Serin

A quick last blip of a singing serin before we drove back to Vienna for our flight home.

This one is for the birders and naturalists. Our apartment was on the edge of the village of Illmitz and a short walk each morning took me to a quiet lane running between mixed agricultural fields and trees. I always enjoy finding out what birds are common in a new area, especially when they are different from back home in the UK. The resident birds down the lane included icterine warblers, red-backed shrikes, nightingales, serins, black redstarts, turtle doves, hobby and hawfinch as well as more familiar birds like blackbirds, whitethroats, and blackcaps. Not a bad collection!

But there was one bird that had consistently defied me. I heard it singing on the first day - like a loud garden warbler or blackcap - and when I glimpsed it at the top of a bush it looked large. I guessed it was a barred warbler, one of the species I most wanted to see - and photograph if possible - in breeding plumage. On subsequent morning walks it remained stubbornly silent or hidden.

On this particular morning I heard it call - a distinctive rattle, tailing off towards the end - and a couple of snatch of song. Definitely a bared warbler. But try as I might, I simply could not see it, so had to go home with only this mediocre shot of a serin.

Another time, perhaps.

There's a set of bird pictures here

There are also small sets of butterflies and flowers for anyone who's interested.