The bird in question was an Eastern olivaceous warbler. It is a classic dull brown warbler, a bit like an oversized reed warbler. It should be moving to its wintering grounds in southern Europe from its breeding area in tropical Africa. This one presumably had just overshot a bit! It is a pretty rare bird with a record every year or so in the UK, most in September. It was present in the scrubby area of Farlington marshes near Portsmouth, an area I know pretty well. It didn't take long to get there but on arrival it was clear a major twitch was underway. All 3 of the car parks were totally full, with people trying to predate spots as others returned to their cars. I wouldn't get a space any time soon so I drove over the dual carriageway and got a space 10 minutes walk away. I wasn't the only person leaving there loaded down with optical gear!!
It took me another 10 minutes to find my way onto the marsh, or really dried grassland at this time of year. Twitchers were spread about looking at various bushes.
I headed for the largest congregation of them who were studying the upper area of a blackberry bush with great intent. Almost immediately a largish warbler popped up and cameras went off. I had the bird within seconds of arriving!
The only problem was that it wasn't exactly the best of views - it is in the photo above honest!!! Depending on your own personal rules to tick a bird, especially a lifer, you should have good enough views to be able to ID it not just rely on others saying "yes, that was it". I certainly saw no more than a bird with a large beak but not good enough. I waited there for 10 minutes but it became clear it had moved on as there was no more sign. We spread out again but it proved tricky to pin down. Someone thought they had it and the herd all moved across to study a hedgerow a long way away. The day before people had got VERY close to bird, creating a bit of a scene on site so today we were more circumspect. At the range we were at again all I could tell was that there were birds there. Others seemed confident of the ID but still not good enough for me. It then disappeared again for about 30 minutes and I was starting to wonder whether my views had been good enough, which they weren't really!
Suddenly, and without any obvious reason, lots of people gathered up their gear and moved to my right. A line had formed in front of a bush and only about 20 yards back from it. Then I caught a bird low down in the bush. The view was good enough to get the ID so I had the bird!
It was a very active, large Acrocephalus-type warbler. The plumage was dull green-grey, with a marked eye-stripe but crucially a really big bill!!! It was markedly different to them any chiffchaffs (below) also feeding in the bush.
For the next 20 minutes the crowd swelled to I suppose 70 or 80 as it fed away, sometimes giving its characteristic sharp "tack" call as well.
It was never still and never really came out into the open for more than a few seconds so I was pretty pleased with images I managed to get. Others got much better ones the previous day but these give me all the details I need to confirm I had the right bird. Eventually it disappeared and we concluded it had moved to a new bush and everyone spread out again.
I finally left just after midday to head back home leaving the crowds and arriving birders to refind it, which they did. So that makes it 3 lifers in under 2 weeks, a good spell for the start of Autumn. With a series of Atlantic lows arriving who knows what else might stop in though!!
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