Lesser Whitethroat photographed at Trinity [TRI] on 8/12/2013 Photo: © Michelle Hooper (visit site)

The Lesser Whitethroat is a summer visitor to the upper and mid-latitudes of the Western Palaearctic but is absent in western France, the Iberian peninsula and Italy. Guernsey is at the western edge of its current range.

The fortunes of Lesser Whitethroat have been mixed since Smith's time. In 1879, he noted it as a 'regular, but no means numerous summer visitant' and had seen a few in willow hedges around the Grande Mare. 'Young Le Cheminant' also had a few eggs in his collection, probably from L'Eree. In 1951, Dobson questioned whether it should be recorded in a list of the birds of the Channel Islands. It was, at that time very rare in the south-west of England and almost unknown in the north-west of France and Dobson noted that M. Noel Mayaud doubted the evidence that it occurred in the Channel Islands.

Since Dobson's time, the Lesser Whitethroat has increased in number sand now regularly breeds in small numbers in Guernsey, mostly in areas of scrub on the south coast. The exact timing of when this species became more common is difficult to elucidate. Despite Dobson's comments, several birds were seen at ‘Le Marais’ (presumably the St Sampsons Marais) on 16 April YEAR and further records appeared in the Transactions in September1956, July 1958 (in song) and in September 1960 (Alderney). These records led to it being described as a rare spring migrant in Colin Carey's 1961 'List of the Birds of the Channel Islands.'

By 1965 it still merited a mention in the Transactions (May 14 Alderney) but by 1968 this species appeared in the ringing totals without any further mention in the selected records and it seemed to lose its noteworthy status. The first confirmed recent breeding attempt took place in in Guernsey in 1970. A family party of birds was seen at Houges Peres in the Vale on 18 June and a bird with a brood patch was trapped there the following day. Two years later, a singing bird was seen at Le Gouffre although confirmation of breeding was not obtained. By 1972, Philip Guille was regularly catching significant numbers of birds and at the time of his death in 1987 he had ringed 174 (78%) out of a total of 223 birds ringed in the Bailiwick at the time.

Since then, Lesser Whitethroats have been a scarce, but regular breeder and passage migrant. This species is still far more common in spring. The mean date for the first arrivals is the 30 April and there is some evidence that there has been a trend for earlier arrival although the arrival date has been relatively stable at the last week in April or the first week in May since the early 1980s.

After the end of July there are very few records of this species, presumably due to its silent and secretive nature. There are a scattering of records from July to the first week in October. There is one remarkable record of one wintering in a garden at Les Amballes in St Peter Port in the winter of 1998/1999.