Blyth's Reed Warbler, Filey, 23/09/96

Northeastely winds had brought good numbers of migrants to the east coast of Yorkshire. News of a Marsh Warbler at the Church Ravine, Filey, prompted me to jump on a train from York and head east. A Barn Owl near Seamer from the train as a nice surprise.

I arrived to find only one other birder looking for the bird, which was in a patch of scrub near the road in the bottom of the ravine. Over the next hour or so I saw the bird numerous times at fairly close range, but often only for a split second in the open, so difficult to pick out the key features. The other birder was thinking the bird could be a Blyth's Reed Warbler and the tacking call we heard occasionally and the short-winged, raised tail appearance certainly fitted with that species. The upperparts were uniform grey-beige, with no rufous tones and no darker centres to any of the wing feathers. The underparts were a uniform yellowish buff, with a whiter throat. The tail was held cocked most of the time, with the wings drooped at the sides, the oft-cited 'banana' posture typically adoped by Blyth's. After a while, I decided that I wasn't going to add much more to the debate, so I headed off to look for other birds.

Up to the churchyard, there were clearly plenty of migrants around, with several Pied and Spotted Flycatchers zipping around in the Sycamores and Garden Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats skulking in the bushes. To my surprise, a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was showing well in the churchyard, which I later found out was a first for the Filey area, having been seen in the Glen Gardens earlier. It performed beautifully, gleaning insects from the leaves and hopping about on the twigs of the larger trees, right out in the open. Nearby, a juvenile Red-backed Shrike was in a hedge by the churchyard wall, whilst a handful of Swallows and House Martins fed along the back of the larger trees, keeping out of the fresh breeze. 

A birder told me that a Greenish Warbler had been seen in Arndale but as I'd seen one here two weeks ago, I decided not to twitch it and keep searching for my own birds. 

When I got home, I rang Birdline to see what else had been seen along the east coast. The Filey acro was being put out as a Blyth's Reed now, much to my delight!