1st June 2025 - afternoon, RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk

I have wrongly assumed for some time now that dawn and dusk were the best times of day for wildlife walks and the times in between paled in comparison. A long, hot walk today proved I am very much mistaken.

The absolute star of the day today was the Sedge Warbler. I don't feel I can write about much else in this post. The sun was beating down on us but we stood our ground - him a couple of metres in front of me singing his lungs out in a bush next to the reeds (magical) and me in awe of how such a loud sound could come out of such a little beak.

The Sedge Warbler was one of the first Warblers I was able to identify by sound, alongside the Reed and Willow. Admittedly, the difference between Sedge and Reed Warbler took a couple of weeks to fully nestle into my brain.

The way the brilliant RSPB guide at Strumpshaw Fen RSPB taught me to remember them was 'Rhythmic' matching the 'R' in Reed Warbler because of it's rhythmic notes in 2s and 3s usually.

I have gone a step further to help myself distinguish the two by match the 'S' for Sedge with 'Scratchy' - owing to the scratchy almost mechanical notes that the Sedge Warbler makes.

This is the first year where Sedge Warblers have featuring (knowingly) in my daily life and I shall miss them when they return to their Winter home in Africa. It will be interesting to record when I see and hear my last one at the end of Summer.

I made a recording below. It's wind battered and I need to up my audio game if I'm going to persue this line of recording I think (but I hope it plays clearly enough for you to hear it). I was also able to snap a reasonably good photograph, too, which gives you an idea of how close he was that I could take this with my phone.