Irrespective of previous years, wow has my lack of Yellow-browed Warblers this year been frustrating!! In other parts of Devon birders seem to be hearing/seeing them every time they step outside, they really have been turning up everywhere and anywhere! Over the last few weeks I've been out every morning, and each morning headed out thinking 'well today will be the day'... wrong every time! I reckon I've seen about 150 Chiffs in the last month, I bet there's not many other birders in the UK have seen that number of Chiffs this autumn without a single stripe!
Luckily though this birding malarkey is a funny old game. This morning was the first morning in weeks that I've not been out birding. After a bit of a lie in, a rummage through the cupboards showed the breakfast potential was low (very bad news in the Waite household!) so a jaunt to the corner shop was required. Wandering back through the estate swinging my bag of goodies was already a joyous thing as I knew Pain Au Chocolat was imminent, but when a Yellow-browed Warbler started going berserk in front of me well that was the weekend made!
Amazingly it was in the same row of trees I found a bird in on 30th Oct last year (which stayed for a few days). I watched it at close quarters in some ivy as it called in a somewhat frenzied manner (about 8 or 9 calls in five or so seconds), before legging it home to drop off the shopping and grab my phone and camera. I saw it a few more times on my return, but sadly couldn't manage a photo and it had completely shut up.
Hopefully this signifies a change in fortune for me, so let's see what tomorrow brings...
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