The Monster Warbler.

In terms of 'megas' The Orphean Warbler (OW) is huge and is a sylvia warbler every twitcher in the land would dearly love to get their eyes on and one found in Cleveland on Tuesday caused the expected surge of cars onto the byways and motorways to see this monster bird.


Its interesting that despite huge numbers of OW breeding in southern France its rarity here in the UK is astonishingly rare and the reasons for this are in no way immediately apparent. It is also interesting that the species is yet another of those birds involved in the so called 'Hastings Rarities Scandal' which brings about yet more interest in that the first British record of OW was claimed in N.Yorkshire in 1848 when a pair was said to be breeding at Wetherby the male of which was apparently adequately described, but the account soon descended into nonsense as I see it and as far as I can tell the BOURC began to review this record in 1999. The bottom line of all this is, that if the record in Yorkshire in 1848 is eventually rejected, Britain's first record of OW will be that of a bird at Portland in Dorset in 1955.
    

Ring Ouzel Paul Foster

Thanks to PF for the image of the male Ring Ouzel, not a 'mega' bird but one many birders would love to find and go in search of them to do so every summer.  

Buzzard David Cookson

And thanks again to DC for being the first to point me in the direction of the 'good news' regarding the Buzzard project, but be warned....The Countryside Alliance are not best please about the u-turn on this one and rest assured they'll be getting their rocket launchers polished and at the ready.