Greenish Warbler, Burnham Overy, 5th September
Having done very little coastal birding this summer I was keen to take advantage of some moderately interesting weather and headed up to Burnham Overy on 5th September. I wasn’t going to be able to spend the whole day there but rather than go early as usual I thought an afternoon visit might be more productive. The forecast had suggested that the northerly winds in the morning were originating from the north west, whereas by the afternoon there was a chance they might be winds originating from Scandinavia. In the end I arrived later than planned, beginning at the staithe at 3.10 pm. My walk down to the dunes was uneventful save for my first 5 Pink-footed Geese of the autumn. As I reached the final bend in the seawall I met other birders coming back including Andy Clements who informed me that the dunes were very quiet – the only migrant they had seen was a single Willow Warbler in the Suaeda.
I guess it must have only been 2-3 minutes later that I reached the start of the boardwalk and saw a Phyllosc flying from the bushes to my right. It flew back past me but I immediately lost it behind the big hawthorn I was standing next too. It seemed a clean bright bird, but rather small and compact and relatively short-winged. I was aware that there had been a Greenish Warbler on Blakeney Point in the morning and was mindful of the possibility that this might be another. After some time I saw the bird again, but it showed only occasionally and so briefly that it was hard to get anything on it, though it looked increasingly interesting from the jizz. Eventually I got a glimpse of it in side view – it was definitely either a Greenish Warbler or an Arctic Warbler. It didn’t have the jizz of an Arctic Warbler but I wasn’t prepared to rule that out until I had seen more objective criteria – especially as two Arctic Warblers had been found on the east coast (Yorkshire and Shetland) during the day. It then flew over the bushes to my right and continued along the bank of the seawall completely ignoring the first couple of bushes it passed along the fence-line. Was it going to stop? I feared it was heading inland and would get away without me positively identifying it. Thankfully it dived into the biggest of the bushes along the fence. I ran back along the seawall to get closer and after a while I saw a movement at the back of the bush. It came out and on to some rose briefly allowing me to rattle off some photos.
Greenish Warbler, Burnham Overy, 5th September
It disappeared again without me having a chance to actually look at it properly. It felt like a Greenish on jizz, and what I could see of my photos on the back of my camera supported that ID but the details were hard to see on the screen. Eventually further views enabled me to be 100% satisfied that it was indeed a Greenish Warbler.
Greenish Warbler, Burnham Overy, 5th September
While I was watching it a Redstart appeared next to it before dropping to the ground to feed just in front of me. This was clearly a freshly-arrived migrant, and I presume both the Redstart and Greenish Warbler had just arrived - for once in my life I had timed it well!
Redstart, Burnham Overy, 5th September
A small number of birders arrived to look at the Greenish Warbler and while we were looking a couple of us had independently got brief glimpses of an intriguing long-tailed bird in flight. I had seen it drop into the clump north east of the main boardwalk bushes and had got the impression that it might possibly be a Wryneck, though I was far from certain. The jizz fitted Wryneck and I even thought I might have seen barring on the tail, but I had got such a poor view I wasn't sure. I spent ages looking for it but couldn't find it, though the Greenish Warbler did move to the same clump for a bit. I was pretty much ready to give up and moved round the clump for what was going to be the last time when I saw a movement deep inside the vegetation. Looking in I could just make out the rear flanks of a bird. There was some barred feathers. Surely this was a Wryneck! I couldn't think of anything else that would show such a pattern on its flanks, but I could only see a tiny bit of the bird. Then it shuffled slightly - I could still only see a little bit of the bird, but now I could see its mantle - greyish brown with a broad dark line going up the middle. It was a Wryneck! That was the best view I ever got of it, and as far as I know that anyone got of it. I hung around a bit longer in the hope of getting better views, but that was not to be.
Anyway, I was a happy man. Although Greenish Warblers are pretty frequent in Norfolk this was the first one I'd ever found myself, and a find-tick is worth a lot to me these days, especially in a year that I have done so little coastal birding and on a day that most other birders seemed to have gone away empty-handed. And with Wryneck and a showy Redstart as bonus extras! If only birding was always as good as this...
