Wildlife

James Lowen

A month later, in mid-November, a run of excellent easterlies saw another plan come to fruition. The conditions were perfect for finding a Hume's Leaf Warbler, so - once morning chores were done - I decided to head to the north Norfolk coast and find one. Being greedy, however, I also wanted to find a Black-faced Bunting, which was having an exceptional autumn in Western Europe. The obvious place to go was East Hills, but Ash Banwell and Mike Buckland would already be out there, meaning that I would be following in their wake. (Mike and I had already been a few minutes too late to find Rustic Bunting there in September, with Ash having bumped into one shortly after finding a Little Bunting - and I had no wish to relive that particular pain.)

I was oscillating between Wells Woods and Holkham/Burnham Overy Dunes when Ashley Saunders announced that he had found a Hume's - and then a Pallas's Warbler - in Wells Woods. So I clearly wasn't going to head there either! I birded my way through Holkham instead, seeing lots of migrants, but nothing rare. Out on Burnham Overy Dunes, however, I chanced upon a fresh-in Hume's Warbler that was bouncing around calling madly and incessantly, but never showing well. Get in! Another self-find tick, targeted and found. Of Black-faced Bunting, there was no sign, of course... but over the following few days, I found Pallas's Warblers at Stiffkey Binks and in Gorleston, so I certainly can't complain.

Click here to listen to the cut of the Hume's.

We were pretty excited up there by the rapid depression that moved east across the Atlantic. This dumped Veery on Islay (for friend Jack Morris), a Blackpoll Warbler on Unst (which we dipped, somehow) and... gallingly, the UK's first Great Crested Flycatcher on mainland Shetland, which was found while we were there (but obviously was not twitchable). Shetland always offers something good, though, and this year the highlight was an often showy 1st-winter male Siberian Thrush, an arguably overdue world tick for me.

We try not to do much twitching during the week, but inevitably you pass close enough to other people's birds to end up seeing some of them. These included Eastern Subalpine Warbler (initially tentatively identified as Western, which got me interested as that's the Subalpine taxon I need), three Glossy Ibis, Rustic Bunting and Little Bunting, We also saw some nice birds on the drive to and from Aberdeen: American White-winged Scoter, White-rumped Sandpiper and Marsh Sandpiper.

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28 February 2026 Autumn 2025...

Yes, I know it is a long time since I have blogged. Some of that was due to IT confustications: I couldn't get into my website to edit it. The rest down to too much work - and a desire NOT to spend time at the computer unless I absolutely had to. Perhaps I can make amends during 2026. Perhaps...

Anyhow, let's flick back to autumn 2025. As I have often said here, "in October I go birding". Up until the middle of that month, I was on Shetland with David Bradnum, Peter Moore and Phil Saunders, trawling gardens, tracts of scrub and iris beds in search of vagrants. We did very poorly, the best we found _despite nearly 100K steps walked during the week - being a Red-breasted Flycatcher, a Greenland ('rostrata') Redpoll, an eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat that showed the odd feature that cold plausibly relate to halimodendri (but was probably blythi, as they all seem to be on the northern isles in autumn) and, obviously, plenty of Yellow-browed Warblers plus the odd Siberian Chiffchaff.

Getting home to Norfolk, there had been northeasterlies for two days, which had already brought in Radde's and DuskyWarblers. There was no way that I could stay at home, in front of the computer, with the chance of finding something rare. So I headed north and decided to go and find a Red-flanked Bluetail, a Radde's or a Dusky in Wells Woods, working on the assumption that Wells and Holkham are where you try two days after an arrival. So I walked round Wells, finding quite a few common migrants, including a few Yellow-browed Warblers, and stopping in potential spots to play the odd bit of tape. Coming up close to my return-for-the-schoolrun time, I was walking west of the drinking pool when I heard a distant call that sounded a bit like a Bluetail. I headed towards it, and after 100m or so, came to a tree at the base of which were a few Redwings, Song Thrushes and Blackbirds. waiting here, I spotted a small, rotund, pale passerine fly between the canopy of two adjacent oaks. It didn't look like a Robin. I wondered whether it might be... just possibly... so played a bit of tape. And out onto the nearest birch flew a Red-flanked Bluetail! How I gawped. After showing briefly, the bird flew back into one of the oaks. At this point, I realised that I hadn't taken a photo! I pressed 'play' again and out the bluetail came to a different birch. Here I got some quick shots before it returned to the oak. After flitting between the oaks for a few minutes, during which time I put the news out, it did a bunk... and was never seen again. I left for the school run, elated: my most-wanted self-found bird, found. I love it when a plan comes together.