At 4am this morning I decided to try for the Booted/Sykes Warb found down the Gower by Ed Hunter, before coaching in Swansea later in the morning, so set of not long after 5am. After driving through some heavy rain which had me doubt my sanity, the Gower was surprisingly dry. I was the first birder to arrive on the scene and started my search as it grew lighter. Initially it was Robins everywhere but as the number of birders grew, so did the number of birds. A fair sized mix flock passed through containing both Firecrest and Yellow-browed Warb, but I failed to get on to either of these. I did get back into the groove picking up the first of the days Pied Flick's.
Soon the flock passed through again, and this time I managed to pick up the Y-b, but there was no sign of the main quarry. As we spread out to try to find the hippo' Mark Hipkin announced he had it and most of the assembled crew were quickly onto it as it fed in a stunted Sycamore, giving great veiws. After a couple of minutes it disappeared, but the agreed concensus was that it was a Booted Warb rather than the rarer Sykes. Mark didn't take long to refind it as it worked the hedgerow. At that point I had to leave so left the guys following it down the lane.
Phil and Bev decided to take the chance later in the day. When they arrived it hadn't been seen for several hours, but they didn't take long to refind it, in the same stunted Sycamore it was in earlier in the morning.
Soon the flock passed through again, and this time I managed to pick up the Y-b, but there was no sign of the main quarry. As we spread out to try to find the hippo' Mark Hipkin announced he had it and most of the assembled crew were quickly onto it as it fed in a stunted Sycamore, giving great veiws. After a couple of minutes it disappeared, but the agreed concensus was that it was a Booted Warb rather than the rarer Sykes. Mark didn't take long to refind it as it worked the hedgerow. At that point I had to leave so left the guys following it down the lane.
Phil and Bev decided to take the chance later in the day. When they arrived it hadn't been seen for several hours, but they didn't take long to refind it, in the same stunted Sycamore it was in earlier in the morning.
Nice Martin a great to get and funny that phil refound it and it was my 5 bird seen on site and great views . I watched it feeding on a branch and it feed very close to the trunk and looked like it was picking of Caterpillar or Greenfly type and different feeding behavior to the chiffchaffs and goldcrest seen has well .
ReplyDelete