A Green Warbler in East Yorkshire has become the first twitchable individual of its kind on the British mainland.
The bird, trapped and ringed by Mark Thomas at Buckton early afternoon yesterday [9 September], lingered in the area all day and is present today, allowing plenty to connect with this species, even though it has been elusive at times. The discovery represents only the ninth for Britain and a Yorkshire first.
Green Warbler just happened, park only at Bempton walk W 400m to view the cliff top bushed at Buckton. pic.twitter.com/jUGN9Ep0dj
— Mark Thomas (@Bucktonbirder) September 9, 2021
Green Warbler, a relatively recent split from Greenish Warbler, had previously been almost exclusive to offshore islands, with Shetland boasting four of the previous records and North Ronaldsay, Orkney, St Mary's, Scilly, and Lundy, Devon, one apiece. The only other occurrence was at in Cornwall in June 2019, when one was trapped and ringed at Lizard village.
The species is a summer visitor to northern Turkey, the Caucuses and northern Iran, wintering to the south-east, predominantly on the Indian subcontinent. Despite the mega status it holds in Britain, it has occurred annually since 2016 (with another record in 2014) and it’s likely increased identification awareness will see this trend maintained.
