Saturday 15th Feb

My first twitch of 2014 took us to High Shincliffe just south of Durham, for the recently reported, long staying Myrtle Warbler, the eastern race of Yellow rumper warbler from America.
New was released last sunday of this MEGA!!! American vagrant, whivh had originally been seen during the RSPB's big garden birdwatch back in January, so I was optimistic the bird would still be around by the weekend. And it was!
I got straight on to it but it was a difficult view - through the bush, and then it flew off!!!
20 mins later it returned, but proved really difficult viewing, I even commented that I'd had better views of firecrest!
It was obvious what it was, and easily seperated from Audobon's warbler (the western race) because of the supercillium. As it finally gave up better views and frequently gave its "tzchek tzchek" call, we got a tweet about a Glaucous gull at Skelton.
So, naturally, that was where we headed. I needed it for my 2014 list, but dad already had it. I wasn't expecting it to still be there an hour and a half later, but sure enough within 5 minutes of arriving, I picked it out and 101 was ticked off.
The gull roost at Astley was much better, but neither the Glauc or Iceland were present, and the Barn owl is as elusive as ever!
All in all, an excellent day!