Tuesday 15 October 2019

A very, very elusive Two- barred Greenish Warbler at Orford

On Sunday 13th October, first stop was Ness Point where the Shore Lark showed initially before disappearing then pandemonium as a BINS message went round of a probable Two- barred Greenish Warbler was at Orford, once Richard had tweeted it was one, I took Maurice B down and we parked at the Meadow car park. Lots of people around 100 gathered around the path overlooking some tall trees. In the vegetation I found a fine bronze Beetle Chrysolina bankii, which is locally scarce, but initially no sign of the bird but within half an hour people were running and we followed and gathered in front of a very large Buddlea where people said the bird was. Imagine the frustration as I couldn't see it latching onto 2 Goldcrests and then checking the bush and still not seeing it. I was only one of handful of people missing it here, which was so frustrating in the extreme. I have missed several major birds. A bird flew out left from the Buddlea which people said was it, but I couldn't positively ID it, later it was seen at the side of a field and again I missed it but heading back to Buddlea bushes 10 minutes later, I saw a Chiff- Chaff sized bird fly out from the Buddlea at very close range showing pure green upper parts, a large wing bar, a stout flesh coloured bill, whitish underparts which were more yellowy- olive by the face but by far the most prominent feature was a very thick yellow supercilium which was very obvious and the supercilia was kinked up at the back and the bird was fairly longer tailed (noticeably bigger and longer tailed than YBW). Seen for around 10 seconds in flight in all, at the time I didn't want to call it out in front of the assembled crowd. We all turned our attention to the bush but it didn't appear and a bird flew back to the Buddlea not (seen nearly as well) this time. On seeing the tweeted pics later on, I realised that this was indeed the superb but all too brief view of a Two- barred Greenish Warbler which had saved me from a horrendous dip, but pity I didn't see better and more prolonged views of such a fabulous bird. I have some experience with the species seeing several in China in 1999. Later on at 4.30pm, I went back to Ness Point and eventually saw the Shore Lark fly back and feed on the concrete car park.

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