With a bit of time to spare I decided to whisk Mrs Caley and myself away up to Flamborough Head for a few days. The idea was instigated after a trip made to Bempton Cliffs on the previous Saturday to twitch a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, only the second recorded in the UK (and the other was found deceased below a lighthouse on the Islands of Scilly so the first live one). The east coast headland in Yorkshire was on fire too, with many more birds promised after a recent period of poor but encouraging weather, and I didn't want to miss out on the fun.
This blog actually starts on Saturday 28th September when we joined upwards of five hundred fellow twitchers at the RSPB's Bempton Cliffs reserve. We had made a tardy departure from home and didn't arrive until almost midday by which time we knew that the mega rare Pale-legged Leaf Warbler had been refound earlier in the morning. The bird had actually been discovered in scrub by the carpark on the Wednesday before and initially identified as an Arctic Warbler. I would have been willing to make the trip for that since at that point I'd never seen an Arctic Warbler and I'd never even heard of a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler!
However, the finder of the bird had managed to record its calls and further analysis revealed (on Friday) that they belonged to a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler (after initial consideration of an Eastern Crowned Warbler had been ruled out), an Asian species that breeds in Eastern China and which should be wintering in Thailand and certainly not East Yorkshire! So the mega twitch was on for the Saturday when the weather would have improved after an awful few days of heavy rain.
Apparently the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler had shown well about an hour before we arrived so some of the early guard had left, which was just as well because we had trouble, firstly driving through the crowds looking from the bridge into The Dell on the entry road, and secondly finding a spot to park in the overflow carpark. At least there were plenty of folk to tell us where to look, although by the time we'd reached the action, the bird had disappeared and had to be relocated again which meant nobody had an idea of where it was apart from knowing it was sure to be around somewhere. I ascertained its last position, in a patch of scrub bordered by the carpark on one side, the road on another and a footpath, and settled on joining the throng on the footpath. A quick chat with friends Dean & Karen, who'd seen the bird well about thirty minutes before, revealed that the Warbler was tending to do a circuit of the whole parking area, and that as always, patience was the key.
We tagged on to a group of birders who were staking out the last known position of the Warbler. It was hard to get a decent view through the birders and into the tangle of branches of the sycamores and brambles beyond. After about fifteen minutes, as folk drifted away we got almost front row seats or pews seeing as kneeling was necessary in order to see under the trees. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Pale-legged one and the only birds we saw were a Robin, a Goldcrest, and some of the Tree Sparrows that make Bempton their home.
I had studied the call of a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler on "xenocanto", the go-to birdsong and call reference, the evening before so when I heard a clear "tink" sound (a bit like a high pitched Dunnock call but much shorter) above us, I glanced up quickly enough to see a small shape dive into the trees into which we were looking. Other birders had also noticed the birds arrival and the excitement in the crowd heightened. More birders swelled the ranks and much shuffling of positions took place as we all craned our necks for a better view into the shady scrub. There was movement, the Robin again, but wait, what was that flitting ahead of the Robin? A chap, whispered, 'There it is, low to the ground'. I couldn't see it but kept watching from my kneeling position. I noticed some movement again but wasn't quick enough to spot the source. A couple of cameras whirred into action but I still couldn't see the bird. I had already taken the decision to get a good view of the bird first before unholstering my own camera. It's all too easy to miss a bird if you aim with the camera before looking with your naked eyes or binoculars. Another five minutes passed, I knew the bird was still in there but I still hadn't seen it for myself. I just didn't have the right position it seemed.
The loud tinking call came towards us from just a few feet away again, and this time I saw the bird perch briefly on an overhead branch at almost touching distance before the Warbler flew over our heads and into trees the other side of the path. Even though I didn't see it for long enough, it was obviously the correct bird, the call had determined that, so I was able to tick it, but I needed more. Mrs Caley and I decided that, rather than rush off with most of the crowd to where the bird had flown, we'd stay put and lever ourselves into a place from where we would have a better all round view of the scrub where the bird had been. We were pretty sure that the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler would complete its circuit of its adopted patch, and return before long.
Twenty minutes later, during which time we chatted to new and old friends, the same call of the bird indicated that the Warbler had indeed flown back into "our" section of the scrub. The usual scrum ensued but this time behind us because we were already staked out right at the edge of the bushes. A hush developed as multiple eyes scanned for any movements. A chap just to my right spotted the bird first. By contorting my head to the right side I was able to see past a trunk in front of me and clapped my eyes on the broad bright supercilium of a chiffchaff-sized Warbler that was clambering slowly through the branches of a twiggy tree just a couple of feet off the ground. It looked a bit like a Dusky Warbler, brownish coloured with very pale legs and that striking supercilium, but was more elongated. I had seen it for maybe five seconds, when it dropped to the ground and melted into the leaves and litter. I briefly saw it once more when I saw it walk along a fallen tree trunk, and then it was gone. After those maybe, ten seconds of good views though, it was now a full fat life tick, the 432nd species that I'd seen in the UK.
We stayed for another half hour or so before becoming a little tired of the goings-on of the large scale twitch, so decided to leave. We didn't think that we'd get any better views and wanted to see another bird. Ironically we left to travel down to Spurn, to see an Arctic Warbler that had been reported as showing well. We saw that bird really clearly too, so gained two lifers on the day. More about that in a subsequent blog (Part 2).
I was happy that I'd seen the Pale-legged Leaf warbler but far from satisfied that I hadn't even raised my camera and taken aim at the bird. I had managed some decent shots of the Arctic Warbler, although that had shown openly and well, so hadn't been too difficult to capture. I decided that I needed to return to Bempton for another try. The Pale-legged was seen again throughout the day on the Sunday and, judging by photos posted on social media, had shown better than the day before. As is often the case, once the mayhem of the first day of a twitch had passed, the bird had become less elusive when faced with a smaller and quieter crowd later on. As luck would have it, my working week ahead was light, I'd be free after Wednesday, so I sounded out Mrs Caley about escaping to Yorkshire again on Thursday. This time we'd stay for a couple of days so that we could twitch anything else around too. There were for instance a couple of Hoopoes in the area (we had dipped both after seeing the Arctic Warbler, presumably because it was too late in the day and the birds had gone to roost), and a Pallid Harrier which had shown superbly well at Kilnsea just a mile from the Arctic Warbler, but which I'd stupidly ignored in favour of chasing the Hoopoes. I'm extremely good at making the wrong decisions.
I studied the weather pattern for the upcoming few days. Sunday evening into Monday promised heavy rain, as did Monday into Tuesday. The whole of Tuesday would be subject to rain and it wouldn't clear until Wednesday. I couldn't imagine the Pale-legged Leaf warbler leaving on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday but Wednesday was forecast to a bright day with clear skies through the night giving me good reason to believe that it would depart on Wednesday night and not be there on Thursday. So I had to bring my plans of the mini-break forward by a day and travel up to East Yorkshire on Wednesday. I booked us a nice little cottage for three nights starting on Wednesday giving us most of the day to target the Leaf Warbler if it remained. There would no doubt be many substitute birds to twitch even if it left.
As predicted the Warbler was still at Bempton on the Monday, and on the Tuesday, my mate Mark got to see it in dreadfully wet conditions. We left home early on Wednesday morning with a plan to go to Stamford Bridge first, not the one that's so special to me, but to the almost as famous a place named after a battle that marked the end of the Viking era in Britain, 921 years to the day before Mrs Caley and I got married, and then onto Bempton afterwards if the Warbler was still reported present. We received confirmation that the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler was still there by eight o'clock but, despite going against my better judgement and playing it far too cool with my past track record for bad decisions, stayed on course for Stamford Bridge and the Hoopoe that we'd missed on Saturday.
Hoopoe secured we arrived at Bempton at half past one in the afternoon. They were maybe fifty birders looking for the mega rare Warbler this time so the atmosphere was a lot less strained than when there had been ten times that number on Saturday. There was also a lot more room to gain vantage positions to look into the scrub. The main huddle of folk were stationed at a strip of hedgerow that bordered The Dell. The target bird was in that hedge and people were seeing it. We took up a spot, got the gen from the assembled and within seconds were following the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler through the hawthorn bushes. The Warbler very conveniently popped up into a small hole in the hedge and I had a full view of the bird. This time I aimed the camera and fired off a volley. Unfortunately the bird had just moved slightly so I didn't quite capture the whole bird plus the autofocus struggled with the low light in the hedge but I had at least gained a record shot and full proof that I'd seen the bird. Importantly, Mrs Caley had also had a good clear view of the bird, having missed out on Saturday apart from a couple of brief flight views.
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| Pale-legged Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus tenellipes) |
The Pale-legged Leaf Warbler was sticking it out in the hedge however, and with Mrs Caley now following the bird and telling me where to aim, I was tracking it best as I could with the camera. It was difficult though to focus because of the masses of twigs and leaves so whenever the bird showed, I was hopelessly failing to secure any images at all except for a few blurred efforts.
I had to change tactics so I set the lens to manual focus and ramped up the ISO of the camera to 5000. The bird had flitted into a dense bramble bush but could be followed moving through it owing to the twitching of the stems as it moved. Whenever the bird emerged into view I rattled (silently of course with my mirrorless kit) away with the camera. I did better than before but there was still always a leaf or a stem in the way!
We followed the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler along the hawthorn hedge to a slightly less dense part where there was a small stunted sycamore tree. In amongst the branches of that tree the bird was much easier to see and I almost got a decent photo! Almost. But my photos were getting better with every view of the bird so I was becoming hopeful of striking really lucky later on. The better views also allowed for a better appraisal of the plumage. The body of the Warbler, far from being uniform brown was actually a deep olive green-brown with lighter yellow-green wings and rump. The underparts were a sullied white colour giving way to a brighter and cleaner white throat. The supercilium was just as striking as before, brightest behind the eye and not reaching the bill. A dark brownish stripe passed through the eye. And of course, the legs were really quite pale pink and you could understand why the species had been so named.
With a loud "tink" the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler flew over our heads and back towards the area where we'd seen it on Saturday. Knowing how hard it was to see in that scrub, we went to the visitor centre for a coffee and slice of cake before trying our luck again. While there we chatted to a chap who told us that the best policy was to wait for the bird at the feeding station where it showed much better, a notion that I'd already decided to do anyway at some point after my own research based on sightings over the past few days. Thus after our recharge of caffeine we headed back out and went straight to the benches that overlook the feeding station. A few other birders were there but it was apparent that the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler wasn't because it was far too calm! We watched the Tree Sparrows and other birds for a while but our attention was soon diverted by a Yellow-browed Warbler that called occasionally from the canopy above. Usually I'd have exercised every sinew and muscle in trying to get a good view of one of my favourite birds but there was a bigger fish to fry here so my attention was mostly dedicated to watching the trees surrounding the feeders.
I also kept a watch on what was happening around the site, I could see groups of other birders who were presumably chasing reports and sightings of the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. When a load of people suddenly moved over to where we were, I readied myself for action. The bird had arrived unseen by me although I could now hear it calling as it moved through a willow next to the feeders. I then saw it fly across the open ground where the various feeders stood and into a hedge made up of small sycamores and other trees (my tree identification skills are sadly lacking). It was extremely dark under those trees despite the reasonably bright conditions outside so I adjusted the ISO up again to 7500. I knew that would have serious implications for the smoothness of any images obtained, but I reasoned that sharp albeit grainy photos would be far better than none at all!
The Pale-legged Leaf Warbler popped up almost as close as it could but I was too slow with the camera and caught just branches where it had been. At least now it was an area where there was a good chance of getting some much better photos. It had gotten packed where we sat and the tension had risen again as people strove for the clinching views that they, and myself, craved. My next attempt at capturing the Warbler via the camera was partially successful but again the bird just thwarted my best efforts by using either the twigs to hide behind or by turning away just as the shutter went down.
We had another ten minute interlude during which quite a few folk left. Thus we had more room to move when the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler presented itself again. This time, almost an hour and a half after arriving, the bird suddenly appeared as if by magic. Nobody saw it coming at all. It did however, stop moving for a few moments allowing me to get a couple of shots that when reviewed on the back of the camera, I was delighted with.
But better, and worse, was to come when the Warbler moved through the bramble thicket right next to us and then appeared underneath a more sparsely adorned tree, giving excellent views. Unfortunately despite the bird being eminently visible, I just couldn't focus the camera on it. On two occasions the bird posed dutifully on isolated twigs, and I managed to hash up the shots. Twenty odd frames all out of focus like the ones shown below. I'd made the mistake of going back to manual focus when the bird was moving through the bramble and now despite it looking as if the focus was good through the viewfinder, it clearly wasn't. Limitations like that in my own ability prevent me from taking the top notch photographs that others achieve. It's all a learning curve.
I needn't have worried too much though because within minutes the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler was making a return journey through the bramble thicket again. There was no point in trying to photograph it in there, so I readjusted the camera back to autofocus again. After watching the bird for that hour and a half and never getting anything more than fleeting views for most of it, it now came as a complete surprise when it suddenly started to play ball and offer itself up wholeheartedly for us. The bird settled for a few seconds on several perches on at least three occasions. I filled my boots, the camera focussed correctly and I had some images to be proud of. Talk about made up, and I was so pleased that we'd come back for a second try. It was one of the rarest birds we're ever likely to see and had been a most enjoyable twitch as well.
We had another three days in the area to look forward to as well. We'd started this trip with fabulous views of a Hoopoe, had nailed the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, and now we had a chance of seeing only our second Olive-backed Pipit which had been found at Thornwick Bay Holiday Camp while we'd been watching the Leaf Warbler. We duly connected with that (blogged in Part 2), so retired to our holiday cottage with celebratory fish & chips very happy indeed!
That feeling of self-gratification was enhanced even more when the bird did a bunk overnight. I'm so glad that I studied the weather forecasts and made a correct decision for a change, to travel up on the Wednesday rather than wait for the following day.
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