Blyth's Reed Warbler and White-winged Scoter July 1st 2025

Following June of this year is always going to be a tall order, with ten species new for the year list and four new to me at all.  July was going to have to deliver something special in order for it to register in a remarkable year of birding.

So it was an absolute delight to arrive early in the morning at Upsettlington, owner of the best place name I've been to this year, near Berwick-upon-Tweed in the Scottish Borders.  This is a beautiful and tiny village that has played host to a singing Blyth's Reed Warbler since June 27th when found by someone on breeding bird survey along the river.  As I walked along this perfect idyll just inside Scotland, I thought about how birds like this Warbler are found.  The Blyth's has a very distinctive call, but it's not so out of place that you would necessarily stop in your tracks having heard it blending in to the wild background soundtrack (Garden Warbler and Whitethroat the two loudest here).  The skill of the finder in this isolated spot to notice this call, and wait it out, identify this rare bird is a thing of joy, and though there are probably a whole range of very experienced twitchers out there who would immediately identify Blyth's, I believe,  because warblers are hard, that many of us would have shrugged and left the odd sounding Warbler as an unknown oddity - especially as the UK pack of Merlin doesn't identify Blyth's.  For that, you need to set your location as somewhere more European.  This beautiful riverside is not Spurn or Flamborough, where scarce birds pop up regularly and there are hundreds of visitors to find them; this is an area which has probably seen three years' worth of visitors in four days with the report of the Blyth's.  So here is my applause for the thoroughness and skill of the original finder.

Having travelled so extensively across the UK, I was slightly surprised that I've never been birding in the Borders area, and I feel a week there next year would be time well spent.

The Blyth's Reed Warbler was singing as I arrived and perched high and clear.  A light drizzle and deliciously cool temperatures after the sauna of the last week deepened the green of the environment and it immediately became one of those relaxed and friendly viewings of a bird where four or five people share locations and viewpoints, and confer over points of ID.  The pale supercilium that just passed the eye, the cold tones of the plumage, dark legs, and sense of this being a slightly scruffy Marsh Warbler; but most striking was how short the primary projection was.  These tiny, rounded wings on a bird that migrates immense distances was a surprise, but given the misnomer of "reed" warbler when they're much more likely to be found in bushes or low in trees, it's perhaps not a surprise they have boreal-appropriate wings.

The Blyth's sang throughout the 90 minutes I spent observing it, and it was interesting to see the bird dive down into cover and reappear fifteen metres away while throwing its voice in a slightly different direction.  That a pair bred in Scotland in 2024 shows the direction of travel for this warbler in the UK, so perhaps it's a song I should do my best to retain for next time one pops up.

The short drive to Musselburgh to catch an ebb tide was through more beautiful countryside.  The first time I saw White-winged Scoter was after the split with Stejneger's when both were present around April 30th 2023.  Having decent views of both birds, along with Surf Scoter, King Eider and a range of other seabirds not available in Manchester, I left under something of a false impression about how close in to shore the Scoters get.  Every view I've had since then has been a distant dot on a roiling sea.

So when I saw the close-up photos of the White-winged as it joined the semi-residential Eider at Musselburgh I had to go and see it for myself.  Of course it chose to sit half a kilometre out on a sand bank and sleep next to the Eider and Cormorants during the hour I spent watching, with the only action a 40 second interlude to scratch an irritation around the tail area.  

This is the 46th species of ducks, geese and swans I've seen this year and I was considering how much I love these as a group of birds. I was going to write a piece about this love, but then I realised that this year warblers have very much become a focus of the fan club.  Like many birders I have shied away from warblers (and waders) as difficult to identify, but for the first time I have that feeling of strengthening understanding and confidence in identifying some of the species I would have struggled with in previous years.  Constant exposure and watching this year has helped.  Yet again, it's getting out there that provides the experience, and especially not being afraid to ask questions.  A couple of more experienced birders have given me some gentle mentoring this year, mostly online, and their knowledge and experience is brilliant to ask questions of.  If you know a more experienced birder don't be afraid to ask them for knowledge - my experience is that they're almost always delighted to share their wisdom, which means that you get to see more and know more of what it is you're seeing, and whatever your reason for birding, that's the aim.