The departure of our warblers in autumn is an exfiltration quite unlike the noisy invasion of their arrival in spring. The migration of the Phylloscopus, or leaf warblers, has begun and our observatory on the Kent coast has been catching and ringing large numbers of willow warblers and chiffchaffs on their way to their wintering grounds in west Africa and southern Europe.
Today, however, there was a rather more uncommon warbler in the mist net when we went to check. From a distance it had the fresh yellow jizz of a willow warbler, but my ringing companion, a retired vicar, drew my attention to its white belly. It was a wood warbler, first identified as a distinct species by the parson‑naturalist Gilbert White in the 18th century. He was the first person to discern, through careful observation of their song and behaviour, that the “willow wren” was in fact three distinct species: the willow warbler, the chiffchaff and the wood warbler.
