After a weekend of walking and local birding last week and some walking yesterday, today we had a major change: a twitch at last. We went off to Farlington Marshes to see the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, our first lifer of the year (excluding the very plastic-seeming Baikal Teal from May).
A challenging bird, it favoured a large hawthorn and flitted from one side to another, spending most of its time out of sight and when it did appear it was largely where we weren’t. Even when we saw it, it was brief and blocked. Still with some patience and a bit of time it finally gave some reasonable pictures.
Common Whitethroat from last week’s visit to Farlington
Willow Warbler
It’s been a good year for Spotted Flycatchers: on a walk yesterday I recorded 17.
What is this Nuthatch doing in a bush on Cissbury Ring?
Today at Farlington, a brief view of the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
A rather better view
Note the tail twitched down, a separation feature from Western.