On Friday night Birdline had reported a Common Yellowthroat on Bardsey Island off the NW coast of Wales. Unfortunately the weather was bad enough for the boatmen to have already decided that there would be no crossings on Saturday or Sunday. There were no other good birds to go for and so I decided that I would stay in on Saturday and try Birdline on Saturday night.
After
a bit of gardening and a drawing lesson with Nicola I rang Birdline to
hear that at Sidlesham in Sussex there was an unconfirmed report of an
Olivaceous Warbler. There would still be time to see the bird before
dark if I set off straight away, I decided, however, to wait until the
bird’s identification had been confirmed. By late evening the bird had
been re-identified as a probable Booted Warbler and then later as a
definite Booted Warbler, this would still be a tick.
Olivaceous
& Booted Warblers are from the same family with the former being
much rarer and from the Mediterranean and the latter breeding in Russia.
Several Booted Warblers had arrived in the strong easterly winds of mid
to late September and it seemed likely that this individual had been in
Sussex for several days. I rang Dad and we arranged to meet at the
services at the end of the A36 at 7am the next morning. I got very
little sleep overnight because of the howling wind and I felt very
pessimistic about our chances of seeing the bird. The overcast
conditions would probably mean that the warbler would not migrate
overnight. The strong winds, however, would probably mean that it would
keep well-hidden on Sunday morning.
We arrived at the visitors
centre car park near the Ferry Pool at Sidlesham at about 7:45am. Once
equipped we set off down the footpath, across the sluice and along the
sea wall. We could see a group of 20 or so birders just up ahead. They
were only loosely packed together and looking in different directions,
things didn’t look good. As we approached, however, they all rushed
together and started looking directly away from us; they were obviously
watching the bird. This proved too much for me and I began to jog.
As
I joined the group one of the birders asked me whether I had seen the
bird, he then moved me into position and gave directions “just up ahead
on the narrow sandy track”. I had brief views of a strikingly pale grey
warbler hopping on the path. It seemed fairly monotone washed out olive
grey above and whitish below. The only buff tones were restricted to the
rump, the outer tail and the edges to the primaries and secondaries.
The head pattern was also striking with a strong eye stripe and a clear
supercilium which was emphasised by a lateral crown stripe. As the
warbler flitted around giving better and better views the most striking
features were always, firstly the pale washed out colouration and
secondly the strong facial pattern.
Although perhaps resembling a
pale grey phylloscopus warbler this bird did show the pale lores and
longish orangey bill which are characteristic of the Hippolais group. It
seemed fairly surprising this bird should be so active in the gusting
wind and rain, we weren’t complaining!
