A wintering Chiffchaff

Warblers are generally migrant birds and we tend to associate them with warm weather and their songs heralding spring as males settle territories. One of the exceptions is the Blackcap, which I have covered before in the blog, which in the last half a century, has become a regular winter warbler in the UK, with some birds breeding in Germany migrating west to the UK, where they enjoy the food provided in garden feeders and milder temperatures. The other is the Chiffchaff is also a wintering warbler. Although not common, it winters around the coast and estuaries, especially in the South, and also industrial or sewage treatment sites where warm water encourages insects. In contrast to the Blackcap, The Chiffchaff is fully insectivorous through the winter so it doesn't benefit from berries or garden feeders. In the first day of the year I spotted a small bird in the garden and thought it would be a Goldcrest. Its relatively sedated moves (for a Goldcrest!) prompted me to look harder and I saw it was a Chiffchaff. A couple of days ago the bird, presumably the same one, was back I managed the top shot through glass, as it fed on the apple tree, where I've seen it several times. Some of the apple tree branches have an infestation of Woolly Apple Aphids, and this appears to be what the Chiffchaff is eating (you can see some fluffy colonies under the branch that the bird is sitting, to the left).