#perfectly posed photo of a rare warbler

[occasionallybirds]

Orange-crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata)

March 1, 2024

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Tinicum, Pennsylvania

This is usually a rare spring or fall migrant in my part of the country, and this particular bird should be wintering somewhere warm, like Mexico or Florida. Instead, it decided to spend the entire winter in this wildlife refuge next to Philadelphia International Airport. This was the second time I saw it, and there are many other records over the past few months. The orange crown is hidden, and is only visible when the bird is agitated.

[dansnaturepictures]

15 of the rarest birds I’ve ever seen 

I felt like doing a different kind of post this morning I have wondered about doing before. So below I talk through, in chronological order with the dates and places I’ve ever seen these species at and an indication of which photo (mostly record shots) I took of this species in this photoset for ten of the species, 15 birds which I consider to be some of the very rarest I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing over the years. 

Pomarine Skua - Seen from Farlington Marshes - 11/11/2007

A real throw back to towards the end my very first year being into birdwatching. On our first ever visit to precious reserve for us Farlington Marshes I notched up 100 birds seen in my lifetime with life ticks of a range of birds from Curlew and Meadow Pipit to Common Scoter. There was an event there that day where some volunteers/wardens had telescopes set up for you to look through and they’d point things out. 10 year old me had one of my luckiest ever moments in birdwatching to this day when one of the guides had found a Pomarine Skua in the harbour which we were able to look through the telescope at. An incredible and priceless classic moment of my early birding. 

White-tailed Eagle - Old Basing - 13/03/2011 and Slochd Summit in the Caringorms - 18/01/2019 

As someone from a town in southern England its unsurprising two eagle species appear on this lists its something of the ultimate bird really. Even if the Isle of Wight birds really change things for Hampshire birders the one that was around for a large part of 2011 is something we’ll talk about for years and after a five hour unsuccessful twitch for the bird at Hordle by the New Forest it was fantastic to be a part of it as we saw this gigantic bird when it had relocated to Old Basing in the March. It was just as joyful and a key part of my 21st birthday birdwatching trip to Scotland for a tour with Heatherlea when we saw the one in the first picture I took in this photoset fly over whilst travelling on the bus. 

Black-winged Stilt - RSPB Lodmoor - 05/05/2014 

On another very memorable and packed day last decade this was a species I had long heard of and wondered about seeing that we got a distant but brilliant view of that sticks right in the mind. We must try and see one again some day. 

Surf Scoter - Stokes Bay - 01/03/2015 

This one just had to make the list as I believe only the fifth record of one for Hampshire when we saw it. That choppy, blustery and largely wet weekend we turned up and could not see the bird first of all. With many people gone by the time we came back to the area after a dog walk at Gilkicker Point. We had seen our second ever Red-throated Dive fly by though identified by a kind man with a telescope. When back after the walk we had a glorious moment as we spotted a group of three birds in the sea. As the record shot from that day the second picture in this photoset shows (if you look closely enough) it was the Surf Scoter with two brilliant Common Scoters. What an exotic bird to see, simply one of my greatest ever birdwatching moments. 

Hoopoe - Crawley - 26/04/2015 and Badminston - 02/02/2020 

The only way to follow a Surf Scoter for new birds that year. This has always been a big goal of mine to see and it made my dreams come true in 2015 and then again earlier this year. Both times I enjoyed exceptional views of them. One of my best ever birding stories five years ago when we looked down the path and saw a load of birders in the optics as though they were looking at us but they were looking down on the path and there was the Hoopoe that had seemed to disappear beforehand! Another against the odds sighting and then this year with a few others on breaks and gone me and one other noticed the Hoopoe fly into the horse field. Hoopoe sightings don’t came along every year so you just have to truly make the most of them when they do and I will always treasure these moments. I took the third picture in this photoset of it in 2015. 

Greater Yellowlegs - Titchfield Haven - 06/06/2015 

For what’s now a modest amount of birds for me really of 168 that year for me a year always likely to be hindered by a lesser amount of locations we could visit with my late Nan’s dementia diagnosis, of the eight I saw 2015 sure did have one of my best sets of life ticks with alongside 2018 the most first sightings in this post. This one followed the Hoopoe and this special wader allowed more intimate views of a mega species perhaps which was amazing to see one sunny Saturday. I took the fourth picture in this photoset one of a few of it that day. 

Stilt Sandpiper - Pennington - 22/05/2016 

It beat the likes of Marsh Sandpiper two years later here, Long-billed Dowitcher earlier in the decade and then again and two Semipalmated Sandpiper sightings to this list in a strong pool of waders I’ve been lucky to see. There just seemed a lot of prestige about this distinctive bird and I have such fond memories of seeing it, the day after my football team won the FA Cup it was one of the weekends of my life. 

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Portland - 29/05/2016

Only a week after the Silt Sandpiper, a day after my first ever Corn Bunting and shortly before our first ever Nightjars in the New Forest this was the crowning glory of one of my greatest ever two weeks of birdwatching. It was all so shortly after my Nan passed away and I do wonder if there was something fateful about it all. This was a proper twitch going to Portland a big day trip for us on bank holiday Sunday in the sun. One I’d looked up what the bird looked like beforehand and when there it looked like we might not be lucky. Sensational though as we headed back down the path and it flew right over our heads! I got a beautiful view of it and knew instantly what it was. What a moment! We then watched this divine species settle and I got the record shot the fifth picture in this photoset of it. A top moment in a year I didn’t see a Common Cuckoo.  

Barred Warbler - Titchfield Haven - 09/12/2017 

One of my greatest birds of 2017 and one of the rare birds I’ve got most closest to over the years. A phenomenal few minutes getting crippling views of this bird in a bush very close to the visitor centre of this the first reserve we ever visited. Certainly one for photos and posing and I loved taking the sixth picture in this photoset of it. 

Crested Tit - RSPB Loch Garten and another part of the Cairngorms - 18/01/2018 

When I finally found out my guesses were true and I’d achieve a dream of visiting Scotland and not only that the Cairngorms for my 21st birthday present that all of my family had paid for Crested Tit was one of the first species to see that sprang to mind. Only weeks after the Barred Warbler we were treated to wonderful views of this precious species as the seventh picture I took in this photoset shows. What a powerful moment I will never underestimate how lucky I’ve been to see this local to there specialty of a bird in the snow. 

Capercaillie - Cairngorms - 18/01/2018 

Of all the species seen in Scotland on those phenomenal two days away, new for me or not in the mountains or the coast, this was truly one of the most special. That very brief view of this gigantic bird the whole tour group got flying in the snow was the stuff of legends and dreams. They could so easily not be something I can see as I get older on for many reasons and I sort of feel it was quite a peak moment in my birding. I just can’t put into words how much of an honour it was to see this species. 

Golden Eagle - Strathdearn - 18/01/2018 

To cap off that day in Scotland which is one of the best in my life, unprecedented in the last decade for how much I was seeing that was new, it was another eagle now one of my favourite birds that I always had the dream of seeing. My Mum had seen one as a teenager in Switzerland so I always needed to catch up and it felt like a massive moment. As we saw 5+ soaring about on a sunny day in the snow it was just sensational some of my best ever memories. I feel so much happiness about that moment it was a fairytale for me it really was. I felt for myself this day just how special seeing even one of these birds are and what a true bird of wilderness they are. Seeing them on and around snowy mountains was so special. I took the eighth picture in this photoset of one summing up my feelings for the birds seen in that moment. 

Brown Booby - Kynance Cove - 03/09/2019

This bird was in quite a different league as we timed our Cornwall holiday perfectly when two of these megas showed up on the Cornish shores. It turned out two of the first three ever to be recorded in the UK last year. We got there to see crowds looking over at rock on that gloriously sunny day. One kind person let us look in his telescope and we instantly saw what a beautiful and very exotic bird it was. This one we will talk about for years and years to come one of my finest birdwatching moments ever. I’m glad I could take a record shot or three as it was I believe of it, one the ninth picture in this photoset. 

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler - Farlington Marshes - 15/09/2019 

How do you follow seeing Brown Booby was a valid question last September, it turned out with this super and pretty rare bird itself. On a generally special day for me after seeing my November 2018 Redshank photo displayed at the photography competition exhibition at the Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve open day, that Sunday we could not resist following reports to come here and see this bird. On another big twitch we got lucky getting an exceptional if fleeting view of this amazing bird in vegetation. I managed the record shot the tenth and final picture in this photoset of it too. One of the rarest birds I’ve ever seen and definitely the rarest at Farlington since the skua on our first ever visit in 2007. 

Great Bustard - Toyd Down - 08/02/2020 

Ending with this year one of the more iconic names on this list. A species reintroduced fairly locally its a crime I hadn’t really tried to see one earlier I suppose but we put that right just before the named storms arrived in February to come to this new Hampshire location for us and again in a kind person’s telescope after a good chunk of time looking when we saw it we instantly recgonised it and it filled my heart with joy on a generally amazing day of birds and photos for me and a butterfly too.