Eastern Olivaceous Warbler: This Autumn just gets better and better, this time an Eastern bird and one I have yet to catch up with. Travelling down from York where I was staying the night before, the bird was tucked away in a deep gully along a coastal path and stayed pretty distant foraging and playing hide and seek in the dense vegetation.
All the wonderful birds and wildlife of Lancashire, Cheshire, North Wales and further
27/09/2023 Long Nab, Burniston, North Yorkshire
23/09/2023 Pembrokeshire, Wales
This started with American cliff swallows in Kent, Ireland and Scilly followed by an Empidonax sp. possibly Acadian Flycatcher found on Skokholm which was confirmed as an alder fly, then a report of a magnolia warbler in Pembrokeshire, a bobolink again on Skokholm. A black and white on Bardsey Island topped off with a bay-breasted warbler on Ramsey Island.This was insane, across two days while I was woking on site in Cambridge my BirdGuid Mega alters kept pinging, I couldn't keep up with the rolling updates on the WhatsApp groups, but started making plans to head down at the weekend.
Its been over 42 years since the last twitchable mag warbler in the UK this mythical bird was showing incredible well in a small dell at St.Govan's Head where the police had the day before kicked all the twitchers off the MoD land who then moved in and set up a cordoned off area to prevent any excitable birders string too far away from the location of the bird.
Alder Flycatcher: The wardens confirmed that the bird was still present before we arrived and guided us from to boat to the bird with and back then back to the boat. I can't thank the warden, staff and volunteers for their time and efforts getting us on to the bird.
20/09/2023 North Foreland, Kent
American Cliff Swallow: Following the recent influx of AMS arriving in Iceland with about 15 birds up there I was hoping some might make their way here. Today three here picked up, one in Ireland one on the Scilly's and this one in Kent which was the forerunner turning up the day before.
12/09/2023 Beeding, Horsham, West Sussex
Aquatic warbler are fast becoming the most declining passerine in Europe they are confined to Eastern Europe and Russia and breed in very specific habitats within mainly in marshy areas. When theses little gems migrate and arrive in the UK they are restricted to the south with Cornwall, Devon and Sussex getting the lions share of the records.
On arrival I was greeted by a small crowd of around a dozen birders crammed in along a small tow path that runs alongside the River Adur.
But with some patience the bird showed well, if briefly at times, for such a sulky bird it showed very well indeed. No typical at all.
10/09/2023 South Gare, Redcar and Cleveland
So let's discuss the controversy, with some prominent twitchers and birders, many of which haven't even twitched the bird or witnessed first hand any of the issues called out on site, taking to Twitter X to call out anyone who has taken a boat out to see the bird.
Let me first lay out my own behaviour and what I witnessed while I was there today. Yes, I payed £10 to a local fisherman who took me and a dozen or so other keen birders out to see the bird. The bird never even flinched, upon arriving it sat up top buoy number 5. It never flew off, never got spooked and didn't show any signs of stress. It remained on buoy number 5 long after we docked back in the small port and I got back to my car.
Before getting on the small boat I witnessed huge tankers motoring right past the buoy with the roofing bird on top and it stayed put. These super tankers were that big they were causing waves that significantly rocked the buoy. There are videos on Twitter X showing this to be the case. Other small boats manned by fishermen passed the bird and again it remained unphased.
04/09/2023 Hunmanby, North Yorkshire
The bird was picked up during a sea watch over the weekend and in the morning it was seen roosting on Filey Brigg itself before foraging in the bay between Filey and Bempton.