Shingle Street Acro (Reed warbler)

[Sean Nixon]

Two shots on the Id page of the bird intially identified as a Marsh Warbler at Oxley Dairy, Shingle Street, Suffolk. Its song was generally faster sounding than usual Reed Warbler and contained some mimicry, including swallow and oystercatcher. It sung mostly from a small hawthorn next to the road, though I also saw it singing in the adjacent patch of reeds - where it sounded grumpier and much more Reed like! As others have suggested, the bird is surely a Reed Warbler.
best
Sean Nixon

[Bobolink44]

Excellent photos Sean. Not having seen the bird or hear it sing, I'm not in a position to judge but good photos of these contentious birds are always good to look at and discuss.

Punkbirder does a nice job of distilling the main id issues of these three:
http://www.freewebs.com/punkbirder/acroholics.htm

The plain primaries lacking the crisp silvery edges of a spring Marsh on the shingle street bird points to Reed:
http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery28

Other photos in the galleries seem to bear this feature out on spring birds (see spring Rainham bird):
http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/search2.cgi?species=marsh+warbler

Reed Warbler
http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/search2.cgi?species=reed+warbler

[Josh Jones]

I would say a nice Reed Warbler too..