The mega alert went off on saturday afternoon, that a Green warbler had been found on Unst at Settlers Hill, Baltasound in Shetland. The bird had originally come out as a Greenish warbler and then a probable Green Warbler. The bird was then trapped and ringed, and DNA samples were taken for analysis. Allan Conlin was up there at his house on Unst and had seen the bird, which had been found by Mike Pennington, and was keeping me up to date with the bird. There were no charters on Sunday as they were full, after Fred Fearn had tried for us all day saturday, so we had to pray and wait for it to still be there on Monday morning. The bird showed all day Sunday, so fingers crossed for the morning.
I met up with Fred Fearn, Pete Antrobus and Simon Slade at Lymm services on the M6, and we headed towards York for are chartered flight. Allan had kindly got up for us really early and was searching for the bird as we drove.
On arrival, we waited for news on the bird. Two Yellow Wagtails, Corn buntings and Skylarks kept us entertained whilst we waited.
Corn Bunting
Yellow Wagtail
Skylark
Allan phoned me just after 9.00am to say that the bird couldn't be relocated and that only two birders were looking. We hung around till 11.00am, but there was no news. We were all gutted as this was only the third record for Britain, the last one being on the Ristie, Foula, from the 31st May to 4th June 2014.
The plane that never took off
Green Warbler 3rd for Britain
