Marsh Warblers, the first breeding record for Spurn

During the last week of May and the first week of June a minimum of 23 marsh Warblers were recorded in the Spurn area, all the birds seen in field were singing males so it is anyones guess how many silent birds or females were around but not seen.

Over the weekend of 30th May/1st June there were several Marsh Warblers about that visitors could see relatively easily, most were in typical Spurn habitat (Buckthorn) wholly unsuitable for the species nesting requirements, it was therefore not surprising that these birds tended to move on after just one or two days. Two birds were however in much more suitable surroundings and had been present for several days. It was therefore pretty obvious to the locals that these two birds were in fact holding territory. Thus on Sunday 1st June after most of the weekend visitors had departed we contacted the information services and made arrangements for news of these birds to be withheld, just in case.

The two sites were widely spaced and whilst one was in a very public place the other was in a private area with no public access. Whilst both birds continued to sing after the weekend visits to the public bird were limited because we didn't want to draw attention to the birds continued presence for obvious reasons. Although the bird started to sing less frequently and became very elusive no evidence was found of a breeding attempt and it seems that ultimately this bird was unsuccessful in attracting a mate and moved on though we are not sure exactly when this happened.

In contrast the other site couldn't have looked more positive, a second male had now started singing in roughly the same area and a female was inadvertantly caught during one of the regular ringing sessions in the neighbouring field. So we were on! there was definitely a pair! Both males continued to sing although the unpaired bird started to move around the area a little more and sang less frequently, after a couple of weeks the bird had given up and moved on leaving the pair which had been observed nest building from the 4/06.

The birds were left alone with visits made every few days to keep an eye on progress. Although the nest was not looked for it was obvious the general area it was in and indeed on 30/6 both adults were observed taking food into this area, obviously feeding young in the nest. Great news came on the 9/7 when 3+ fledged young were seen adjacent to the nest area Spurn had it's first (and Yorkshires 3rd) breeding record of this species. After this date the birds became very elusive and typical of the species it is thought they moved on rapidly. Marsh Warblers were reported on a couple of occasions in the following weeks but it is not clear if these were related to the breeding family.

Although the previous Yorkshire records of breeding marsh Warblers weren't repeated in subsequent years it is interesting that since the West Midlands breeding population of Marsh Warblers died out a few years ago east coast breeding records have increased, maybe we will see this charismatic songster more frequently in future years.