The Juvenile Birder

Fleeting Glimpses of Gold! We arrived at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in hopes of seeing an extremely rare Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. We were accompanied by Dave, who we had given a lift to. On our drive to Bempton we spotted a Barn Owl perched by the side of the road. It soon got up and flew alongside us in the car, going almost the exact same speed as us and giving incredible views  Upon arrival at Bempton, we were greeted by a large crowd of birders, who all seemed to be looking at something in the car park. We parked in a convenient space opposite them and jumped out to see what they were looking at. Since I was at the back of the crowd, it was impossible for me to see over the birders. Dave then took us round to a gap in the hedge, where the bird had been showing well yesterday. We sat on the floor waiting for it to appear in the undergrowth. Suddenly, the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler  flitted right in front of us, calling. Although it was the bird, I didn't ideally want to tick the bird o

Foggy Birding! We arrived at an extremely foggy Flamborough Head at around 7:00am with Carl and Dave, who had given us a lift. Just before we arrived, a Red-breasted Flycatcher was reported in lighthouse bushes, so we decided to try and look for that while waiting in anticipation for our target bird to get reported. As soon as we started looking for the flycatcher, a notification came up saying that our target bird, the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, was back at Old Fall Plantation. In a hurry, we started making our way towards the plantation. Once at the plantation, we noticed a huge crowd of birders, which I thought was a bush at first, all looking towards the hedge. We quickly joined the crowd and after a bit of waiting, someone pointed out the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler sat inside the hedge. Although it was obscured, I was delighted to see it, especially after not being able to go for the one at Long Nab last year.  Suddenly, the bird decided to come out in full view and just sat ther

Crowd Pleaser!  We arrived at Winterfield Park in Dunbar at around 9:00am with Dave in hopes of seeing a rare shrike. As soon as we got out of the car, we immediately spotted a big, pale bird perched on top of a wall. It was our target bird, the Steppe Grey Shrike . We then made our way over to the crowd where at first the bird was sat up on a wall a few feet away. However, it then decided to come down from the wall and feed only a few metres away, giving us all incredible views. It then sat back up on the wall long enough for me to get a record shot through Dave's scope, capturing almost every little detail of the bird's head. Since this bird is a subspecies of the Great Grey Shrike, it is not a proper lifer for me. However, it is still an armchair bird, in case the bird gets split and it is certainly a great bird to see! We then decided to scan the sea, spotting two Shags , a Great Black-backed Gull , a Goosander and an Oystercatcher . Suddenly, the Steppe Grey Shrike dropped

Spurn Migfest! We arrived in North Field at Spurn at around 8:00am, after dipping the Pallid Harrier at Long Bank Marsh by 10 minutes. We were accompanied by Keith and Dave who had given us a lift. We had been told by Wayne Glossop that a Red-backed Shrike was showing near the marquees, so we made our way there and were greeted by a huge crowd of birders. We walked towards them and after listening to a few of the other birders describe where the bird was, I managed to spot the Red-backed Shrike  distantly perched on top of a hedge. It then came closer in, but only for a few seconds, before it flew out of view.  Since we were in North Field, we decided to check out some of the stands in the marquees. We also met a few familiar faces. Then, news broke out of a Wryneck in Schipper's Field about 45mins ago. Suddenly, everyone was in a rush to get to the field, but as soon as we got there, we were told there had been no sign of it. Not discouraged, we decided to look around the hedges b