22 Sept 2015 - Acadian Flycatcher at Dungeness

News of an Empidonax flycatcher spp at Dungeness rather changed my lunch hour.

Just before we (avec Adam Whitehouse) arrived, news came through that the bird in question had vanished! Hmmm... This wasn't quite as I'd planned but, to cut a rather amusing story short, we were delighted when 20 minutes later the bird was refound in the South View garden.

I was struck by the depth and width of the bill - big, deep, strong, wide - and given that this bird was clearly not a Willow/Alder on colouration, but instead of the Acadian/Yellow-bellied complex, it seems good for Acadian rather than the slimmer bill of Yellow-bellied.

Photograph is from the Plodding Birder blog - run by the bird's finder Martin Casemore. Nice one Martin!

Acadian Flycatcher - Dungeness

And what a year 2015 is turning out to be: Great Blue Heron, Hudsonian Godwit, Citril Finch and now Acadian Flycatcher. And it's still not even October!