31 Oct 2014

31 Oct 14 - You Can Never Have Enough Yellow-browed Warblers At Studland

Had a busy day planned today which sadly didn't involve any Birding, despite it looking a great day to be out with light Southerly winds & 20 degrees in the sunshine. Just a reminder this was the last day of October, not August. But had a call from Paul Morton to say there were now 2 Yellow-browed Warblers together at Knoll Beach near the boat park. Presumably the YBW I found back on the 10 Oct is still around, but clearly another one Paul had found. Even on a conservative count this must be 6 YBWs in October for my Studland/Ballard patch, with the best previous year being 3 YBWs. I managed to fit time in for a flying visit to try & see both. I think Paul is the first Birder to see more than one in a day in Poole Harbour. Succeeded in finding this one, but not its friend.
Yellow-browed Warbler: A quick initial view as it emerged to the pishing
Yellow-browed Warbler: It quickly got bored & turned away
Yellow-browed Warbler: A final flash of its wingbars as it waved goodbye & it was gone
I had a quick look around to try & find the other one. No joy, but a tight flock of 3 Firecrests all quietly calling to each other was nice. Then I too had to head off to more mundane tasks for the rest of the day.