Up to 400 bird watchers headed for the Berry Head nature reserve in Brixham this week to see the very rare Sardinian warbler. The bird, blown off course while heading back to the Mediterranean for the winter, is thought to be a female. The bird’s call is distinctive, fast and rattling.
Park manager Nigel Smallbones, of the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, is quoted by This is South Devon website: “It has created a lot of interest. This is only the third or fourth sighting ever on the UK mainland, although they have been spotted occasionally on the Scilly Isles. It may have been brought here unexpectedly by prevailing winds. There were hundreds of people here at the weekend, trying to catch a glimpse and take pictures.”
The Sardinian warbler birds are visitors to the Mediterranean, but are also common in Turkey and Northern Asia.
Source: This is South Devon
