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You may be interested to hear of a probable sighting of Cetti's warbler in a suburban garden in Ballinteer, Dublin on Friday 11th April 2014. Initially, the bird's unusual and very loud call drew my attention to it in the branches of a tree about 1.5m off the ground and a distance of only a metre or so from my front window. Seen at very close range from within the house, the small size of the bird relative to the loudness of its call was an initial surprise. It was clearly a warbler with uniformly chestnut brown plumage above and pale off-white beneath, and with an obvious pale supercilium over the eye. The overall impression was that of a very large wren without any evidence of pattern or barring on the plumage. The sighting lasted only 1-2 minutes, sufficient to for me to be sure this was something quite unusual, before it flew down into shrubbery at ground level. A subsequent online check of the characteristically loud, almost explosive, call confirmed that I had probably seen this species for the first time. Only for it voice so close to the window, this bird was very likely to be completely overlooked. I have not seen, or heard it since.
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