Yellow-Brow finally comes out to play!

17/02/14

The amount of time i have spent in Uffmoor Wood has been unreal. And it was all for no reward. It is probably one of the most dead woods i have ever been in, and not to mention the fact that it is a very shady area to be hanging around in, particularly early morning and late evening.

And it was exactly the latter that i was doing today. I had been walking around at the far end of the woodland for a couple of hours, with nothing more than a few Goldcrests to show for it! 

With the light fading, i walked down one last time heading north along the furthest track, and walked down the steps at the end until i reached the stream. Finally, there was some bird activity here, and a decent flock of around 7 Goldcrest were frantically feeding before they were dropping into roost in the adjacent Holly bushes. 

Sensing the opportunity, i thought it would be worth spending the last dying 10 minutes of light searching for the elusive little Siberian gem here. A short time later, a bird caught my eye as it dropped from the top of a holly covered tree trunk down into a section of the holly adjacent to me. A second after, it jumped out onto a branch no more than 15 feet away from me, and there stood a bright yellow supercillium and double yellow wingbars! THE YELLOW BROWED WARBLER!

Any bad thoughts were immediately overridden as i savoured close views of this stunning little bird after so much effort to try and see it, that long supercillium contrasting to the darker eyestripe below! The mossy green upperparts contrasting to the silky white underparts and yellow legs! What a Stunning looking bird!

It really does make seeing birds so much better when you have put a large chunk of time trying to find them!

Like the Goldcrest's, soon after, the Warbler flew into the area of adjacent Holly, and didn't re-emerge, probably heading off to roost, and with that, we chose to beat a hasty retreat!

You don't want to be in Uffmoor in the dark!

MB