Yellow Rumped Warbler in Durham.
Yesterday 10th February my target bird was the quite stunning Yellow Rumped Warbler which was amazingly found on the RSPB big garden watch at the end of January at Upper Shincliffe .
An uneventful journey had me arriving on site at approx 8.45am , the weather was good although very cold , i parked up and joined the already assembled birders by the bird feeders that had been set up to attract the YRW down for all us birders , the news was positive the bird had been seen already but sadly i had missed it by about 10 mins.
Large yellow rump.
After about an hours wait in total i heard the YRW calling then it appeared above the feeders and although i saw it well in my bins i could not pick out the rump colour , i saw the double wing bar quite easily , it then flew off over our heads and back behind into the gardens and i saw the white tail tips but still no Yellow rump .
After about another 20 mins it had not re appeared so i took the opportunity to have a look at the Waxwings which were a bit further away than i thought , however it was great to see them , there were also up to 5 Siskins nearby which was great to see also .
Yellow on flanks just about visible on this photo.
I decided to head back again to the feeders as this seemed to be the best area and on my way back there was a large gathering of birders looking into the garden just before the feeders and as i joined them there it was in full view , the Yellow Rumped Warbler gave a tremendous display and i managed to get it in my scope where i saw all the features i wanted to see including the yellow rump .
White tips to tail and yellow rump.
Double wing bar.
The YRW put on a great display in the silver birch tree before once again returning to the feeders where it quite happily fed on the coconut for several minutes , my photos don't do the bird justice at all , however there are many better ones on the net which are worth a look , i always try to get key features in my pics and hopefully you can just about make them out , i probably watched this bird on and off for nearly 2 hours when i decided to try and see the probable Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat in Tynmouth.
Probable Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat.
I didn't have to wait to long for this charming bird to turn up , it put on a show for quite some time , i am no expert about this species but everything is leaning towards it being of the helimodendri or Central Asian race , which is thought to be on the cards as being split in the future so maybe an arm chair tick to look forward to ???
Coal Tit on the feeder.
i also saw several Dunnock , Robin and Tits in and around the garden and then time had caught up with me and i set off on my long journey home . many thanks to the residents for allowing access to see the Yellow Rumped Warbler.
