I checked my phone this afternoon and saw the dreaded mega alert, the possible arctic warbler at St Aldhelm's Head had been reidentified as a two-barred warbler! The 7th British record of this taxon due to be adopted by the BOU next January. With the weather so poor, and only two reports in the last three days, I was torn between going or putting in extra hours at work and hoping it stayed until tomorrow. I made that mistake once already this year so I eventually decided to give it a punt.
I arrived on site, and a birder informed me that the bird was still showing. I walked/ran the mile to St Aldhelm's Quarry where a crowd of 30 or so birders were spaced along the road. As soon as I arrived, another birder was watching the bird, however it was moving quickly. After a couple fleeting view of what was apparently the bird, I locked eyes on something with a supercillium and wing bars. A few seconds later and the TWO-BARRED WARBLER popped up again, this time working its way along the the top of the vegetation. A very striking bird with whiter underparts, brighter upperparts and an even more obvious supercilium than last months greenish.
The weather was getting pretty bad at this point, and with such a tight crowd it would be impossible to set up my scope to get some shots. Having had pretty good views already, I decided to head home. At least one Firecrest was all else of note. Very glad I made the effort to get this, as it's my first mega old-world warbler. When the bird was showing, probably only a third of us managed to get onto the bird, as there is little space to view the quarry, so it could be a bit tricky for the larger crowds in the coming days.
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