Despite the hardest winter for 30 years, birdwatchers have been thrilled to hear Cetti’s warblers singing on a wetland nature reserve at its northernmost limit.

The Wildlife Trusts are celebrating the return of the Cetti’s warbler to Potteric Carr for the second consecutive year, after work was done to create and manage the right habitat for the ‘little brown job’ - named after Italian mathematician and naturalist, Francesco Cetti.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Potteric Carr reserve officer, Tim Bailey, said: “The Cetti’s warbler is at the northernmost limit of its worldwide distribution and it is extraordinary it has made it so far north. It is extremely hard to see as it skulks low down in scrub. However, amongst the smaller European birds it has one of the loudest songs and sings throughout the year, even in the winter months. Its loud bursts of song revealed its presence at Potteric Carr.

The Wildlife Trust are currently working to transform the UK into ‘A Living Landscape’, where there are suitable habitats for new species to colonise and thrive. This includes an extensive network of wetland habitats which are being restored and reconnected to allow birds, like the spoonbill and cattle egret, to become more abundant.

Tim Bailey continued: “We must go beyond our own reserves and extend existing areas of good quality habitat to create networks of open water, reedbed, wet grassland, marsh, wet woodland and scrub. This will enable existing species to adapt to change and accommodate a new range of species too. These areas would have big benefits for wildlife in the future and for people too – by enhancing water quality and by providing flood storage areas.”

Despite occasional population crashes during hard winters, Cetti’s warbler continued to colonise counties in the south of England, the Midlands and Wales with the bird recorded at reserves in many counties.