My intention had been to go to Martin Mere this morning, but news of a male
Sardinian warbler caught and ringed on Hilbre Island first thing made me
change my plans. It's always a longshot twitching a bird such as this, they
often just disappear into dense vegetation following release, never to be seen
again. On top of that, I reckon it takes me two hours from leaving home to
arriving on the island. This morning was fairly typical, it took me one hour
15 minutes via Liverpool in rush hour traffic to get to the car park in West
Kirby, then I had to get my gear together, get my wellies on and walk across
the sand and occasional rocks for 3.1km (2 miles) in order to get to the area
where the bird had been released. By the time I got to the island, I'd already
met a couple of other birders walking back who hadn't seen the bird and
Birdguides was reporting no further sign since release. Oh well....
It was a truly glorious morning on Hilbre, I didn't see the Sardinian warbler
but there were only two of us looking and the bird may well still be around.
Hard to be too disappointed on a day like this, and birds I did see included
several wheatears, willow warblers, grasshopper warbler, chiffchaffs, 110
pale-bellied brent geese, 4 eiders, a few common scoter, sandwich terns plus
the usual waders. I don't go to Hilbre anywhere near enough and days like
today make me think that I should!
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| Photo: Sardinian warbler, Cyprus March 2026. |
The crazy thing is of course, when I was in Cyprus two weeks ago, Sardinian
warblers were very numerous, in fact they were a bit of a pain when
looking for other, rarer silvia warblers such as eastern orphean,
eastern subalpine and Cyprus warbler. I've never seen one in the UK though.
Pale-bellied brent geese.
Eiders.
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