Skulk but I shouldn’t sulk

I am not the greatest fan of skulking little warblers as I often get terrible views that are barely tickable. However yesterday I got some quite mediocre views of a rare vagrant warbler from the continent, I am of course talking about the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler at Flamborough Head in East Yorkshire. Being a clever lad and living in the North I wasn’t far really but I couldn’t find anyone who was up for going to twitch it! The local county recorder sent me a text asking if I was going and said that I was quite tempted, special thanks to Mark has he rang Newton Stringer and it was soon arranged that I could go with Gary and Alan, who’s car it was. We arrived at 6:00 and stayed until about 8:00, I saw the bird three times in all. Once when it zipped past out in the open, but didn’t get it in the bins. Another time just before I left when it was visible in a gap in the tree, I lifted my bins and just as I got on the bird for a millisecond it flew off left into cover. However the best view I got was first time I saw it, I could see a bird sitting hidden by the vegetation at the top of a bush, it was a sandy brown colour and as the bird had been seen there a few minutes before hand I knew it had to be the bird. The people immediately around me got onto the bird with the bins and the people to my left much have got a better view than me as I only saw the back and tail, I don’t even think I saw its legs or head. Gary waited for it to move slightly and as Gary got a better view it flew left and down into deeper cover in the willows. I asked Gary “Gary, was that it?” to my delight he said “Yes”. So when I think about it I was very happy because Gary confirmed it was the bird as he had a better view from where he was standing. I got better views of the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler than what I did of the Greenish Warbler which I didn’t tick on views I had.


So all in all a good day, I was disappointed I didn’t see the bird sitting out in the open briefly like I did with the Sykes’s Warbler but still at least I know I defiantly saw the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. I also heard the tacking call from deep in the cover when it was skulking around, so all in all a good day with another lifer in the bag.