This area is fenced off and private, but in the winter when the leaves are down you can look through the wire fence fairly easily. The area I chose to watch was a small mound, about 8ft high with nettle covered banks and metal fence work on the top. This was only about 30 yds away and I had noticed a Chiffchaff and Wren picking insects off the nettles here about a month ago. Today, almost as soon as I started watching, a Chiffchaff flew from the side of my path onto the mound and within about ten minutes, there were four birds present, though not always on view. One of these had looked tantalisingly pale, but had flown down out of view. As I continued to watch, presumably this pale bird flew up to the metal fencing and perched there for some time. It looked to me like a fairly classic tristis type - it was pale buff above and clean white below and I could not discern any olive tones in the mantle or remiges at all. The super was pale buff and it had warm buff ear coverts. The legs and bill were black.
After this initial view, it disappeared. About twenty minutes later, what was presumably the same bird reappeared feeding in a small stand of conifers directly behind the mound. It was with a collybita and again stood out due to its paleness. It fed here for a few minutes and I then watched it fly strongly on its own over the main tanks into the SW corner. I didn't see it again in the next hour and a half, although 1-2 collybita types appeared occasionally around the mound. I did not hear it call during these two views, but it certainly looks good for tristis, Siberian Chiffchaff. I'll certainly be giving it another look over the next few weeks and hopefully might grab a record shot, though these active birds are almost impossible for my digiscoping skills and the birds are obviously ranging over the site, most of which is not visible.
After this, I went for another look on Emmett's farmland and found a pair of Grey Partridges again feeding on the edge of the game cover.
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