Twitching....Again!!!

One of the few benefits of Facebook is that if you’re in the right groups you can find out what’s about in your area. Recently I’d heard of a Yellow Browed Warbler not too far away and as I had to got to visit our office close by, I thought I’d stop off on the way home and see if I could spot it.

These birds are strongly migratory and winter mainly in tropical South East Asia but also in small numbers in western Europe, so one in Yorkshire is quite a rare visitor. They arrive in the UK in late Autumn from the Urals which although a trip of around 3000 km is still a lot shorter than the 5-6000 km trip to Asia!

It wasn’t hard to find where it had been spotted as there were around 20 long lenses pointed into the shrubbery when I arrived. The bird is tiny about the size of a goldcrest and like the goldcrest never sits still. Photographing it was a challenge to say the least and I have lots of shots of branches, rear ends or blurs.

It’s believed several hundred arrive in the UK each autumn but given their unobtrusive behaviour it could be many more. They were originally considered to be vagrants blown off course but they are now thought to be undertaking a normal migration to take advantage of the milder conditions here.

Finally it popped into view for a few seconds.