Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Toft 14 October 2014 - Radde's Warbler and Turtle Dove - birding to the bitter end.

Calm and sunny.

Fantastic conditions and an early morning stroll at Tjeldstø revealled that it was surprisingly a day for grounded migrants rather than visible migration - with clear skies and no wind this came as totally unexpected.



RADDE'S WARBLER VIERSANGER - second county record.

The day took an unexpected turn as I prepared to leave for work - just before I was going to leave on the 10:00 bus to town local ringer Nigel Goodgame rang me on the last remaining credit on his phone - telling me of an interesting phyllosc and could I please let his wife know. Nice prioritising!

Incredibly, whislt hitching a ride to see the bird with another local birder we managed a Turtle Dove turteldue on a roadside telephone wire near Nautnes.

The ID of what turned out to be a Radde's Warbler viersanger was straightfoward - all the relevant features for this mega are clearly shown in the above images.

The next problem solved itself - missing the bus but hitching a ride with one of the twitchers who had made it out in amazingly short time. Autumn speed traps on the way out to Øygarden could prove fruitfull.

Talk about birding to the bitter end. Not the easiest conditions in which to leave Øygarden....

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