A Sykes?

On the night of the Sunday after seeing the Crake I was doing my usual rounds of the bird news websites. I was surprised to see that a possible mega was seen in Northumberland on the evening time. The bird was either the commoner Booted Warbler or the far rarer Sykes’s Warbler, I waited to see if some experienced birders could nail the species but sadly by 10:30ish I gave up and went to get washed up and watch some TV. As I pretty much always do I checked my computer before going to bed and I saw that RBS and BirdGuides had now put the warbler out as a Sykes’s instead of just a possible. I had already planned to go as I had not seen either species before in the UK or abroad so was pleased it was being put out as the rarer of the two.

So when I woke up I went to go and pickup woodhornbirder and we went straight to the site where the warbler was being reported. When we arrived it didn’t look promising until we went round a small corner and saw the large, long line of cars all the way up the road parked on the verge. We got out and with out scopes and bins made out way over. We watched the bird for quite a while, however it was not in view a lot of the time but I got some pretty good views of it as it flew about and moved around in the bush. It was certainly a nice looking bird and I hope it turns out to be a Sykes’s; I will leave it for the experts to decide.
Special thanks to James Robson for allowing me to use his images for this post:

(Sykes's Warbler - James Robson)

(Sykes's Warbler - James Robson)

(Skyes's Warbler - James Robson)

I then had a nice day visiting the local reserves. The highlight being a Spotted Redshank at East Chevington NWT, it was distant but still a nice bird to see and a year tick for me. Then on the way back home I stopped off at the Spotted Crake again and had more fabulous views of this smashing little bird. Then off home for some tea and some chill out time.

Until next time, Foghorn out!