At long, long last…

…I have seen an Olive-backed Pipit in the UK! This may not seem a particularly impressive or noteworthy achievement, but believe me, after the number of hours I’ve wasted on this species in the last 15 years, it’s made my weekend. Prior to yesterday, I think I’d probably dipped at least seven OBPs, from Scilly to Suffolk, and to make it worse all were present again the following day. I really don’t know how I managed such a ridiculous run of form, but there you are – everyone has a bogey bird, I guess, and I need another one now. Brown Flycatcher, perhaps…

Anyway, here’s what all the fuss is about:

And here’s the scene of the twitch – a long slippery walk over the saltmarsh to reach an approx 100m long line of gorse: