We are being spoilt on the island this spring with special birds coming in almost everyday. After the excitement of the greenish warbler yesterday a second greenish warbler this morning was almost completely forgotten when Jeremy rushed down to Fluke Street after doing very well to find what he thought was a melodious warbler. There was a bit of a rush up Palpitation Brae which lived up to its name and got us sweating like a race horses dodas. The lemony yellow warbler was hoping around the bushes in the top garden, every so often sitting very still making us think it had gone. It took a bit more sweating to move it around eventually into the heliogoland trap when it was bagged and taken down to the ringing hut. There the fine detail of its identification was gone through which involved measuring wing length, looking at the proportional length of its primary feathers and the size and shape of its bill before it was formally identified as a melodious warbler, only the 7th record for the Isle of May (the last being back in 1998) and a great find for Jeremy.
These birds are not common in Scotland, up until 2004 there were over 1000 records for the UK but only 52 for Scotland. It breeds in southern Europe so this bird has overshot on its migration, probably blown by the balmy south eastern winds that also brought the greenish warblers.
Tonight the wind is back round to the north west and picking up so what next ?
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