When I was younger I often dreamed of living on the Norfolk coast, with Pink-footed Geese flying over my house in the pale and watery morning light, and seeing the occasional rare bird nearby. When I finally made it out here, I thought I'd maybe see a Radde's or a Dusky over the coming years, or even maybe two, not too far from home. In fact, I might even be lucky enough to find one for myself. The reality has far exceeeded even my wildest dreams, and I still pinch myself at times.
The number of Radde's and Dusky's I've been lucky to see within a mile eaither side of my house has astonished me. There is something about this part of east Norfolk that they like. Yes, we have put a lot of effort in and are reasonably sharp and experienced observers, but even so, the numbers are quite staggering: at least 11 Dusky Warblers and 5 Radde's Warblers have been found within a mile each way of Sea Palling, averaging out at one of either per year. Five people have been involved in the discoveries – Andy Kane, Phil Heath and myself have been fortunate to find the lion's share (all of the Radde's and 9 of the Dusky Warblers, between us) with the other two the Dusky Warblers found by Andy MacKay and Graham Etherington. All of the birds have occurred between late September and early November, with the Radde's being in the first half of that period, and the Dusky Warblers in the second half.
Most have been picked up on call, unsurprisingly, but one Dusky was found as it flew across the main road to the beach at Sea Palling, by Phil as he was driving down. Luckily he managed to locate it afterwards. Most have been extremely skulky birds and have taken a lot of effort to pin down and view in rank vegetation, overgrown margins and very dense and tangled undergrowth. On more than one occasion, Andy and I have exclaimed Radde's! or Dusky! in unison at each other upon first hearing one call. Always a very exciting moment, swiftly followed by wondering how easy it is going to be to see...
All the birds have stuck long enough after the initial sighting for other observers to view the birds but one Dusky was incredibly brief, showing (after calling for a short period) only to Phil and myself for a few seconds before flitting off down Money Lane never to be seen again. The longest period between sightings was of a Radde's I found near Seabreeze in the early morning in late Sept 2007. It called (the typical, slightly liquid call) and I was able to pish it out, getting half decent views. It then disappeared and wasn't seen again until almost six o'clock that evening, when Andy and Tim refound it a hundred yards to the north. There followed a crazy dash across fields as the bird was moving incredibly quickly, covering the ground towards the road like lightning. It crossed the road into inaccessible scrub and wasn't seen again.
The trickiest was a Radde's in Waxham Churchyard. First seen in flight by Phil but not conclusively identified as he had to leave for work. I spent another six hours in there trying nail it before it climbed an umbellifer head in the late afternoon and paraded itself in waning light for me.
Perhaps the most amazing was a Radde's that spent four days in a private garden that we have access to. At one point, myself, Andy and Tim Nicolson were watching it at point blank range when it began to sing. I had never heard a Radde's sing anywhere, never mind on my local patch, and it was a special experience being able to watch it belting out its stuff.
Of the two species, Radde's are definitely my favourite. They're slightly rarer and a bit more unpredictable in my experience. The plumage is a bit more interesting as well, with some birds having a lovely rusty-buff suffusion on the rear flanks. Dusky Warblers have proved less mobile and on average have been more likely to linger for a day or two. A Radde's that Andy and I flushed on Shelley's track only gave us brief – but good – views as it perched on a horizontal branch. One of the Dusky Warblers seemingly lingered for several weeks being refound in the same location as it was found. There was no sign of it inbetween but it was surely the same bird.
Whether this pattern of occurrence of both species will continue as our climate changes is a good question. I hope it does as it provides inspiration to keep going out and to keep searching. There are no secrets to finding these birds. Being in suitable habitat at the right time of year, especially when conditions are favourable, and being alert to calls and movement, is it really. It's not rocket science. The skill perhaps comes in confirming and getting good views of birds. Get out there, get searching and with a bit of luck you will find your own Radde's and Dusky Warblers in the coming years.
All of the Radde's and ten of the eleven Dusky Warblers have been submitted to the Records Committee and been accepted. The other Dusky hasn't been submitted. Below are copies of a Radde's and a Dusky Warbler description, as submitted to the County Records Committee:
Radde's Warbler Waxham Churchyard, Oct 11 Phil Heath, Tim Allwood, Andy Kane
After a late breakfast, a phone call from Phil at around midday of a possible Radde's in the churchyard had me getting Eleanor booted up and in the car sharpish. When I arrived there, Phil informed me that he only had a few more minutes before he had to leave. He thought that the bird was a Radde's, but he had only seen it poorly – and not well enough to categorically rule out a Dusky. He did, however, get a look at the bill which he thought was on the large side and clearly pro-Radde's. Almost immediately the bird called and to my ears there was absolutely no doubt, it was clearly a Radde's – the note was much less strident than a typical Dusky and with a much more 'liquid' quality. Unfortunately the subdued nature of the calls meant that we had to listen quite intently at times to pick the bird up. We then had brief views of the bird in flight where the warm buffy tones towards the rear of the bird could be seen, again indicating a Radde's. Phil left and I had to return home briefly to bring the dog in as I'd locked him out in the garden in my haste to get down to the church.
I returned minutes later and was joined by Andy Kane. The bird was still rather vocal. We were managing to track it through the nettle bed and low vegetation only as a flitting shape and it was proving to be a typically annoying Radde's. Our next view was as the bird broke from cover and flew 20 yards, passing about seven or so yards in front of us at head height as it did so. During this flight view the bird called four times and it was possible to make out the rather bull-necked and large-headed front end, bold head pattern, brown upperparts and buffy underparts with clearly warmer buffy-toned rear flanks / undertail coverts. Over the next thirty minutes we were treated to the most appalling views of a good bird that you could imagine; a flicker hear, a twitching nettle stem there, a glimpse of the rear end for half a second, a view of the head through myriad branches and leaves. Andy and Tim Nicholson left to have a look at the Great Grey Shrike while I persisted with the Radde's. A very few people who were birding in the area came to have a look, and most lasted a few minutes before the arduous task of locating the bird and following it through the vegetation, all the while never getting anything remotely close to a satisfactory view, became too much for them and they gave up.
Yes, the bird was a pain but to my mind Radde's are fantastic birds and I wanted to get satisfactory views of this bird just down the road from my house. This didn't happen until well after 5:30 pm, and after the message for the Rufous-tailed Robin came out correctly (I have a vivid picture of this moment still fresh in my mind's eye thanks to the reactions of a rather distressed Robin Abel (RIP) et al., as the story unfolded). It was around then that the bird finally climbed into an umbellifer and showed itself to me. Not exactly great views, but for this individual bird, it was as good as it would ever get and finally enabled me to compile a decent and complete description:
The upperparts were a darkish earthy-brown while the underparts were a nice buffy colour, clearly richer towards the rear of the bird and particularly on the undertail coverts. The head was seen well, if briefly, and the thick dark eyestripe was very apparent and almost shrike-like! The supercilium was long and also noticeably evenly broad – much more so than on a Dusky – and it was a cleaner, brighter white to the rear of the eye, bordered above by a darker brown-toned thin 'shadow'. The eye stood out as large and staring and the bird again looked on the stocky side. The bill was on the thick, short side but the tones were hard to assess and it just looked a bit 'dull'. Likewise, the legs were virtually impossible to see and were only noted as thick and pale on the very few occasions that it was possible to glimpse them.
Six hours, but ultimately worth it. Had I known how well the Radde's in Eccles would show a couple of days later, I don't know if I'd have put in so much effort!
Dusky Warbler, Eccles-on-Sea, Nov 6-7 2021, T. E. Allwood and A. J. Kane.
After a fairly unproductive seawatch and a coffee, we decided against our better judgment to take a walk for migrants. The weather was miserable, being cold and windy. We first covered the sea wall and caravan park before making for the track to North Gap. As we walked past the first patch of vegetation on our right, a hard tak was given from close-by. We both exclaimed “Dusky!” and shortly after the bird called again, adding to our confidence of the identification. There was then nothing for a good few minutes and we began to get concerned that the bird had slipped away.
Suddenly, another couple of calls sounded but we couldn’t locate them properly. It sounded as if they were perhaps across the track but the wind was playing havoc. We tried across the track for a few mins before Andy suggested focussing on the area where we first heard the bird. It was now probably ten minutes without a further call and no view so we began to get a bit frustrated. However, there was no need as the bird soon began calling more frequently from its original spot. I obtained a few recordings with my mobile and before long we had managed to pish the bird out and get some brief views.
A bit of patience (not easy given the conditions) was eventually rewarded with some better views of the bird as it moved very low through vegetation, often very close. It was never easy to see though.
Detailed description:
A typical Dusky Warbler encounter in most ways. The bird often appeared as a small flitting warbler looking essentially brown above and paler below in flight, with a characteristic jink into cover. Better views revealed an earthy-brown ground colour to the upperparts and some warmer tones on the flanks but otherwise buffy-pale underparts. There was a clear and long supercilium looking pale-buff along its length, before narrowing slightly in front of the eye. The bill was thin and spiky-looking with some pale yellowy tones to the proximal part of the lower mandible. The legs were very hard to see but seemed quite nondescript being a very dull pinky-brown with warmer, more yellow-toned feet. There’s not much more to say about a Dusky Warbler, other than the call was a characteristic hard takking, like the knapping of flint.
A online recording of the call is below.
Below is a Radde's from 2014. If only they all sat up like this. In actual fact, I shot this essentially blind and was simply extremely lucky to capture the bird as it broke cover and flitted for a couple of seconds.
Here's a Dusky Andy found early one frosty November morning. Pic by Neil Bowman.
Below is a typical sonogram of a Dusky Warbler with calls peaking at around 8kHz
And here's a link to some audio:
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