Yellow-browed Warbler No.3!

A weekend of family and friends staying over meant that my expectations of getting out birding were quite low.  However, the great thing about birds is that they can and do turn up anywhere.  A leisurely stroll around Verulamium Park in St Albans with family in tow held no great expectations but the lakeside and riverside habitats always make me keep my radar out for something like a Firecrest.

Pausing to point out the ducks and fish along the river to my 5 year old nephew coincided with some noisy calls from a bird across the river that I knew immediately to be that little Siberian gem - a Yellow-browed Warbler.  I had my camera with me but only 2 hands so I enlisted my daughter's help to both video the general area with her phone and play the call on playback on my phone while I fumbled around with my camera.

The warbler responded to the calls but never came close enough for a glimpse let alone a photo and instead seemed to move further into the wooded area.  Time was up and I had to make sure that neither my nephew or my dog ended up in the water and returned to join the family group.

Pleasingly, others were able to locate the warbler the next day and David Hutchinson took the excellent photo of the bird that heads this post.  The find was my 3rd local Yellow-browed Warbler this year and follows the big autumn influx across the country.  I wonder how many more are waiting to be found?