Having been waylaid by the Bushchat I was lucky in having another chance to try Gypsy Lane, I met Mark H at the top of the lane and we picked up where I left off yesterday. We weren't much further than I'd got yesterday and Mark's appointment with the Bushchat was called, he'd not been able to go yesterday. I carried on and reaching some tasty looking sycamores promptly found a sprite. It looked like a Pallas's but I didn't get a clear view of either the rump or central crown stripe. I followed it for a minute or so before it melted away. Mark returned within the hour having seen the chat very well indeed and we continued our methodical work. After a couple of hours working around the corpse and willows we headed out towards the last cover beyond the seawall.
On the bend by a reed fringed slack a muddy coloured warbler flicked through the nettles, it looked good straight away for a Dusky Warbler and we followed and lost it from nettles to bank and then a slightly longer flight view as it crossed a ditch and into the reeds. This was going to be really hard - if only it had called......the phone came out and Mark got Xeno Canto to do the work. A couple of Dusky "thcucks" and then a response - it was a Dusky and calling well whenever prompted with the playback. We were patient but it seemed an impossible task to see the bird in the dense vegetation which we could only view from the bank.
We moved around to view the bushes within the reedbed hoping it'd move to these in time. A few movements were the inevitable Robin and then a full on sparkling lemon and lime Pallas's Warbler hovering and zipping around took our complete attention - a fantastic bird and worthy distraction. We didn't hear or see the Dusky Warbler again and returned to look around the mature wooded fen to the east of the path. The habitat was amazing, we probably shouldn't have been there but at every turn it felt we could find something epic - we didn't, but it was electric birding. When we did return to the path a birder had just seen "the" Pallas's we commented that it had travelled quite a way - he was unaware of the bird out on the marsh and we were only 25ft from where I'd seen my sprite in the morning, I've taken it as confirmation of the first bird. We'd worked the area for almost 7 hrs with clear success, however I wasn't going to finish the day without a Bluetail and there had been 3 around Holme dunes just a few miles up the road.
We were only there for an hour or so but what started with satisfactory views of 2 birds ended with fantastic views of one of them right by the path as we departed. They're just the best - enigmatic, characterful and subtlety exotic. Good enough for the 5yr, Eve, old to draw.
The last I saw in the UK was the stuff of dreams - Rich Baines and I left his house, one of the coastguard cottages on Flamborough Head on a bright, late October dawn, to start a days birding. A Black Redstart flicked off the path outside the house - the radio crackled "you're going to want to see what's in this bag", the mist nets were up in a back garden across the road so we walked over to meet Ian Marshall on the drive, willing for whatever it was to be drawn from the bag to be mega....and it was - a Bluetail in the flesh (and feather) just inches from our noses.
There was time for just another bird before heading home and a quick trip to the wayside at Thornham revealed the 3rd Pallas's Warbler of the day - a very showy bird right by the path in the sueda by the car park. The day drew to a close and the winds were due to swing west for the rest of the month.
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