Hume's Warbler on Cape Clear, Co. Cork

Mid-morning on the 4^th November 2019, Steve Wing caught a Yellow-browed Warbler in the nets in the Nordy Wood and released it. A second Yellow-browed was caught shortly after which was much brighter. Later in the morning, Steve heard what sounded like typical Hume’s Leaf Warbler calls coming from the same area. However, the calls stopped and the bird wasn’t seen or heard again that day despite best efforts by Steve. Steve put news out around 12:30 to say that he had caught a probable Hume’s Warbler at the Waist. However, despite this being only the 4^th Irish record, the lack of news after the original sighting put Gerard Murray, John Cusack and myself off trying on Tuesday morning.

At 9:35 the next morning, Steve struck gold again! The Hume’s Warbler was back in the net in the Nordy Wood. The tweet read as follows “Phyllosc showing features of Hume’s present and retrapped at the Waist 5 minutes ago. Photos to be looked at for confirmation” Twitch on! However, there was one flaw in our plan! We didn’t realise until about 12:00 that there was no morning boat the following day on the 6^th! So we planned to try to make the evening boat onto the island and see the bird at dawn. The boat was leaving Baltimore at 17:30! I was in a lecture when I heard this but managed to get a plan together with the lads. John was leaving from Monaghan town and would travel south with Ger. I had time to get a quick bite to eat in Dublin City while I waited for the lads to get closer. With time really ticking on I got a bus to Whitehall waited just off the motorway. I arrived at 13:00. The minutes ticked on and it was really looking like getting the ferry onto Cape would be near impossible. At 14:10 the lads arrived and within seconds we were heading south. Traffic wasn’t too bad around Dublin but on the Cork road it was practically empty and is where we made up most of our time. Full credit to Steve Wing who contacted the boatman and asked if he could hold on for a couple of minutes. However, we were still a little worried as he could pull off at any time. After a stressful journey to West Cork, we screeched into Baltimore harbour at 17:29 and we ran to the pier. We had somehow made it! On the drive down drinking water was banned for obvious reasons! There was no time for any breaks.         

The boat set off just after 17:30 and we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. We met Mary Cadogan on the pier who had seen the Hume’s earlier in the day and managed to get some excellent in the hand images. Ger, John and I had booked into the Bird Observatory with Steve. I had two nature valley bars with me and Ger had one or two snacks but not enough to keep us going until the next evening. Thankfully Steve who couldn’t have looked after us better, cooked us a delicious Thai chicken curry dish. We were starving so this went down well. We chatted for a bit before heading to bed to get up for first light. Seamus Enright managed to see the bird earlier in the day which was his 400^th Irish bird (one of only thirteen or fourteen birders to have hit this landmark). The next morning the four of us were up for first light and squeezed into Steves van before making our way to the Waist. We weren't on-site long when we heard the Hume’s Warbler calling from inside the wood. However, the bird had only been seen once the previous day in the field so it wasn’t going to be easy. The bird stopped calling for quite some time. A Yellow-browed Warbler gave a few typical calls. 

Excellent in the hand shot of the Hume's Warbler taken by Mary Cadogan.

I walked around the back of the wood and flushed a Woodcock which scared the life out of me! Sadly, the Woodcock flew around the back of the half-built house at the Nordy Wood and flew straight into a wire fence, stunning itself. It quickly recovered before flying straight into a nearby window which made a massive thud. I was sure the bird would be dead. Ger and myself raced up the hill and picked up the Woodcock which was badly stunned. It had blood was on its bill but it was still alive. I quickly ran back to the Obs feeling very guilty to see if Steve had any recommendations as to what to do with it. The best thing we could do was to release it back into the wood, which we did. We placed it under some trees in the leaf litter. I regularly checked up on it but it had hardly moved since. The three of us were now standing inside the wood at the stream where the bird was caught. A Water Rail sprinted across the shallow stream. The nets weren’t going to be put up again in fear of spooking the bird. At about 9:30 Gerard Murray picked up the Hume’s Warbler deep in cover as it flicked about quite low down. Thankfully I picked it up almost instantly and had fairly decent views as it hopped slowly to the right before going out of sight 20 seconds later. Unfortunately, John didn’t pick it up. It was early days yet and we felt that by staying still and quiet that we may have found the birds circuit. 

The bird was ghostly grey almost. The median covert bar was as good as impossible to see in the field however the greater coverts wingbar was very prominent and showed on all side-on views I managed. Only a few moments after the original sighting, Ger picked it up again this time the three of us managed to see it. It gave great views at close range. In the poor light, the bird nearly seemed completely grey and green. It was great to have a Yellow-browed Warbler in the same area as it and the two birds loosely associated with each other and gave a great comparison. As Steve mentioned in his tweet they were like ‘chalk and cheese’. 

Spot the Woodcock!

Possibly up to 6 Common Chiffchaffs and two Blackcaps flicked about the wood all morning. Eventually, I got excellent views of a classic looking Siberian Chiffchaff (tristis). It popped up only a few feet from the three of us and gave great looks for a few seconds. The first thing I looked for was the ‘tobacco’ coloured ear-coverts as Martin Garner described them. The supercilium was also quite prominent. A subspecies tick for me. In the Handbook of the Western Palearctic by Hadoram Shirihai and Lars Svensson, it states that evidence at the moment is still insufficient as to whether tristis should be split from collybita. Genetic difference between the two is 1.7% which is somewhat less than what is normally found between warbler species, but a fair amount between subspecies. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to hear any Siberian Chiffchaff calls but later in the day other observers did. We returned to the obs packed our stuff and said our thanks and goodbyes to Steve who without a twitch wouldn’t have been possible. Thanks also to Mary Cadogan for letting me use her image of the Hume’s Warbler. We got pizza in Baltimore which was well needed. We met Mark Stewart and Chris O’ Sullivan who were getting the 14:00 boat onto the island. Both lads connected that evening.

Apparently, the Woodcock livened up a bit that evening and wasn’t in the same location the following morning. Hopefully, it is on its wintering grounds at the moment. Michael Mitchell found three Cattle Egrets on the Baltimore road a few days previous so a quick check of a few ideal locations turned up the three birds. They showed well in a cattle field just off the road. A nice year tick and a great end to the trip.