I had started birding from Greenan Shore car park with the intention of working south towards Deil`s Dyke, checking the scrub and beach for migrants. Most thickets and Hawthorns held birds: Chaffinches, Stonechats, Greenfinches, Yellowhammers, Dunnocks, Tits and Thrushes were abundant. At the southern end of the field, a little-used, overgrown trail through the thickest, darkest scrub leads to the beach. Several metres into the scrub and creeping through very slowly, watching for any movement within, a pair of Chaffinches and a Song Thrush were feeding in a Hawthorn when another bird came into view from the shadows and into a shaft of sunlight. Initially, from its size and colouration, I thought female Chaffinch with my views from the rear beneath but as it presented a side profile, I could see it certainly was not. Slightly larger than the nearby Chaffinches, it was a pale greyish-beige below and grey/brown above. In the sunlight, a yellowy/brown iris showed well in a dark eye and with a hint of a crest on the scruffy head and a long, strong bi-coloured pointed bill, the overall impression was of a large, fierce-looking Warbler. Realising it was something out of the ordinary, I managed to acquire several quick record shots. The eye colour, bill size, head shape and colouration discounted Garden Warbler and Blackcap, but on quickly inspecting the record shots, I noticed chevron-like barring on the undertail coverts which I had not noticed through binoculars. This diagnostic feature I remembered from reading finders reports and field guides on autumn/first winter Barred Warblers, and also that it was a ponderous, slow-moving Warbler, a trait it was living up to as it clambered about the Hawthorns feeding. Identification clinched in my mind, I posted images quickly online and received corroborating messages of congratulations on a first Ayrshire record.
Hayden Fripp,
October 2025
Editor note: links to the full versions of the above images and others are in the Photo Gallery and the Ayrshire Bird List pages.
