Yellow Browed Warbler!

I was working in the garden yesterday morning for a few hours, and around 11o clock I decided to break for a coffee.
While I was tidying up, I heard a rather loud very distinctive two syllable tsweet with the second syllable rising. It seemed to be coming from somewhere nearby and I guessed it was in one of the neighbours trees. I was in a bit of a panic I was sure  its a call I've heard many times on the east coast at this time of the year-Yellow Browed Warbler. I tried to pin it down and realised that it had got louder and was overhead in my Rowan tree, but I couldn't see the bird. As I moved away to get a clear view, a small fairly bright green warbler flew out and headed west into the big trees a few gardens away. I could make out some pale bars on the darker wings but without binoculars there wasn't much else I could see.
Naturally I ran indoor to get the bins and the camera and spent the next hour waiting but it had clearly moved on as it was loud enough to be heard for some distance. I'm assuming it had just dropped into the gardens about the time I heard it, spent around five minutes here and then carried on.
Just as a sanity check I played recordings of Yellow Brows to confirm it was what was heard, and also to eliminate anything else that was even remotely likely such as the Greenish Warbler complex.
I've put in a rarity submission to the bird club and am hopeful that what little I could report will be adequate. Had I  been a bit more on the ball, I should have got the phone out and tried to get a bit of video, at least then I would have had a recording of the call.

Tyttenhanger

I decided to go down to Tyttenhanger yesterday, just for a bit of a change. The fact that 82 species had been recorded there on Friday was just a coincidence.
Unfortunately the weather had changed to some extent, the northerly airflow of recent days had died down, reducing the number of migrants moving south, and high pressure was starting to build up. As a result it was a rather warm, still day, but despite that there was a decent number of species around. I managed to get 55, missing a few obvious birds and Rupert Evershed hit 74 over the course of the morning, but since he covers the entire site almost every day he gets to find more than most.
I parked as usual in Church Lane and headed west past the allotments and scrub, but didnt get much apart from a flyover Bullfinch. Stopping at the container, a quick scan of the main pit produced a variety of gulls and duck but nothing of note, so I walked down to the Fishing Pit. I could see what appeared to be the long staying Black Tailed Godwit from the conveyor bridge and went for a closer look, meeting Rupert when I got there. He pointed out the two Snipe and the Common Sandpipers in on the very dry lake margins. The water here is very low, so looks to be very good for passage waders  but not so good for the fishery. Several Grey Wagtails and at least one Yellow flew over along with plenty of Meadow Pipits, so some birds were still moving.
I carried on along the river checking the sallows by the sluice but failed to find the Willow Emeralds (there were a lot of Common Blue damselflies and a few Common Darters though). I didn't get anything in the wood so carried on over the causeway, getting a flock of ten House Martins  and past the horse paddocks, picking up a couple of Tree Sparrows  before reaching the high viewpoint. The two here were interested in a distant perched falcon which turned out to be a Hobby and they mentioned a Wheatear in with the horses. Turned out to be right by the fence where I was standing checking the Tree Sparrow feeding station.
Before I went back, I found the Garganey, which had come out of the reeds and was swimming over what is usually a large expanse of mud-for some reason the water levels here have been kept rather high. We also had a small flock of Swallows over, and there were several Buzzards, Kites and singles of Sparrowhawk and Kestrel enjoying the thermals.
Whinchat and Stonechat had apparently moved on, and while it would have been nice to see them, or in fact a Redstart, the big hedge and fields didn't have anything at all, thought he recently ploughed field had a few Skylark and Pied wagtails.
I rechecked the scrub on my return-it looked ideal for a Wryneck but all I saw was a big flock of Long Tailed Tits.

Boobyless

The St Ives Brown Booby did a bunk and wasn't seen on the Sunday-the crippling views on the rocks had tempted a lot to go down, so lots of very unhappy birders.
Amazingly, another was found on the Lizard at Kynance cove the next day. This one was a younger bird and luckily had a habit of noosing on one of the rocks close offshore. Needless to say it was very popular, and on Friday many went down and got amazing views. It was seen at dusk roosting on the usual rock, promoting Lee Evans to tweet that anyone going on Saturday was guaranteed to see it.
Colin picked me up at 1am and we headed off on the long drive, arriving in Kynance car park just as it was getting light.
After a quick coffee and a bite we headed off west with the ever growing throng. It was rather chilly and windy but conditions soon improved. What I assumed would be a quick stroll to the cliff top actually turned out to be a bit harder than expected as we had to cross a deep coombe and the other side involved a climb up from the beach on some very slippery serpentine rocks to reach the steps cut further up. Not very enjoyable and it took it out of a lot of the elderly and infirm which comprised a substantial section of the crowd.
I reached the top overlooking Gull Rock and settled down to wait having met up with William Bishop. As soon as the light improved I could see lots of Gannets moving westward about a mile offshore. Smaller black and white birds mainly moving east were Manx Shearwaters-not auks as first thought. In the first couple of hours at least 500 were seen, probably a severe underestimate. Among them were a few dusky individuals two of which were certainly Balearic Shearwaters. I rarely sea watch in the far west, so seeing huge numbers rather than the handfuls in the channel and the North Sea was nice.
Several Arctic Skuas were seen, including one attacking a Peregrine out at sea, which was a bit different. Apparently Bonxies and Poms were also seen by some, but the only other decent seabird I got onto was a nice but very distant Sooty Shearwater dwarfing the two Manx it was with.
Landbirds were heading south all morning, with Grey and Pied Wagtails, Tree and Meadow Pipits, a couple of Wheatears and some Linnets.
Entertainment came from the very confiding Chough which are now well established here and seemed to be far tamer than the Welsh birds we used to see on Anglesey.

As for the Booby, well one guy claimed to see it flying low over the water between the two islands, and seconds later there was a claim about a mile east on the sea off a reef. This turned out to be a fishing Shag. Don't know what the guy saw, others were looking in that area and didn't see anything.
It usually left the roost just after 7am and would then fish in the bay for a bit and then move off, returning from time to time. Not today. We stuck it out until noon and then gave up and by then so had many others.
Approaching London I heard that it had been seen a couple of times in the afternoon, also single observer sightings, and apparently it may have been seen by a few about a mile east of us late afternoon. These reports have met with some scepticism.

Heres the rock where it wasn't seen flying over. Shot from the cliff near the car park.