Who Is Sylvia?

She's a shy, secretive warbler with smooth, silky white underparts who skulks in scrub.

Over the past few years I've been hearing in the distance, but not seeing, a bird that I have been unable to identify. This year the bird has come close and has been calling loudly from our disused and overgrown glasshouses. Today I managed to pinpoint it in a field maple. My pic is rubbish but I'm delighted that I have been able to identify it as a lesser whitethroat. I sketched what I could see and its 'bandit mask' is diagnostic, together with its distinctive call.

Amazing that these little birds winter in the Sudan and Chad and migrate via the eastern Mediterranean rather than going via Gibraltar.

I loved listening to Dame Janet Baker singing "Who Is Sylvia" earlier. We used to sing it at school and now Ollie dog has to listen to me warbling it. :)

As my pic of the lbj is a bit boring and rubbish I've embellished it with other creatures I found today. :)