Last chance saloon. On December 19th 2024 two birders doing the Christmas Count on Anahuac NWR (now Jocelyn Nungaray NWR) found a bird they couldn’t identify. After much investigation they concluded it was a stonechat. A Swedish expert finally nailing it as Amur. The first record in the lower 48 States. It took weeks for the Friends of Anahuac to negotiate access to this section of the reserve, mostly used for hunting. Jake spotted the news a few weeks ago and we began planning our itinerary around it. Trips to see the bird, running three times a week, were announced a few days before and were taken up quicker than a Taylor Swift concert. Just before we departed from Cromer I managed to get us booked on the last trip ever – but would the bird hang around? We arrived at the meeting point for a 10.00 start to be told that the 8.00 o’clock group had seen the bird but distantly. After an over-zealous safety briefing we walked the 1000 yds to the spot. The three volunteer observers on site said they’d last seen the bird fly off over the trees 15 minutes previous. We stood around enthusiastically scanning the fields for awhile. No sign. Energy levels began to dwindle and, as at all twitches, people began to chat. In the end far more chat that looking. We were due to leave the site, to be clear of the property, by 12.00 when ‘she’ obligingly flew in, and did what any self-respecting stonechat should do – sat atop the vegetation spotting prey. What a relief. An incredible bird and the first new addition to our USA list!

The rest of our day was spent doing the Shoveler Loop including the hot-spots of the Willows and Wood Lot trails. We amassed a good list of waders and wildfowl and a good variety of warblers – better than at High Island.

The weather’s been challenging over the past couple of days and, as a consequence, so has the birding. With winds from the north gusting at 50mph only the most sheltered spots have produced any birds. We managed to catch up with a few waders and wildfowl yesterday at various locations in the south of Mainland and finished the day, back on our ‘home patch’, with another Red-breasted Flycatcher. Today began with a fairly leisurely start until news broke of a Pallas’s Leaf Warbler at a remote location in the north of the island. We arrived, got out of the car, and spoke to one of the birders already on site. The bird was apparently on a bit of a circuit but hadn’t been seen for twenty minutes. Within a few minutes the ‘shout’ went up and the ‘seven striped sprite’ was seen feeding low down in a Hawthorn. We were just deciding where to go next when another message announced ‘Common Nighthawk flushed from the roadside’ in Burravoe on the next island of Yell – a mega. We headed to the ferry terminal but where frustrated by not being able to book a slot on the next boat, and apparently there were no places coming back at all! Our hopes seemed dashed until Neil managed to get through on the phone – ‘wait in the unbooked lane and you’ll get on’ said the helpful lady and she booked us back on the 4.55 boat. We were off. A short drive to the village followed by a scramble to park and we joined the fifty or so birders looking aimlessly around the surrounding fields. The bird had originally been flushed from the road, then lost to view over the nearby houses. Eventually, in response to another message, the crowd surged up the hill, only to be greeted by the news that the bird was in fact a European Nightjar! A nice bird but not quite the one we’d been hoping for.

Weather over night wasn’t as bad as the forecast but still it was overcast and windy when we set off birding after breakfast. The willows in a Hoswick garden provide our first scarce warbler of the day – first picked up on call then later seen sheltering in a bush – Siberian Chiffchaff. We birded a couple of spots before our coffee stop in Lerwick. After, whilst watching the Olive-backed Pipit at Kergord Wood, a message came through of a Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler (affectionately known to birders as ‘PG tips’) near Garth cemetery. A line of expectant birders were gathered along the edge of an iris bed when we arrived and it wasn’t long before the bird was flushed, doing several circuits in front of the admiring crowd before dropping back into cover. I managed a brief view of it on the deck followed by more fly-bys before we left it in peace. An hour of ‘R&R’ back at our accommodation and then we were out again, birding our local hot-spots around the village. The Snow Bunting performed well in the car-park of the Orca Inn, occasionally flying up into the trees – I’ve never seen them do that before. Whilst enjoying these antics I noticed a bird fly into the tops of a sycamore. It turned out to be the lovely Wood Warbler. Also in the nearby bushes at least one Yellow-browed Warbler. Then our final ‘twitch’ of the day – another message announcing an Arctic Warbler in the in copse at Burn of Njugalswater. A superb end to our warbler fest day.