

Then on the 1st March on my way to the bus stop at 7:10am (just after dawn), I heard an unusual bird calling in the same spot that I had seen last seen the Chiffchaff on the 25th February. The bird was calling a note similar to that of a Chiffchaff, although it clearly was not a call I was familiar with for this species. I located the bird and with my naked eye could tell that it was a Chiffchaff giving the call in the tree above me. I then continued on my way to work but came home at lunchtime to spend the afternoon looking for the bird. I spent all afternoon walking around Emerson's Green trying to locate the bird but it only showed for about five minutes in the reeds by the pond (300 yards from the spot where I had seen it in the morning). It then disappeared prior to my taking of a full description.

That evening was spent reading up on the identification of Siberian Chiffchaff so that I was armed with the key features that I needed to check the next time that I saw it. However, it was not until Saturday morning (5th March) that I managed to see the bird again (in the reeds by the pond) where I completed my description. The bird was then seen again on the Sunday (6th March) where it showed particularly well at times and enabled me to take photos in the afternoon. On the Sunday I decided to put the bird on the pager as a probable Siberian Chiffchaff because I was able to stay around in the area for the whole afternoon. No birders turned up to see the bird via the pager network although my Dad, Mr D Jordan and Mr J Potter (both birdwatchers) did see the bird. They commented on the greyness of the bird and they also heard the bird call.

The bird was again seen on the 13th March but I did not put the bird on the pager network because it was now almost exclusively feeding in an evergreen hedge bordering a garden near to the pond. I had been taking photos of the bird in this hedge on the Sunday of the previous week and the neighbours on both sides had asked me what I was up to. Whilst they were alright with me taking pictures, I doubted they would have been too impressed if more people turned up!

The bird was last seen on the 28th March 2005.

Andrew Jordon - March 2005.