Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Around breakfast time on Sunday morning I received an e-mail from Martin, followed by a phone call. Would I care to go on a twitch at Farlington Marsh for the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler. For the duration of one nanosecond I was tempted and then sensibility prevailed. I hate twitches. I wished Martin good luck and was slightly envious when he sent me a couple of record shots that evening.

Today was a different matter - bright sunshine, midweek and the bird was still showing, everything augured well for some decent photography and highly likely that fewer birders would be present. That said there was one idiot there who, when I expressed a desire for the bird to pose in a certain way, delivered the judgement that "toggers are never satisfied". I then politely informed him that I wasn't a "togger" but a birder who owned a camera - I must have been in a good mood as when he departed his ears were not bleeding.

Anyway I managed to capture some decent shots of a subject that seemed to be always moving, luckily it was always calling too and thus never hard to locate. Nice to meet Dave who we had met before during our search for a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at  Burnham Beeches, he had managed some great shots earlier that morning and was hoping to find some Bearded Tits adjacent to the viewpoint.


A real "LBJ", not the most colourful of birds but nice to have recorded it - on account of its rarity.

One of the identification features of this bird is a distinctive downward tail "flick", a bit difficult to capture on a still shot but I guess you get the idea.

Up...

...and down.