Two Barred Greenish Warbler in Dorset

Two Barred Greenish Warbler Photo by Chris Craig.

Yesterday the 18th October i teamed up with RR and headed to St. Aldhelm's Head in Dorset and the target bird was a 1st w Two Barred Greenish Warbler which had been present for 3 days & counting , it was first thought to have been an Arctic Warbler until Dorset birder  Brett Spencer expertly re-identified it as a Two Barred Greenish Warbler  on the 17th. 

A straight forward journey got us on site at approx 9am and the news was positive the TBGW was still present , we made our way down to the quarry and joined the mass of birders already present , we more or less saw the TBGW straight away but the view was very brief and certainly not good enough to be certain of id , then the shout went up it was showing on the other side of the trees, we dashed round there but had no luck.

I decided the best course of action was to stay in one place which paid of as i had several brief views and a couple of really good views seeing all the id features that make this a Two Barred Greenish Warbler.

Sadly i never managed a photo , i was just not quick enough with my camera plus i was really trying to see all the key id features and of course just enjoying watching the bird.

Many thanks to Chris Craig who did manage a photo and very kindly has allowed me to use his photo on my blog.

There were several Firecrest amongst the trees which showed really well.

Firecrest.

Two Barred Greenish Warbler is currently a sub species of Greenish Warbler but will soon be made a full species in it's own right when the BOU adopt the IOC listing system in January.