News broke today of a Pallas grasshopper warbler trapped and ringed at Kilnsea in church fields this morning. I rang Malc Curtin, who was up for the drive over to East Yorkshire. We both knew there was little chance of the bird still being there after release, but there was no point sitting around at home, three hours' drive away, in case the bird did show again. Anyway, on arrival, there were only two people present, which was a bit surprising for such a mega bird. We put in nearly four hours of searching around as other birders turned up, but there was no sign of the bird.
17/09/16
Updating my blog on Saturday night around 5ish, I went on the Manchester bird forum website and noticed a Juvenile Red-backed shrike had been seen at Silver Lane Pools in Risley near Warrington. News hadn't been put out on the bird, so I tweeted the news out. It was too late for me to visit as the M6 was like a car park again, and I was on work duty at 7:30 p.m., so I would have to wait till the morning. The bird showed well until dusk.
I visited the site at 8am, and there were a few birders on site in thick mist. Apparently, the bird was found at 12.00pm the previous day! Cheers for putting the news out! For such a great bird in Cheshire. Don't understand why people put photos up and a description of where the bird is on a website, what is the point, I'd rather not no the bird was even there! Pointless! Anyway, moan over the bird had gone, but I did get good views of a Sparrowhawk!
Sparrowhawk
