Common Yellowthroat at Rhiwderin, Gwent

Common Yellowthroat

I went to see the Common Yellowthroat at Rhiwderin, Gwent on Saturday. Possibly not the best day of the week to go but by the time I arrived it was early afternoon and only 30 people were present. The bird had been present for over a week by that time so the masses would have largely been and gone. Although only showing briefly for seconds at a time the bird appeared to be quite actively feeding whilst I was there and showed a good amount of tolerance to the noisy audience. I first saw the Yellowthroat as it flew from one bramble to another. The jerky bounding flight action coupled with a Bearded Tit like call was very diagnostic. My next view of the Yellowthroat came when it hopped into view at ground level right in front of everyone and because most were chatting, texting, picking their nose or tying shoelaces only I saw it and managed one shot before it flew back into cover.

On one occasion the Yellowthroat had worked it's way through 20 metres or so of thick bramble reappearing on the other side. I don't recall having seen this behaviour before and think that this was achievable because the bird spent it's time hopping around on the ground.