A garden warbler singing in the garden this morning was our
first of the year here. Its appearance was a bit later than usual, but we
have been out and about quite a bit recently so perhaps we missed its actual arrival
date.
It was interesting to see how the local territorial male
blackcap responded. One has been resident nearby for a few weeks now. Not only
did he appear to sing much louder than usual but, for a short period, he also started to mimic the garden warbler.
Our garden usually forms part of a breeding territory for a pair
of garden warblers, so hopefully this one (with a partner) will not
be too intimidated by the rival blackcap and will stay around in this area.