Barred Warbler, Gunners Park

Barred Warbler at Gunners Park in Essex. 

This produced mixed thoughts, having spent over three hours last weekend staring at bramble bushes in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of one at Thorpeness in Suffolk.

We left Thorpeness with no sightings and only a couple of Whitethroat, Dunnock and Robins to show for the three hour vigil.

So today I wasn't that keen to make the trip, eventually a second report  persuaded myself and dad to hit the road and head for Gunners park.

Three miles away from the park and the pager bleeped into action to report that the Barred Warbler was "showing well" from the concrete pad in the Northeast corner.

After the satnav got confused about a new road layout we managed to locate the car park and quickly made our way along the footpath and headed towards the concrete pad.

Two birders were present when we arrived, but the bird had seemingly gone to ground just before we arrived.

Twenty minutes later and a likely looking bird flew across and dived down behind the hawthorn bushes we had been staring at.

Dad took a walk round to the footpath that ran behind these bushes and located the bird shortly afterwards. I joined him and a short time later managed to spot the bird in an apple tree that was right next to the Hawthorn.

Views were mostly brief and fleeting, but it seemed to follow a simple pattern. Dive into the middle of the Apple tree, flit back left and into the Hawthorn, grab a Hawthorn Berry and move back into the safety of the Apple tree.

After watching the bird do this 4-5 times I managed to pick the bird out in the Apple tree and got prolonged views as it sat there eating the fruit.

The presence of a Lesser Whitethroat and a Garden Warbler didn't help picking up the Barred, but both of these birds would fly from here across the short grass into neighbouring scrub, whereas the barred seemed to stay either in the Apple tree or the Hawthorn.

A trip I wasn't that keen on when we set off, proved well worth the journey.

The map above shows the Car Park and the favoured feeding area while we were there today.
You can view one side of the Hawthorn, Brambles and Apple tree from either the concrete pad or the other side from the footpath.