The common whitethroat (Sylvia communis, Dansk: tornsanger) is a warbler which arrives here for the summer from Africa and frequents the undergrowth and bramble thickets. It used to be prevalent in my local meadow but for the last 2-3 years I’ve only seen a few there. But they have been nesting in hedgerows and drainage ditches in other fields, so it seems they are here just not in the same place. Their conservation status according to the British Trust for Ornithology is amber, indicating their numbers are declining so it may be that there just aren’t as many making it back here.
Male whitethroat (my best whitethroat picture to date!)
The males perch on top of brambles, as he’s doing here, singing their distinctive song, and they occasionally flit vertically up in the air in a very jerky pattern and drop back down again to land in the same spot, and that activity is also very disctinctive. It’s definitely summer when the whitethroat arrive in the fields!
I want to finish this minipost with a word about WordPress awards. Several fellow bloggers have been kind enough to nominate ‘The Naturephile’ for a WP award in the recent past. A couple of years ago when I received several nominations in quick succession I found myself inundated and decided not to take part in the awards. I had insufficient time to do the award and insufficient time to write my posts, so it wasn’t through curmudgeonliness but because I think that if someone is generous enough to nominate me then I owe it to them to reciprocate accordingly, and I simply didn’t have time to do that.
So instead of accepting awards I’m going to show my appreciation by writing a post for everyone who nominates me, so this whitethroat is for Petrel41 at the terrific blog ‘Dear Kitty. Some blog‘. Please click the link and go and have a browse, there is lots of good reading there!
The Naturephile 
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That’s an awesome photo!
Thanks Terry.
A beautiful whitethroat photo, Finn! I’m in total agreement about awards, and I like the solution you’ve settled on very much.
Hello Gary, thanks for your support and I’m glad you like the whitethroat. I think it’s one of my best ever bird photographs, he’s a beauty!
What a fantastic picture of a beautiful little chap. Congratulations on your awards, I’ve made the same decision about receiving them, there just isn’t time to do them justice but it’s very nice to be nominated.
Thanks Lorna, the awards thing is a dilemma, I don’t want to appear ungrateful but I simply don’t have the time to do it properly. But I hope my compromise approach works.
I think it’s very sensible.
What a gorgeous perky little bird… do you have to wait for ages to get your good shots???
Hello Valerie, he’s a beauty, and he just arrived from Africa a few weeks ago, amazing stuff. I very rarely sit and wait at all, my method is to walk until I see a subject and then sneak as close to it as I can to try to get a good picture. Sometimes it works… and sometimes it doesn’t. This time I was lucky!
Thank you so much, Finn, for this beautiful blog post!
Also about whitethroats:
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/little-grebes-and-whitethroats/
You’re very welcome. Thank you for the award nomination!
PS – do you have a twitter id?
I don’t, but I keep thinking I should and you’ve just nudged me a step closer.
I could tweet a link but without an account id for people to check, I’m less likely to do so – any you won’t know I’ve done it, whereas you can see who ‘mentions’ you or retweeets your posts.
I’m on the case Paul. I’ll get twittered in the near future.
Nice pic with throat really puffed out and head feathers raised, – you can almost smell the testosterone.
Thanks Paul, you’re dead right, I think he’s on a mission!