27/09/2023 Long Nab, Burniston, North Yorkshire

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.

When it did come out it was a subtle, yet striking bird. A double negative I know, but its pale, pallid olive green plumage along with its long tail continuously pumping as it flits around in bushes and trees after small insects made it stand out.

Half of the twenty or so individuals that have been found in the UK have occurred in England, mostly south coast, but one each in Suffolk and Yorkshire. The other individuals have occurred in Shetland or Fair Isle, one each in Fife, Isle of May, North-east Scotland.

It is a medium-sized warbler, more like a very pale reed warbler than its relative the melodious warbler. The adult has a plain pale brown back and whitish underparts. The bill is strong and pointed and the legs grey. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are more buff on the belly. It has a characteristic downward tail flick

Eastern olivaceous warbler breeds from southeastern Europe and the Middle East, and the subspecies (reiseri) is thought to be locally common as a breeding species in southeast Morocco.

23/09/2023 Pembrokeshire, Wales

Magnolia Warbler: The planets had aligned and the birding gods were sliming down on us as the UK was showered with an unprecedented fall of American land-birds. A strong westerly warm front combined with intense winds and associated with movements of low pressure centres produced huge flights of migratory movemnets of birds.

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.

We were unfortunately unable to book a seat onto the boat crossing over to Ramsey Island so opted to book on to the boat over to Skokholm. The crossing was beautiful, passing past Skomer Island on calm seas and arriving on a stunning little island where the ranges organised a perfect twitch.  

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.

The bird put on a good show as it fed close to a willow tree, there was also a good shot for a red-dumped swallow passing through with a ton of hirundines, but I was too busy enjoying the alder fly to have seen it. This was the third alder fly for the UK since one was discovered  2010 at Blakeney Point in Norfolk.

Canada Warbler: While we were on Skokholm news book of a Canada warbler, a first for the UK. A sense of excitement, thrill, and dread came over us, when can we get off the island and how much carnage will it be when we arrive at the bird?

Well, we arrived in good time but the bird was playing hard to get with only breif obscured views within the 3 hours after arriving. 

Waiting patiently and quietly the crowed swelled and grew larger than the patience of some birders cracked and they started playing calls, phishing and pressing deeper into the area of thick dense negation where the bird was last seen. We eventually got some half decent views of the bird moving through the thicket, but on the whole I think many of the people there didn't even see the bird. This week will go down in birding history a day where I picked up three American mega passerines and a weather system with dropped birds all over the west western side of the UK. 

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.

Yank cliff swallows are typically found in North America and Central America based on whether it is breeding season or the migration season. The breeding range begins as far northwest as Alaska, and extends south down the western coast of the United States through California into central Mexico.

Side by side with the local house and sand martins the cliff swallow looked a little heavier, but slightley bigger. Cliff swallows have square tails with an orange rump, and their throats have a chestnut hue.  Their breasts are whiteish cream and their rumps can be pink. 

Toady has gone down in history as one of the best days for yank birds landing on with Ireland recording its first blackburnian warbler a magnolia warbler in South Wales Baird's sandpiper on the Wirral and an alder flycatcher on Skokholm. 

Hopefully I will get a ch bace too connect with some of these. 

12/09/2023 Beeding, Horsham, West Sussex

Aquatic Warbler: In global terms, the aquatic warbler is probably one of the rarest bird you stand a chance of realistically seeing in the wild in the British Isles. So with this individual staying longer than a day, unusually for this species that is known typically as a one day bird, now in its third day I thought I would take the gamble and go twitch it.

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. 

I didn't have to wait too long before the bird sat up and started rot preen.  

The crowed swelled as the afternoon drew closer and news of the bird hit the news services. This inevertably brought more people onto the small restricted area of tow path we were viewing the bird. This moved the bird further up the tow path and into deeper vegetation, but it wasn't flushed or pressured in anyway as it kept coming out with a bit of time and fieldcraft. 

Despite its name the aquatic warbler can't swim, it doesn't have webbed feet, but they do like wet boggy, sedge filled marsh and wet grassland. So this linear area of rank grassland and dominated with sedges, grass, nettles and hogweed that runs alongside the river and the tow path is ideal habitat or the bird to feel safe in, find food and hide away.

Similar to sedge warblers but with a promiant striped crown with a pale line through the centre and dark markings on either side, their underparts are pale, with fine streaky yellow-brown markings, particularly on the flanks and breast they can blend in and hide well within the yellowy grasses and vegetation. 

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

Brown Booby: Today was simply outstanding, one of those unforgettable twitching experiences. After seeing this bird last week at an extreme distance at Hunmanby, it was a real privilege and dream to see it again so close and personal.

On Wednesday the bird moved north, staying close to the shore, it was seen passing Long-Nab, Cowbar and Hartlepool before settling on the mouth of the River Tess at South Gare. 

South Gare is a two-mile long manmade finger of land that stretches arthritically out into the North Sea and forms an area of reclaimed land and breakwater on the southern side of the mouth of the River Tees.

The area is home to a variety of wildlife, including seals, birds, and rare plants. The pier and surrounding waters are also popular among anglers, and there are various hiking and cycling trails that offer stunning views of the surrounding landscape. 

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.  

Is paying a local fisherman to charter a small boat out to see the booby at close quarters misrepresented or blown out of proportion?

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. 

Over the past three days or so the bird has remained, it's still there now as I type this blog post. It wasn't flushed to a point where it disappeared out to sea to find a safer or quieter location. The bird is clearly feeding well, flying around on its own will and roosting where it wants to roost. Everything a healthy, unstressed bird would do.

Now, I wasn't here the day before when there were reports of small boats chasing the bird or flushing. But that's the main argument some folk have with this issue. However, if this was the case I would join the voices of discontent, and agree with the criticism, as it would be inherently wrong. Full stop. 

The bird's welfare comes first over photos or better views, that I am sure we can all agree on. And this is the majority of what the folk who have issues with the small boats have at the centre of their arguments, good, honest birders. Others who remained unnamed are simply twitcher-trolls and exist to provoke negative discussions and create division as they value their false sense of entitiment their pseudo-celebrity status over the truth. 

I don't recall any of these folk throwing out wild accusations and name calling when birders or photographers took a charter boat out to see the black-browed albatross and when they got point blank views of it on the water and flying around the boat. Furthermore, the same folk remained complety silent when it came to the daily boat trips out to see the red-footed booby on The Scilly's. And there are reports of it getting deliberately 'beeped' off its perch on the lighthouse to give the onlookers views of the bird in flight.

I would urge anyone who goes to see the bird to take a boat trip out to see the bird, this is a rare opportunity to experience something really special. Don't let the nay-sayers the Twitter twitcher-trolls and the folk that may mistakenly misreprersent the actual situation on site put you off. You aren't doing anything wrong, the bird is fine and will leave on its own accord and not because of any small boats.

04/09/2023 Hunmanby, North Yorkshire

Brown Booby: After narrowly missing out on the Scilly brown booby I was thrilled to grip it back only a few days later and much closer too!

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.

I was working in Middlesbrough and drove down after the bird survey. I joined the swelling crowd's in the early evening on the cliffs at Hunmanby and watch it for a few hours following the gannets and joining feeding frenzies. 

These wide ranging birds are pretty new to the British list and are now becoming an annual they  breeds on islands of the Caribbean, Cape Verde and and as far away as Ascension, St. Helena, and both offshore and coastal Brazil. 

This bird now puts me on #430 for my UK life list.