After getting home from an excellent days birding on the local patch,on the evening of the 16th, i saw on Birdguides that a Taiga Flycatcher had been re-identified from being a Red-breasted Flycatcher earlier in the day at Flamborough and then a similar scenario at Spurn,Were a Yellow-browed Warbler had been re-identified as a Two-barred Warbler!!!.
The decision was made to meet Tim next morning at Spurn for first light,as the TBGW was a lifer for me and then if the Taiga is still at Flam twitch that in the afternoon.
Overnight,it had rained a little,but the moon was peeping through the clouds as i set off for Spurn....i prayed it hadn't been clear skies there.
I parked up on arrival at the Canal and as it was still dark,i dozed in the car hoping i would be adding this visitor from the far east to my life list.
Another car parked up behind me and it was TC.
As it became light slowly,but surely,it was don the waterproof jacket and join the small crowd of locals near the bunkers at the entrance to the canal bushes.
We waited in anticipation and suddenly a small warbler flew over the top of us and i commented that it looked interesting,a minute or so later and there it was,my first Two-barred Warbler.
The immediate thing that struck me on first views,was how white and flaring the supercilium was and the second wing bar just stuck out like a sore thumb as well.
The bird soon disappeared again,but was on show again shortly afterwards,sometimes at point blank range allowing more scrutiny of the salient features..I just couldn't get over how striking a bird it was with the white appearance of the super and wing bars standing out more,due to the lesser amount of any black in the wing and head pattern when compared to the other Asian Leaf Warblers i have seen,the bill also looked quite sturdy also,what a belter of a bird!.
Another positive from watching the bird was hearing it give it's disyllabic call on at least 3 occasions,it sounded like 'Tsi-li' to me,being a totally different sound to the Green Warbler from Buckton or the many Greenish warblers i have heard call over the years,what an absolute privilege to see and hear a bird like this.
This is the 2nd record for Yorkshire of this far eastern species after a bird at Filey found by Craig Thomas,which stayed from 16th - 18th October 2006 and is the 10th record for Britain.
It is also my 6th new bird of the year after the Franklin's Gull at St.Aiden's RSPB,Elegant Tern At Cemlyn Bay,Green Warbler at Buckton,White-tailed Lapwing at Blacktoft Sands RSPB and the Long-toed Stint at St.Aidens RSPB,couple that with seeing the Black-browed Albatross at Bempton,3 times this year,a flock of 9 Bee Eater and an adult Lesser-grey Shrike,.....what a year in Yorkshire so far and for the RSPB reserves!
After enjoying the eastern cracker and learning the Taiga Flycatcher at Flamborough had departed overnight,Tim and myself had a walk around seeing a few nice birds which included my first Snow and Lapland Buntings of the autumn/winter and also my first Brent Geese of the same period.
The following photos are taken by Miles Cluff and he has very kindly let me use some of them for my blog.
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| 1st Winter Two-barred Warbler - Photo Courtesy Of Miles Cluff. |
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| 1st Winter Two-barred Warbler - Photo Courtesy Of Miles Cluff. |
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| 1st Winter Two-barred Warbler - Photo Courtesy Of Miles Cluff |
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