Aurora borealis

Wood you ever?

Inspired by the Yellow-breasted Bunting fall further north, spent 3 hours away from renovation-work on Saturday out birding with JL. Despite our usual boundless optimism and a nice brisk south-easterly, migrants were few and far between - we struggled to a grand total of 9 Willow Warblers, a pair of Whinchat, and a frustrating flight view of a warbler that lobbed over the roof of a nearby house never to be seen again, leaving a fleeting impression of silvery-white underparts...

This in the local warbler version of the Bermuda triangle - where warblers vanish without trace. JL had a flight view of a wing-barred phyllosc in August that did just that, and despite searching, Saturday's warbler followed suit.

Bonelli's? The usual fanciful fantasising! But the reality was that our sights had dropped from Yellow-breasted Bunting, to Rose-coloured Starling, to Bluethroat, and now... hell, those Whinchats were nice, weren't they?

JL drove us back to my end of the island, commenting that it was down to my patch to pull us out a good one to end the day. I cynically muttered something to the tune of "and not a bloody Sedge Warbler", but secretly hoped that the light showers that were passing through might have forced something interesting to earth. We started to drive the plantation, and immediately flushed a warbler from a spruce - JL straight onto it "Wood Warbler!".

Lovely! Just the best views you could ask for, not zooming around a beech wood canopy, instead sitting out in the open on fence wires. Bright lemony yellow and green, and a beautiful silvery white underside. Just like the bird at the other end of the island...

Rounded the day off with another Whinchat (also in the plantation), and then gave up to go back to painting the outside of the house.

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