Bird in Devon

We've been in Devon in a yurt soaking in the deep peace of the deep countryside. This was complete isolation, borrowed space from the trees and the animals.

There was a bird singing loudly near us. It was almost as loud as the wrens. It had more stamina though and the song was varied and surprising, familiar yet different. I thought it might be a whitethroat but the phrases were longer and more elaborate. It was a bit like a dunnock but the range was lower - like a blackbird covering a dunnock song. I have a birdsong app on my phone, which I scoured but there wasn't anything that matched.

I followed the mysterious singing bird and even though it seemed like it was in a bush just in front of me, I couldn't see any movement except a glimpse when it flew off somewhere else. It looked small and brown and nondescript. I abandoned the quest and went to do something else.

But it kept singing. I heard it when I woke up at 5 in the morning and it was there when we were having breakfast. I left my coffee to go and see if I could identify it but still it escaped my view.

I knew it was only feet away. It was definitely there, I could hear it. And I had recorded it singing, so eventually I'd be able to identify it, but I just wanted to see it, to meet it, to watch it. Rose said it was my nemesis. Its song seemed mocking in its concealed closeness.

Then after the next breakfast, I said to Rose that I was going out to find it and I wouldn't come back until I had seen it. This could have been a fool's pledge but I followed the singing and for just a few seconds it paused on the telephone wire just above a hedge. It was a blackcap! A new bird. Seeing it felt like I had caught it. The hunt was over. I went back to tell Rose.

Here is a video showing how loud and close and frustratingly hidden it was:

Here is what a blackcap looks like:

Though I didn't get a picture of the bird myself, I think I might have filmed one of its children: