Hume's Leaf Warbler at Ramsgate

If at first you don't succeed, try again. So that's what I did today. A couple of weekends ago, I headed to Ramsgate for the afternoon and failed to locate the Hume's Leaf Warbler that had been overwintering in the cemetery there. So with carte blanche for the day, following a moderate lie in, I headed east once again. And, unlike last time, there was success - within a minute or so of arriving no less.

Hume's Leaf Warbler Ramsgate, Kent 23rd March 2014

This is the first Hume's Leaf Warbler I've seen for a decade, and mirrors the first one I saw - at a similar time of year and also in a cemetery - in Great Yarmouth in 1995. Nice to hear it too, with a call that was still disyllabic like a Yellow-browed, but lacked the far carrying pitch and the obvious downward drop of the end note. Though a pretty scruffy looking thing, and looking bright in the sunlight, it was pretty drab/pallid-toned and its tertials were dark-centred.

Little else of note for the day, though a 1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull on Greenland Dock when I got home performed rather well in the sunshine.