Western Orphean Warbler – Hartlepool Headland, Hartlepool, Cleveland, 29^th May 2012

Although the Western Orphean Warbler showed throughout my visit, it was very inactive (and often partially obscured) possibly reflecting its very recent arrival, making any views of its key features beyond the obvious very hard to obtain. So, although I certainly didn't see it in the hand, I've opted to do an 'in the hand field sketch' annotated with the features flagged up in the article about the bird on Birding Frontiers by the one and only Martin Garner.

As had been the case a year earlier, in spring 2012 I was very busy managing and undertaking bird surveys in relation to both the proposed Carcant and Cormaud wind-farms and also working various other smaller projects. Although I had enjoyed something of a recreational weekend on Saturday the 26th May when I had participated in a South East Scotland Branch of Butterfly Conservation walk at Burnmouth in the Scottish Borders to see Small Blue, it was all work and no play. It would take something very significant to break this.

Something very significant duly occurred on the morning of the Tuesday the 29th May and (learning from the experience of the White-throated Robin almost exactly year earlier at the exact same place) I ‘phoned Kris Gibb straight away.

He was up for going straight away too and so basically, we went there and then.

Any notes (and memories!) are very sketchy but I obviously quickly assembled my gear, chucked it and myself into the car, and departed prompto. Unlike the previous year when I had twitched the White-throated Robin with Mike Thrower, I cannot pretend that I remember picking Kris up and chatting to him. That is, I don’t know where we rendezvoused or what we chatted about en route, but I suspect I picked Kris up at the same sort of place I had collected Mike from, and undoubtedly we had a good chat all the way to Hartlepool Headland.

This was an easy journey as it was informed by what had been exactly the same journey a year earlier.

So we made it in good time and parked up wherever we could and quickly ‘strolled’ over to the bowling green. Here, an impromptu ‘pay to enter’ system had hurriedly and commendably been set up. We did so and walked into the bowling green complex itself. Alongside the side of green that the pavilion was on birders were assembled and more birders were also scattered alongside the green on the road side of the complex.

Western Orphean Warbler twitch at Hartlepool Headland, May 2012 (photograph credited to Martin Garner).

The set-up was great as there were wide tarmac paths around the green, and the number of birders present was manageable. As the news had broken just a few hours earlier and birders were travelling from all over the country there were a constant stream of birders arriving and leaving, which kept things manageable.

Most importantly, the bird was showing and so birders were concentrating on taking it in and were not moving around unduly, except if they were arriving or leaving. Importantly this allowed those connected with the bowling club to be relaxed about this sudden invasion of their space; incredibly it was even permissible to sit on the edge of the gutter with your feet on the green! Indeed, this is what I did once I had found myself a suitable place to do so.

Did I say the bird was showing? It was, more or less constantly, but mainly because it was sitting still in the shrubs at the opposite side of the green. Once it was located it could be closely (if a little distantly) observed in the ‘scope as it was static. I have very vague memories that at one stage it left the cover it was in a more actively moved to the side of the green to my right to feed in cover there. But mainly it was static...... ; even when it was active I noted it ‘clambered about’ like a Barred Warbler.

It was a largish sylvia warbler that was a first summer bird, which had slightly brownish mid-grey upper-parts and off-white under-parts. It had a Dipper like head pattern involving a very dark grey cap which extended below the eye onto the cheeks and a white throat and a paler, rustier panel on the remiges. It had a pale-ish eye, and a heavy dark bill and grey legs.

It was the second ever Western Orphean Warbler although this is complicated by the recent separation of Western and Eastern Orphean Warblers (there is just one accepted record of Eastern Orphean Warbler) and there are four records of non-specific Orphean Warbler spp., (including Mick Turton’s famous Kitty Down, St. Mary’s bird, “Ken. Dost thy need Orphean, like?”).

The whole experience was a very good one; I always did have a lot of time for Kris, and I enjoyed the whole ‘feel’ of the twitch which was very sociable. For example, I introduced Kris to Martin Garner (as they were both going to be on Foula in the autumn?), and I enjoyed seeing the Durham Bird Club plaque commemorating the Dusky Thrush that was seen nearby in December 1959, the second ever.

Western Orphean Warbler twitch at Hartlepool Headland, May 2012, with the outstretched legs of yours truly well and truly on the green….. (photograph credited to Jason Stannage).

Western Orphean Warbler at Hartlepool Headland, May 2012(photograph credited to Adrian Webb).

American Redstart – Eoligarry, Barra, Outer Hebrides, 12^th September 2017

If the successful twitch to Orkney and North Ronaldsay for the Red-winged Blackbird earlier in 2017 seemed like eons ago, the successful twitches to the Outer Hebrides and North Uist and Barra for Gyr Falcon, American Herring Gull and Black-billed Cuckoo seemed like eons squared ago.

But you just never know when another twitch might be in the offing. As ever with such circumstances, I can clearly remember the news breaking. On the morning of Thursday the 7th September, several of us (including John Nadin) were outside the Low Light on the Isle of May when Ken Shaw looked at his pager and quietly announced (everything is relative) that, in effect, an incredible bird had turned up.

He didn’t directly say what it was but rather chose to play a game with it.... . Clues included, ‘an American Warbler’, but ‘not a warbler’, but ‘nice link between the Old World and the New World’, ‘I (i.e., me!) needed it’, ‘two in rapid succession both of which involved women as the co-finders’, etc..

After a lot of agonising, and failed guessing, I eventually realised that I hadn’t considered American Redstart, and Ken confirmed that this was right, and that the bird was on Barra.

Now, this obviously exercised my mind greatly, but I was on the Isle of May until the following day (my birthday), and as luck would have it, due to quirk of circumstances, I had not one, not two, but three proposals for potential work to prepare that weekend (having committed to doing so in at least one of the three instances, the most significant).

And anyway, something like an American Redstart surely wasn’t going to stay around was it?

That night at the Low Light, after Julian Osborne had prepared and provided a fantastic beef stroganoff (complete with a couple of bottles of a good red wine), John Swallow produced a coffee and walnut birthday cake for me which had been baked and decorated, etc., by his wife, Margaret, and then carefully transported all the way from Berkshire to the Isle of May. Then, the following day, when Ken Shaw, John Swallow and I went down to Kirkhaven with our bags and to help moor the May Princess, the returning David Steel (plus Bex Outram and Sacha Riley-Smith) who had been to mainland Fife for a wedding were insistent that I went onboard for some reason. This I did, taking with me my carrier bag containing the remaining part of my birthday cake for the SNH Reserve Managers. Once on board however, I was presented with another birthday cake by them!

So, I had part of my birthday on the Isle of May, and very enjoyable it was. Once back in Anstruther I indulged myself further by having some of the paella Amanda had prepared. Having done so, I then travelled home to Edinburgh, for what was a relatively quiet last few hours of my birthday. Perhaps these activities distracted from the ongoing presence of the American Redstart... .

Certainly over the weekend this was perhaps also the case, as I concentrated on watching the Burnley game, and preparing fee proposals for a Phase 1 Habitat Survey, for a report on the Hen Harrier roost at Hunt Law and, in particular, for preparing a CEMP and providing an ECoW for the second golf course at Castle Stuart.

At times I even secretly hoped that the bird would leave to take away the problem. However, although activities certainly occupied me until the Monday, as the bird was still there, my mind increasingly turned to ‘How?’ and ‘When?’.... .

...... rather abruptly so, when, at 08:40 on the Monday morning John Nadin ‘phoned me asking me whether I was going for it, indicating that he would want to come and suggesting if I wanted to go today I needed to go very soon.....! I had various commitments during the week to work around, including a dental appointment that afternoon, but a plan slowly began to formalise.

John had also indicated that he had ‘phoned Calum Scott about his plans.... . As such, I messaged Calum at 09:14 and suggested that if the bird was still around the following day (Tuesday the 12th September) I would be going for it. When Calum returned my call, he suggested he too had been prevented from going earlier by various constraints, but suggested he would be interested in going with me... .

This scheme of things had the huge advantage of Calum’s friendship with Bruce Taylor, the finder of this and multiple other major rarities on Barra.... .

Calum also suggested he would get back to me once he had spoken to Bruce. When he did, the bad news was that we wouldn’t be able to stay with Bruce and Kathy (as we had done when we twitched the American Herring Gull) as they were having some renovations done, but the good news was that Bruce had agreed to go to the site early the following morning so that we would have positive news (or not) before setting off. Calum also advised that another Barra regular, Mark Oksien, was already on Barra and amused by telling me that John Nadin had obviously departed for Barra soon after he spoken to me and was bombarding Calum with inane questions..... . Nadinism’s certainly characterised the next 24 hours or so...... .

At 07:23 the following morning I got a message from Calum saying the American Redstart was indeed still there, and that he would be with me by 09:00.

We departed for Oban for the 13:30 ferry to Barra soon after 09:00. The drive to Oban was largely uneventful, and we had plenty of time to park up, sort out our bags, walk to the ferry terminal, get our tickets and boarding passes and even for me to get a prawn sandwich at the nearby seafood stall. I couldn’t wait to consume this as we walked towards a cash-point in the centre of Oban, and as a result was clobbered around the back of my head as an adult Herring Gull swooped in and nicked part of my sandwich!

After this excitement, the crossing from Oban to Castlebay was plain sailing; a cast of White-tailed Eagle high over the Sound of Mull and Leach’s Petrel, Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater and Great Skua in The Minch helped pass the journey.

As did some of the other ‘birders’ on board, as they struggled to identify close Kittiwakes, etc., (seriously!).

Having sailed at 13:30, we were scheduled to arrive in Castlebay at 18:15. Although, relatively speaking, I was reasonably confident we would score, the crossing dragged somewhat as we knew we would have limited time on arrival to get to Eoligarry and get the bird before the light failed. Indeed, as we approached Barra the light did deteriorate for a while as large shower clouds moved through, but as we got closer to Castlebay these cleared. Better, as we docked, we could see Bruce Taylor waiting for us in Castlebay.

Maybe some of the other birders (John Bell for instance) were also foot passengers, but it appeared that most were car drivers or passengers. So we were very pleased that we were able to disembark quickly (first!) and rendezvoused with both Bruce and Kathy, before jumping in their car and being quickly driven the ‘long way around’ northwards towards Eoligarry, importantly, ahead of the ferry traffic. This route was a good idea to, as it avoided most of the traffic in and around Castlebay. We were on site quickly – by 18:45, and rendezvoused with Mark Oksien. We parked up, and made our way through the gap between a gatepost and the wall of the walled garden within which the bird had been for the past few days. From here we walked around to the back of the walled garden to a point from where we were able to view into the garden area and more specifically view the stunted sycamores within, as is evidenced in the photograph included here courtesy of Bruce Taylor.

There was, in effect, one sycamore immediately in front of us to our right, and then two more to our left along the perpendicular wall, one relatively close and another one further away in the midway along this same wall.

Bruce obviously knew these trees and the birds’ movements amongst them very well. Within seconds of us arriving he was on it, and almost as quickly, got us on it. It was actively feeding in the lower horizontal branches of the furthest away of the two sycamores along the perpendicular wall.

We were able to enjoy reasonable, if intermittent, views of it as flitted about in this tree before the rabble arrived, several vital minutes after we had. Needless to say, it disappeared as soon they appeared, and given the relatively low standard of birding ability involved amongst these ‘latecomers’ it wasn’t readily relocated, certainly not by some of their number.

It did though give very inadequate views in the sycamore furthest away, though these were very intermittent and it was partly obscured and frequently / invariably very difficult to get onto (prompting some challenged birder to moan he could only ‘see sparrows’ – look harder mate, a lot harder, you’ve come a long way!).

It then disappeared altogether for a while, before it was Bruce again who found it for the assembled 12 or 15 or so, in the nearest of the two sycamores to our left along the perpendicular wall. Here it briefly gave its’ best views as it worked its’ way through the upper branches of this tree, causing certainly me to comment on how stupendous it was.

Calum and I realised that as the light was fading and we were surrounded by ‘birders’ of challenged abilities we probably weren’t going to get any better views. So, as the light failed and the ****wits annoyed, we cut our losses and decided to leave the scene.

And anyway, we were now all the more determined to celebrate with a couple of beers and a good meal.... . Which we did; we said goodbye (and thanks!) to Bruce and Kathy and then clambered into Mark’s mobile ringing hut to be driven to the Heathbank Hotel to do so. Although we were consigned to a back room we dined very well, entertained by the delightful new owner and by further Nadinism’s (who else would ask for £40 cash back when paying his bill, and then leave without it?).

Afterwards, Mark was again good enough to take us to the Barra Holidays @Croft 183 bunkhouse (and, given our complete failure to sort out a taxi to take us to the ferry early the following morning) to take us to the ferry the next day.

The return crossing was much the same as the Oban to Barra one, better views of White-tailed Eagles on islands in the Sound of Mull and especially so on the northern tip of Kerrara just outside Oban Harbour, and Leach’s Petrel, Storm Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua and Great Skua in The Minch again helped pass the journey.

We were back in Oban just about 24 hours after we had arrived there the previous day; a massively successful lightning raid!! A stunning bird, a stonker, and a blocker no more; it was the sixth for Britain, and the first since the mid-1980s.

It was ‘typical’, in terms of size and shape to most North American warblers, perhaps a tad bigger and stockier than a Chiffchaff. Very early on Calum remarked on its’ Red-breasted Flycatcher-like appearance, not just due to its tail pattern, but also its overall ‘jizz’ and active feeding behaviour.

This is perhaps evident in John Nadin’s photograph below. The strong, wide-based bill and the large-ish dark eye (with pale eye-ring) certainly added to this. The head was grey and unmarked, and the rest of the upperparts were a largely unmarked greenish grey. The under-parts were pale, un-streaked and clean-looking with warm yellowy patches on the sides of the breast. The tail was the most striking feature though, with a large, almost luminous, yellow panel on either side of its base.

Wow!! A fantastic belated birthday present / start to autumn 2017.

American Redstart, Eoligarry, Barra, September 2017 (photograph credited John Nadin)

The walled garden at Eoligarry, Barra, September 2017 (photograph credited Bruce Taylor)

 

 

Two-barred Greenish Warbler – Budle Point, near Bamburgh, Northumberland, 30^th September 2020

So, as may have been mentioned elsewhere, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was something of a write-off in terms of going to places seeking rare birds, whether finding our own or seeing someone else’s.

If only we had seen it coming, eh? ………. but 2020 vision isn’t always possible, not in the birding world anyway….. .

Certainly, autumn 2020 was a complete write off in terms of such ventures / adventures. Or almost, but not quite.

Three of us (as opposed to the usual crew of six) made it to the Isle of May between the 29th August and the 5th September, but the efforts of Ken Shaw, David Clugston and I, plus those of David Steel, et al., failed to produce too much.

Then, although I had rescued something from the wreckage of our long planned Unst trip (which would have been between around the 12th and the 30th September) which we had eventually had to cancel due to gentle pressure from Brydon Thomason (et al.?) suggesting we should do the right thing and not go to Unst, my reinvented trip (you’ve guessed it…..) also failed to produce too much.

Early on during the initial planning of Unst 2020 my co-organiser, Chris Pendlebury, had dropped out as he couldn’t get the two weeks involved off. He had, instead, planned a weekend on mainland Shetland, and then this, in turn, developed. Andy Carroll booked an Airbnb in Lerwick for a week between the 19th and the 25th September he and Chris intended to share. However, Andy struggled getting clearance for each element of an intended Shetland / Isle of May / Scilly triple header, and so, having negotiated with me, he dropped out, and I dropped in.

I saw this as some consolation for the cancelled Unst trip. I had even managed to change my long-booked flights to and from Shetland for a very reasonable £45.

All this provided some sort of salvation for the cancellation of the always ill-fated Unst trip. Even when the Lerwick Airbnb which Andy had booked suddenly cancelled with no explanation Chris (and I) rapidly arranged for an alternative Airbnb in Scalloway. There was even some optimism about our week; basing ourselves in Scalloway seemed just a little bit innovative rather than ‘safe’ (i.e., Lerwick or south Mainland). There was certainly the usual sense of anticipation…. .

However, unfortunately for us, Shetland was something of a bird free hell throughout our stay. We adopted a daily pattern of working the varied areas of good cover in Scalloway in the earlier part of the morning before checking the gardens at Asta House (and Asta Loch (and Tingwall Loch)). Then, we ventured further afield and checked sites on Tondra, East Burra and West Burra and / or South Mainland later on.

In doing so, we found a few Yellow-browed Warblers, but beyond that we were limited to one or two Pied Flycatchers, etc.. We also ‘twitched’ padders such as Surf Scoter, Red-backed Shrike and Lapland Bunting, but in wildlife terms a ‘showy’ Humpback Whale was the definite highlight. Not really what we envisaged. Being in Shetland, exploring new places, doing our own thing and spending time with just Chris (excellent company as ever) as opposed to a crew of six or so as ‘normal’ were all good, but….. .

All very depressing; as ever, a tale of what might have been. My mood wasn’t helped by the juxtaposition of this trip and the incredible occurrence of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher on Tiree (obviously a first for the Western Palaearctic) between the 14th (although actually only practically available from the 15th) and the 23rd September. By the time I had thought about it, it was too late; there was too little time to get to Tiree and back before my flight to Sumburgh on the 19th and by the time I was back in Edinburgh, inevitably, it had gone…… .

To make things worse, this ill-luck continued when, the very day we would have been leaving Unst to drive to south after our two weeks in Noosthamar came to an end, Dougie Preston found his Tennessee Warbler on Yell, the very first island we would be travelling through on our way south (or alternatively, this happened just four days after Chris and I had actually left mainland Shetland………). And, to make things even worse, an extremely showy Olive-backed Pipit had been found in the gardens of Asta House on the 27th September that we had assiduously checked every day between the 19th and 25th September…… .

As such, when what had initially been as a Yellow-browed Warbler on the 28th and part of the 29th September and a Greenish Warbler on part of the 29th September suddenly transmogrified into a Two-barred Greenish Warbler when it was suddenly Mega’ed at 17.26 that day I was interested, very interested….. .

I had no work constraints, or any constraints involving ‘trades’ at my new place 62 High Street, South Queensferry, or viewings at the old place… .

I was unconstrained!

Steely inadvertently video-called me on WhatsApp at some time before 20.00 on the evening of the 29th September (having sent me a WhatsApp message saying, “If only you were on Shetland…..”).

But by now I’d moved on, and had another mission. I video-called him back, and we discussed my options, and later Steely, being from the north-east of England, was able to provide access details and map taken from the Northumberland WhatsApp group. In addition, he was very helpfully able to provide confirmation that the bird had been seen going to roost……….. .

Steely also offered to give me any news from the WhatsApp group in the morning.

This proved unnecessary, as at 08.01 there was positive news on RBA.

As such, I was able to leave Queensferry at c.08.50, and after an excellent hassle-free drive, I arrived at Budle at c.10.30.

Before departing, to salve my conscience, I had messaged John Nadin at 08.19 to enquire whether he was interested. Unfortunately for John, it was his wife Norma’s birthday, so it was a no-go for him….. .

En-route John provided some not very positive news from site at c.09.00 via Andy Stirrat, who had been there since first light, suggesting that it had not seen it and that it was blowing a gale and was just starting to rain…… .

Other information I gleaned en-route and on arriving at Budle and parking up was that seemingly it had only seen once by one person; it was in the same area but had only called once and briefly showed in hawthorn and then flew into sycamores with a Chiffchaff….. .

Not the most promising of scenarios then.

My arrival was a tad fraught. Arriving involved negotiating some roadworks before parking in what was seemingly the right place (judging by the other cars parked alongside the road…). In addition, unhelpfully, I was bursting whilst the car was running VERY low on fuel.

Having briefly chatted to a returning birder (who didn’t do anything for my JSN-induced pessimism) I assembled my gear and set off from the coast road towards the site referred to as Budle Point… .

Although Steely had provided directions and an annotated O.S. map extract from the Northumberland WhatsApp site, it wasn’t immediately obvious how to get to where the bird was, or, at least, to where the pin had been dropped on the annotated map.

I opted to bear right at the first intersection on the track that led towards the coast from the road. This took me towards a complex of buildings at Newtown. As there was no sign of anyone, birders or residents (or visiting guests), I walked on towards what proved to be a group of self-containing accommodation along what proved to be a right-of-way. Beyond these buildings and a gate on the right-of-way, it become more obvious where I should be going; the next intersection offered a right-hand turn option which took me towards the Stablewood Cottages Caravan Site, where, finally (alright, just minutes later) birders were evident.

The caravan site occupied a small valley and the area beyond, adjacent to the south-east shores of Budle Bay. At the head of the valley was a very small copse of sycamore and ash. Some ten or so small trees were involved, some of which were adjacent to the uppermost the caravans on the north-east side of the caravan site access road through the valley. Beyond, to the east, was the Bamburgh Castle Golf Course. North-west of the copse of trees, and between the caravan site and the golf course, was an area of bracken scrub with isolated hawthorn bushes, with denser scrub and bushes further down the same valley side.

Some 40(?) or so birders were evident, mainly within the caravan site and or adjacent to the copse of sycamore and ash trees at the head of the valley, or alongside the valley on the very edge of the golf course.

It certainly wasn’t obviously where I should place myself. The sycamore and ash copse was windswept, and the caravan site itself was (strictly) off-limits. The gusty wind and persistent light rain showers didn’t help.

Nor did the bizarre sight of Lee Evans lying flat on his back underneath the sycamores saying that it was up in the trees above him where he could hear it calling but couldn’t see it….. .

I decided that any sensible phyllos wouldn’t be in the windswept copse and would be in the denser more sheltered cover further down the valley, and so I made my way there. This proved to no avail, so I made my way back (with some difficulty due to my failing balance). I can’t remember whether I made my way all the way back to the top end of the caravan site and back or not but certainly within an hour or so of me arriving on site there was a flurry of activity when the bird briefly showed in the largest hawthorn alongside the golf course.

Unfortunately, although it did show in said hawthorn, a combination of me being not particularly well-placed and the inability of those who were on it to give coherent directions to enable others to get on it thwarted me. LGRE (and others) gave directions that included, ‘It’s near the obvious lichen…..’, etc., etc..

As a result, although I had brief naked eye views as it flitted on the lower edges of the bush, I failed to get any proper views in my binoculars. Frustratingly, my ‘best’ views were of a striking bright olive- green phyllos type warbler flying away from me as it flew from the hawthorn back to the sycamores. It was some time before 12.30.

I had deliberately tried to avoid the horrendous racist that is LGRE, but bizarrely he came to me and said, “You’re Brian aren’t you? You used to come to the Scillies years ago…”. Fame at last…. .

There then followed a lllllooooonnnnnggggg interlude before the next showing. Very little happened during the intervening time. It just didn’t ‘feel’ very promising. The bird was hugely elusive and seemingly was ‘favouring’ the windswept trees of the copse where it could apparently be occasionally heard but never seen. There wasn’t a huge amount of cover – just ten or so smallish sycamores and ashes – but the bird became invisible when in them. It was all very strange; sure, it was windy and rainy, but lots of eyes were looking.

A long period with no sign ensued…….. .

Thankfully, reacquainting myself with both Andy Close and Euan McLachlan certainly helped, although my ‘i.d.’ was shocking, and initially I failed to recognise both them. I did though recognise the unmistakable Jumbo from Fair Isle and was amused by his discussions with his mate about whether to abandon this mission and continue on to Shetland…. . Yep, I’m only playing at it….. .

The gathered throng was certainly a mixed bunch – local birders coming back for more, travelling twitchers hoping for a tick, some of whom, I think, were ‘born again’ birders, recently retired ‘I know, I’ll take up birding’ birders, ‘all the gear and no idea’. Perhaps harsh, but certainly a feature of 21st century birding. Anyway, as ever, the birders present were of varying abilities. Andy Close stood out in this context, constantly looking, constantly trying something different; certainly not just standing around aimlessly. At one stage he gestured to me from the lower edge of the copse within the caravan site as I was standing adjacent to it on the tee of one of the holes on the golf course. He was suggesting he could hear it nearby, having clearly recognised me, but I failed to recognise him. Maybe it was the cool shades and the sharp civvy clothes that threw me; I didn’t remember him being dressed this way on Fair Isle. Later we coincided and he prompted my dim memory and we chatted and birded together. It was Andy who briefly located the bird at least once; bizarrely on one occasion it was seen in the bare branches very close to the top of the windswept sycamores…. .

Similarly, Euan McLachlan who again I had noticed as being a proactive birding but failed to recognise until he (re-)introduced himself to me as the person who had attended my talk on the taiga bean geese and who I had then pointed in the direction of getting work with Andy Carroll.

Much more straightforward was my recognition of Darren Woodhead who I spotted arriving along the coastal path alongside the golf course from the Stag Rocks / Bamburgh direction. I made my way from the caravan site towards him, and having intercepted him and quickly appraised him of the situation, we opted to sit on a bank on the edge of the golf course overlooking the valley. We chatted at some length watching what was going on as we did all the time.

The rain had stopped some while earlier, but it was still windy, perhaps more so, and as such, it was difficult to believe that the bird was still in the copse as seemingly small and ‘easily’ viewed as it was. Chatting to Darren (who I was able to thank for being so generous with his talent when Tessa and Ellen had arranged to get my birthday present from him) certainly helped make the long vigil better, but there was a distinct feeling by now that it wasn’t going to be…. .

I mentally wrestled with the dilemma of whether my earlier views had been good enough, but I knew they hadn’t, so I began reconciling myself to leaving the scene of a twitch without seeing the bird well enough to count.

Finally, though, there was a flurry of action down in the caravan site near the copse, and, in summary, the bird suddenly became relatively cooperative whilst moving from the sycamores to the largest hawthorn and back on a couple or more occasions. In doing so, I was finally able to get myself in the right place at the right time.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that the bird gave itself up; it was still elusive and flighty, being often either deep in cover in the hawthorn or suddenly moving back into the sycamores. But crucially, twice when it was in the hawthorn, I just about managed to keep on it as it rapidly moved through the interior of the bush and thankfully very briefly occasionally appeared ‘in the open’ (at least partially!) on the outer margins.

On the last such occasion the photographer Mike Barth was next to me and one or two others as I had my best views and he was able to get his best shots… . As such, Darren and I asked him for his contact details and Mike was then good enough to send me the accompanying superb image which captures how I saw it when eventually I saw it well (enough).

My views were very brief, admittedly, but I was finally able to see the stonking pale supercilium, and, eventually the striking pale wing-bar(s). Otherwise, it was a typical phyllos with mainly off-white underparts, and dull green upperparts. It had a slightly darker green eye-stripe. I was only vaguely aware of the colour of the legs and bill (both of which were broadly Willow Warbler-like).

Most of all though, my abiding impression was how well the finders had done pinning down this elusive bird sufficiently well for it to be specifically identified. I could now well understand why the bird had had a difficult gestation from Yellow-browed Warbler to Greenish Warbler to Two-barred Greenish Warbler. Certainly, it had close similarities to both (and indeed, as discussed with Darren, to Arctic Warbler, and, dare I say, Eastern Crowned Warbler). It was smaller than the latter pair, bigger than Yellow-browed Warbler and (just) bigger than Greenish Warbler. But this was marginal, in all instances. Interestingly, Darren and I thought there were similarities in terms of structure and general appearance with Arctic Warbler; I thought it was surprisingly stocky looking.

In relation to Yellow-browed Warbler it lacked the pale tips to the tertials, and the wing was overall plainer, whilst in relation to both Greenish Warbler and Arctic Warbler the shape and size of the wing-bars and eye-stripe / supercilium were subtly different, but perhaps not on my views, and perhaps only in regard of careful analysis of photographic images.

Undoubtedly this fantastic Graphic by Ross Ahmed illustrates what I'm trying to say a lot more eloquently than me!

However, it became very obvious that the distinctive House Sparrow / Pied Wagtail like fast, ‘pitchew-wee’ was crucial to the identification of this bird; certainly, I heard this more frequently than I saw the bird!

Having finally had very brief, but more than adequate views, I opted to leave at c.15.30. Again, despite reaching the Edinburgh by-pass in what in ‘normal’ times was rush hour the journey was hassle free and I arrived home at c.17.45.

Five hours for some very brief views, but now I am getting closer to 500 I cannot expect new birds to be easy. At least it was less than two hours away, and as such, despite ongoing COVID-19 and increasing environmental concerns, easy to justify on this basis. In terms of base statistics Two-barred Greenish Warbler was my 497th species in the UK / British Isles, and this particular individual was seemingly the eighth for the UK….. .

Two-barred Greenish Warbler at Budle Point, Northumberland, September 2020 (photograph credited to Mike Barth).