A twitch 20 minutes away

It is very unusual for a real rarity to occur in the Midlands, probably due to the location as we are about as far from the coast that you can get in the UK.

On Friday, a Dusky Warbler was reported from Marsh Lane NR about a 20 minute drive from me.  Unfortunately, I could not get to go and see it then but dragged myself out of bed at dawn yesterday and drove the 'long' distance to the reserve.  As I turned into the reserve a message appeared on Twitter that confirmed that the bird was still there and after a 5 minute walk and a donation to the West Midland Bird Club (who own this excellent reserve) I was fortunate to view the bird pretty much straightaway.  During the hour that I was there, the bird showed and called on a number of occasions and I managed brief views of the bird in typical phylloscopus poses.  I also took the opportunity to catch up with Dennis who I seem to only bump into in Norfolk or Scotland, so it was unusual to seem him on home turf.  I then decided to scarper as more birders were starting to arrive with probably a total of about 30 to 40 being there by the time I left.

In the afternoon I had a prearranged appointment with Mike-PCC for us to go birding.  As the wind had picked up we thought we would not travel that far and made our way to Balscote Quarry to see if we could spot a Great Grey Shrike that has been there the past week.  The Shrike was being sensible and was keeping its head down so we gave after an hour wait and headed home.  Great Grey Shrike is becoming a bit of a bogey bird for me this year with me dipping on two in the past two weekends.