Sedge Warbler

A fairly common passage migrant and breeding summer visitor. 

Bland and Dadds (2012) estimated the local breeding population as 600 pairs. 

The average arrival date is April 9th, six days earlier than given by Bland (1992) with an earliest arrival on 30th March, in 2007 with two on Severnside, and in 1967 [see 2007 ABR and Bland (1992)]. The average departure is on September 28th, unchanged since Bland (1992) with the latest departure on 16th October, 1976 at CVL, see Bland (1992) and SBR. (A record for 28th October, 1986 mentioned in Bland (1992) is erroneous per the observer).

Wheeler (1874) said it was a ‘very local summer visitor, near Nailsea, Stapleton’ and Charbonnier (1899) ‘summer resident, common in suitable localities’. 

The 1925 SBR said ‘Chelvey and Yatton and other places in the lowlands. Breeds at BL. Elsewhere rarer than might be expected and unaccountably absent from some seemingly suitable spots eg in the Chew Valley’. 

Davis (1947) called it a ‘summer resident, local but nests fairly commonly on suitable ground – chiefly in lowland areas. Occurs widely on migration’.