Dartford Warbler, Berkshire

I visited a heathland nature reserve in Berkshire today for a change of scenery. In fact I've only birded heathland and bog in Australia before so was pretty excited about my first real chance at seeing a Dartford Warbler.

I raised my goggles to a lot of Stonechats (above) before one did finally show up just as I was taking myself home. It showed very briefly during a territorial dispute with a Coal Tit but, after an hour of waiting and a couple more brief encounters, it started to feed openly. It didn't stay still long enough to be photographed but I did manage this very ropey reference shot. The lighter underside and throat suggests this one was a female.