''We're way north'' Western Orphean Warbler

Not only did JT's phone call beat me to the
coffee on tuesday morning, but he also beat
'Filby's little box of dreams' informing of the
mega in Hartlepool.

I couldn't leave asap due to work
commitments as it would transpire was the
case for Paul & Ewan.
So the three of us met up at 12:30p.m
pointed the Skoda north and hit the motorway...

The pager messages kept a'coming and kept
coming up positive...M1still there...
what seemed like the entire length of the A1,
junction after junction, 'still showing'...
We reached the final infamous  #60 on the
'Great road of the north' The Hartlepool junction.



It was only then that the hideous gut wrenching
'bird has flown' text appeared on the familiar little screen...
Only 20 miles from the headland we push on with the familiar lacklustre patter,
''They'll be quite a few looking for it''... ''well,we're here now''... we pull in for petrol
and run out of clichés...we're a long long way from home... and the mood is dour.

The Warbler returns 


We circumnavigate the seaside town's one way system at 40mph thanks to the endless speed
cameras,we park (kinda) ,we run,(sorta) we join the masses,and we wait...(see below).

photo (c) Lee Gregory

We saw the Orphean Warbler
several times over the next three
and a half hours although it remained
elusive as it worked it's way along the hedge line of the bowling green.

We arrived back in Oxford at around midnight, 500miles,
£100 in fuel.



1st twitchable bird in 31 years since
one on the Isles of Scilly in 1981.


''We're way north'' (c) Ewan 'Two eyes' Urquhart whilst plotting our navigational course and
commenting on our current position.