Pallas's warblers are one of my favourite birds. I can vividly remember the first time I saw one, in the garden at Portland Bird Obs way back in the early 1980's. When you get a glimpse of the pale yellow rump and all the bars 'n stripes, it makes you gasp, they are such beautiful little birds. This little gem turned up a couple of weeks back but work commitments had stopped from going to see it until today. I've been hoping it would stay for a bit longer and I think just about every birder within a 50 mile radius had connected with it, except me.
So today I managed to take a few hours off work and after doing the school run I decided to take a chance and go for it. No news had been forthcoming today and only a single report yesterday had me wondering if it had started getting ready to disappear? But when I arrived there were three birders watching it and it showed very well indeed, down to 6 feet at times giving me some of the best views I've ever had. In typical fashion this bird is a little dynamo of energy, constantly on the move, hovering, chasing down insects to eat. I'd taken my old Digi SLR and 300mm lens as I knew there would be little hope of getting a pic with the bridge camera. Well, I got something...
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| Most of the time all I got was this... |
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| But occasionally I managed to get the bird itself... |
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| Pallas's Warbler, Portesham, Dorset: R. Harris |
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| Bit of rump, double wing-bar, crown and super...you get the drift |
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| Pallas's Warbler, Portesham, Dorset: R. Harris |
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| Pallas's Warbler, Portesham, Dorset: R. Harris |
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| Pallas's Warbler, Portesham, Dorset: R. Harris |
There've been some amazing photos of this bird and mine definitely aren't among them. I was going for the arty 'in situ' shot, so that worked. Now if I can just get my nose inside the room I can close the front door.
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