At last, the first twitch of the year! News broke of a strange-looking Sylvia warbler on Holy Island, Northumberland. Initially thought to be a female-type Subalpine Warbler, it had miraculously transformed into an Asian Desert Warbler by the evening.
With a day off ahead, I sorted my gear and set off just after 3:30 a.m. Motorways were kind, and by 4:30 a.m., news came through that the bird was still present. I arrived on site just after 7:30 a.m., and with directions in hand, I was soon on the bird—thanks to Sam Viles, who put me straight onto this active little cracker.
The Asian Desert Warbler flitted energetically through the foliage, moving between pines and sand dunes. After a brief disappearance, it reappeared in another area, allowing me to watch it for the next couple of hours. Its constant activity and vibrant plumage made it a joy to observe.
The Asian Desert Warbler (Curruca nana) breeds across the deserts and semi-deserts of Central Asia and the Middle East, from Kazakhstan and Iran to northwestern China. It winters in the Arabian Peninsula and northeastern Africa. In Europe, it is an extreme vagrant, with fewer than 15 records in Britain. Notably, half of these occurred during a remarkable five-year spell in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, sightings have been sporadic, including a single-observer record in Kent (November 2012) and one at Spurn in May 2000, making the Holy Island bird a truly rare and highly prized twitch.
On the journey home, I also connected with a Rosy Starling at Collingham, North Yorkshire, feeding on wild cherries—a stunning second adult male in a week.
This Holy Island encounter ended a 20-year wait for a truly twitchable Asian Desert Warbler and was a perfect reminder of why we chase these rare vagrants: the thrill, the beauty, and the sheer unpredictability of birding.
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