The following account describes the finding of the Pallas's Warbler:
Early morning on 10th November after a wet and windy night, PJ and I did a circuit of Brooklands Park. In addition to the large number of Goldcrests and the Chiffchaff mentioned above, we had seen 8 Teal, 2 Little Egrets and a single Grey Wagtail on the lagoon. On the way back to our cars, PJ had a brief glimpse of a warbler with a prominent supercilium and 2 wing bars which he suspected to be a Yellow-browed Warbler. It showed briefly a couple more times and it soon became apparent much to our excitement that the supercilium and wing bars were in fact yellow and that we were looking at a Pallas's Warbler! I also caught a glimpse of its lemon-yellow rump as it flew from the isolated trees it had been in to the trees along the road to the water treatment works. Much to our relief, we soon relocated the bird and had good but fairly brief views of it flitting around in the trees above our head.
At this point I put the news out on Twitter after which we promptly lost the bird. After a few minutes, the first local birders (BFF, BDJ and DS) arrived and started checking through the numerous Goldcrests that were in the same area. Following a worrying wait of about 30 minutes, BDJ refound the bird further along the road to the sewage works. It then performed well low down showing all the salient features including the crown stripe and rump.
The bird was seen on and off for the rest of the day by a good number of local birders although it did go missing for long periods. My second Sussex Pallas's Warbler in six days but fortunately this one was a lot more obliging than the Beachy bird. GJ
Pallas's Warbler - Brooklands Park - photos courtesy of Chris and Juliet Moore
