MEGA ALERT: The SPECTACLED WARBLER in Norfolk - Part Two

SPECTACLED WARBLER (male)
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk - June 2014
Photo by Dave Hutton

My second trip to Norfolk for the singing male SPECTACLED WARBLER involved Dave Hutton, who still needed the species in Britain and Jules Allen, who had already seen two before. The fine folks at the Met Office predicted a stormy looking front that was due to hit North Norfolk during late morning, so an early start was the order of the day.

We set off from Nuneaton just before 4.00am and at around 6.30am we were already safely parked up at Burnham Overy. The day had already started well with a Barn Owl perched up at the roadside near Stanhoe as well as a small group of feral Helmeted Guineafowl, a UK400 Club tick anyone? As we made our way down towards the dunes a pair of Little Tern showed very well feeding around the pools near the footpath and a Munjac Deer was causing panic amongst the nesting Redshank out on the salt marsh.

The SPECTACLED WARBLER twitch!
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk.
Photo by Adam Archer

As we approached the site it was evident that the bird was not favouring the same area as I had seen it earlier on in the week. It was now favouring a broad strip of suaeda between the dunes and the marsh, slightly closer towards the boardwalk. Within a few seconds the SPECTACLED WARBLER appeared as it darted back and forth amongst the vegetation. Upon closer inspection you could see that the bird was busy collecting bits of nesting material and taking them back to same location time and time again. This assisted Dave in obtaining a collection of fine quality photographs, a few of which you can see here.

SPECTACLED WARBLER (male)
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk - June 2014
Photo by Dave Hutton

Although the handsome sylvia warbler showed very well just a few yards away, the views of it perched up in the open were always quite brief. This was in total contrast to how it had behaved on my initial visit. The bird obviously did not want to attract too much intention to the work of art it was busily constructing hidden amongst the suaeda. It would occasionally take a break from its duties to scratch out a few verses of song but once again these tended to be rather brief. After a few hours of admiring the bird you could see the front of wet weather quickly approaching from the west. As the sound of thunder rubbled in the distance it was time to make a move. 

As we made our way back to the car a Spoonbill flew overhead heading west and the same pair of Little Tern were still noisily going about their business along the footpath. We managed to get back in time and avoid a thorough soaking and decided to take shelter in the cafe at Titchwell RSPB for a while.

SPECTACLED WARBLER (male)
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk - June 2014
Photo by Dave Hutton

SPECTACLED WARBLER (nest building male)
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk - June 2014
Photo by Dave Hutton

SPECTACLED WARBLER (nest building male)
Burnham Overy Dunes, Norfolk - June 2014
Photo by Dave Hutton

After a quick bite to eat and a chat to the patio-building Gooner himself, Garry Bagnell we decided to brave the elements and make our way down toward the hides. Titchwell is always a good bet for padding out your day list with a few decent species and today was no exception. Out of the fresh marsh the highlights were a trio of feral Barnacle Geese, a drake Garganey, a summer-plumaged Spotted Redshank, a couple of Greenshank and a first-summer Little Gull. The more usual suspects included a single Little Ringed Plover, 20 Ringed Plover, a Turnstone, a few Bar-tailed Godwit and impressive total of 195 Black-tailed Godwit.

Back along the footpath we dipped out on a distant first-summer male Montagu's Harrier out towards Holme but we did see a few Marsh Harriers around the reserve. Another interesting sighting was a female Red-crested Pochard with a brood of five recently hatched ducklings. There were also at least three drake Red-crested Pochard on site too.

Before heading back to the Midlands we made the short journey up to Choseley drying barns where a Turtle Dove had been reported earlier on in the day. Unfortunately we did not connect with this rapidly declining species but it was great to see a few other fast disappearing farmland birds like Grey Partridge, Yellowhammer and Corn Bunting.

The SPECTACLED WARBLER in Britain

This species is usually a speciality of southern Europe at this time of the year. The breeding distribution is centred on the Mediterranean with two populations. The nominate race conspicillata breeds from Iberia and North Africa east across to Italy and Libya. Another population occurs in Cyprus, Levant, Israel, Jordan and possibly parts of southern and western Turkey. The wintering areas of the species is poorly known but appears to be concentrated in an area around Senegal, south-western Mauritania, south-eastern Algeria and northern Niger. As this is a relatively short-range migrant the occurrence of SPECTACLED WARBLER is understandably rare in northern Europe.

If accepted this will be just the eighth record of the species for Britain. There have been no acceptable records for Ireland. All previous records are as follows:

2011 - Hampshire - Needs Ore Point - adult male from 29th to 30th October.
2011 - Norfolk - Scolt Head - singing male on 6th May only.
2008 - Suffolk - Westleton Heath - singing first-summer male on 10th May only.
2000 - Isles of Scilly - Tresco - first-winter from 15th to 21st October.
1999 - Devon - Roborough Down near Clearbrook - singing first-summer male from 3rd to 6th June.
1997 - Suffolk - Landguard - male from 26th April to 2nd May.
1992 - Yorkshire - Filey - singing male from 24th to 29th May.

All our records are thought to involve the nominate race conspicillata as the race orbitalis is a non-migratory resident of Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands.

Here are some excellent recordings of the Norfolk SPECTACLED WARBLER by Ashley Banwell: