Siberian chiffchaff in Ramsdales

A presumed Siberian chiffchaff tristis was with a flock of long-tailed tits on the ruck near to the 5-bar metal gate just west of the leaning posts, adjacent to Ramsdales reedbed. I initially had a very brief view of a chiffchaff with a distinct pale supercilium in a birch tree. I tried a bit of playback and the bird responded immediately, flying right over my head and landing in a tree 3m behind me on the ruck.

Unfortunately I was looking right into the bright sun, so I could get no colouration on the bird, it was just a tail-pumping silhouette. The bird called twice, a bullfinch like call quite unlike a common chiffchaff collybita. Then it was gone, it flew over the pond and into the trees. I didn't see it again. 

I'm calling it presumed rather than definite just because I didn't see it as well as I would like and the call doesn't completely rule out other races of chiffchaff, though how likely they are to be seen in the UK I couldn't say. Perhaps rarer than tristis!

 
Over the past four or five winters I've spent a lot of time at the sewage works at Martin Mere watching and listening to the several tristis that over winter there. I have no doubt that what I heard was this race.

Also today a great white egret was in Ramsdales. This is the first I have seen here for a few days, since the water levels went up.