Rare songbird sings on revived Devon nature reserve

By WMNHFinch  |  Posted: April 21, 2016

One of Devon's most elusive birds is singing again on some of the county's rarest and most threatened habitat.

The Dartford warbler's distinctive song is echoing across the RSPB's Aylesbeare 
Common nature reserve, weeks after the end of a major restoration project.

David Boult captured the bird on film this Spring

The RSPB was able to make vital improvements to one of the few remaining lowland heaths in southern England with a £14,000 grant from Tarmac through its Landfill Communities Fund.

Alan Everard, Tarmac's head of estates, south, said: "The restoration of Aylesbeare Common will help ensure this distinctive bird is saved for future generations."

RSPB Aylesbeare Common, in east Devon, is a hotspot for Dartford warblers, and for other specialised heathland species such as nightjar, silver-studded blue butterfly, Kugelann's ground beetle, grass snake, common lizard and the soprano pipistrelle bat.

The Dartford warbler is linked with the conservation of England's surviving heaths, and its liking for gorse in particular led to it once being known by the folk-name 'furze wren' in some parts of the country.

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