phylloscopus (from phullon, leaf, and skopos, seeker) collybita (money-changer, from its song resembling the chinking of coins)
Sunday, April 21, 2019 — 9:00 am
Böblingen, Germany — hiking trails through the woods along the Panzerstrasse
Right next to the Panzer Kaserne Army base is a fairly large forest preserve with hiking trails. On Sunday morning, I took off with my binoculars and explored.
In a small patch where the trees were low, I found a small nondescript warbler that was olive above and off-white below, with a yellowish eye line. It looked a lot like the Willow Warbler I’d seen in the Old Cemetery on Thursday. But it was singing a very different song.
Once I connected the song to the bird, I heard, and found a few more during my two mornings in the woods. I also realized that a Chiffchaff was the bird I couldn’t identify on Rubble Hill our first morning in Germany. I never did get that one on film, but I recorded its song. Obviously, the song explains the bird’s odd name.