Great Reed Warbler, Wintersett

I've seen a few great reed warblers over the years, initially they were all in Europe but in recent years I've also managed to connect with a few in the UK, including the latest bird which I saw last week at Wintersett reservoir at Angler's Country Park in West Yorkshire. It was a decent enough view on the edge of a reed bed, very much like many a great reed warbler I've seen in the past, but typical of the species it was all about the song, a loud far carrying cross between a reed warbler and a nightingale, with lots of repeated harsh notes intermingled with croaks and whistles. In otherwords it was a standard great reed warbler year tick and not much more.

However today I got the opportunity to go back for a second look, and this time the bird performed much better. For starters it was much closer, half the distance I would say, no more than about 20m away. Best of all it was associating closely with reed warblers which were tiny in comparison. I'm not sure why these birds were associating, perhaps the smaller birds thought that the larger bird was a predator and they were trying to drive it away, but their behaviour didn't seem aggressive. It was almost like watching a young cuckoo being attended to by its surrogate parents or an older child who never grew up still playing with the toddlers. Quite comical almost.

Three or four reed warblers and the great reed would fly around the tops of the reeds and then land, whereupon the great reed would slowly sink lower and lower because the reeds couldn't support it's weight. In flight it appeared proportionately longer tailed than reed warbler, and its tail was distinctly rounded, and it seemed a paler bird, possibly because of it's almost white throat. It also had a very stout bill.

On my first visit the great reed warbler was less showy but more vocal. It took a while for me to realise that the bird was a good bit further away than I had initially thought. At this time of year when you've heard a lot of reed warblers, it's hard to appreciate how much louder the song of great reed warbler is, so you tend to think that it's right in front of you when in fact it's at the back of the reed bed.

Great reed warbler is the size of a song thrush and because the reeds often can't take their weight they slowly sink lower and lower into the vegetation after landing. In Europe they are more often than not in beds of giant reed which are much more sturdy and more like bamboo than common reed.