Dave, Roger and I had set off
to Tiln Gravel Pits in Nottinghamshire where an Icterine Warbler had been
reported. On arrival we parked and
walked southwest along a footpath meeting a returning birder who gave further
instructions. As we walked along a path
through a small plantation we could hear the bird singing and we then saw it
singing from the top of a pine. I fired
off a few shots but I was about through the scope it dropped out of sight. It started singing again a few minutes later
and Roger found a little further away again near the top of pine but again it
dropped as I was about to get the scope on it.
It then became more elusive singing more erratically and showing less
often and then only briefly. We did get
one final reasonable view when I eventually saw it through the scope but on
briefly. There was one Nottinghamshire
birder who referred to the fact that its primaries did not appear very long but
as it had a good mid-wing panel it must be an Icterine and we left believing
that is what we had seen. Although my
photos were not brilliant later at home I was able to confirm that the
primaries appeared rather short and did not extended to at least the end of the
under-tail coverts. It was later
re-identified as a Melodious Warbler.
Melodious Warbler
As we walked back to the car a
Grey Partridge flew in front of us and a Barn Owl was observed hunting over a
field between the path and the road.
As the weather was still
rather poor we set off for Budby Common but as the weather started to improve
we changed our plan and headed for the raptor watch point at Welbeck. We were there several hours but saw a few
Buzzards but little else.
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