At Last - Sort Of!

At last I had a Yellow-browed Warbler today, sort of, but more of that later. I want to rewind back to yesterday to catch up as I didn't have time to post due to some reports that needed completing for work. In fact I won't be able to get out birding for the next couple of days until I have finished these reports, so it will probably be Saturday before I post again.

Before I went 'bush bashing' yesterday I had a look on the sea for an hour and a half at the Point and counted any vis going over. The sea was quiet with just 62 Cormorants, 21 Common Scoters, four Wigeons, a Pintail, thirteen Eiders, an Auk sp., eight Shelducks and a Guillemot. There were also three Atlantic Grey Seals off the Point including a mother with her pup.

Atlantic Grey Seals

After I'd had a brief look on the sea I had a look in the Cemetery and I have lumped the vis totals for the Point and the Cemetery together as follows; 142 Meadow Pipits, three Alba Wags, 45 Linnets, two Snipes and seven Greenfinches. I bumped in to Ian in the Cemetery who said he had just been in the coastal park and it was very quiet so I called it a day and headed home to work.

This morning before the alarm went off I could hear it raining hard and my thoughts turned to grounded migrants and I hoped that the rain would reap some rewards. As I entered the cemetery it had stopped raining and it 'felt' like there might be something around. About half a dozen Robins and Dunnocks were jumping around and there seemed to be a few more Blackbirds about. I then got a phone call from Ian saying that a Yellow-browed Warbler had dropped in to the Sycamores near the large lighthouse but he had lost it. However, he did say that it looked as though it would probably make its way towards the coastal park.

 Blackbird

I carried on birding the cemetery and added a couple of Chiffies and headed to the park. I hadn't been there too long when Ian arrived and we both heard a Yellow-browed call being carried on the wind from an area of mature Poplars, Sycamores and scrub. It was one of those that if you had been on your own you would probably have dismissed it, but as we both heard it we were certain it was a Yellow-browed. A good search revealed just the briefest of glimpses for Ian, but not for me!

Ian located it again at lunchtime, so I had another quick look but it didn't show itself. So at last after Yellow-broweds have been everywhere I got one, sort of!

 There were good numbers of Red Admirals nectaring on Ivy in the park

at lunchtime