When I first started to see birds further afield I drew up a list of a dozen birds I really wanted to see above anything else. Most of those have been seen yet Icterine Warbler remained the one I just could not get near. I'd dipped two and also missed one in Spurn by a day, oh the pain.
Roll on to this Monday and the easterly winds had blown a number of great birds into Spurn including 4 Icterine Warblers. Surely this was the chance to finally see one. A plan was hatched for the following day, Mark Clarke joined me and @1stbirdoftheday as the Squire was stuck at work.
Twitching a bird can be very painful, long drive, waiting around, brief views, it's all part of it. Yet sometimes things just fall into place. First of all, the Icterine was reported at the Warren as we headed up the M1 and once parked we walked calmly down to the Warren and the first two birds we saw was a majestic lemon coloured Icterine Warbler and first calender year Collared Flycatcher. Unbelievable scenes!
I'd seen so many photos and videos of Icterine Warblers of the year, it was a genuine delight to see one close up and observe it working around the cover of bushes. The species breed in central europe and then winter in the sub-saharan Africa.
The Collared Flycatcher has been rung and retrapped where these great images were taken and they show the slight differences to a female Pied Flycatcher. We really enjoyed both birds before skipping away to the canal scrape where we observed a female/imature Red-backed Shrike, which was another lifer for Mark.
Our next stop was Kilnsea church yard where Mark picked up some movement high in the trees. It was another Icterine Warbler. This one was a juvenile and photographs taken confirmed this. We also noted our second Wood Warbler of the morning.
Our final stop was Kilnsea Wetlands where yet again the birds were on a plate. We didn't even need to walk to the hide to see a Pectoral Sandpiper, 2 Little Stints, Dunlin & Sanderling. We even bumped into our Scillys skipper Paul Freestone from Cornwall birding. Now that's birding...........
Cracking days birding 👌
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