Marsh warbler is one of those birds, Savi's is another, that I've really not seen that many of. It's hard to know why really, but I guess that I saw the species quite early in my birding life and since then I've just not bothered with them. Living in north west England I'm very unlikely to come across one in the course of general birding and I'm never inclined to twitch them because they can often be very elusive.
However today I'm in Lincoln in between two dusk breeding bird surveys so had ample opportunity during the day to call in at nearby Chapel Six Marshes to see a singing marsh warbler that was found early morning. I'm so glad that I did make the effort because this was a very special bird. It was singing on top of a bush as close as 3m from the path and at one point was creeping in the reeds less than a metre from me!
It has absolutely everything, the song, the orange gape, the lemony coloured underparts, shortish bill, rounded head, pale legs, I even had a good look at the tertials and primaries, though I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here! Well I do know, but such detail is never clear cut to me.
Anyway, quite aside from the identification features, it was a cracking little bird and a pleasure to watch and listen to.
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