An Eastern Black-Eared Wheatear was put out on Twitter at 11:30 today; the bird was present at Acres Down in the New Forest on the path down from the raptor viewpoint and initially had disappeared. Although I had decided not to go for it, on the way to Selsey I got stuck behind the ever delightful Maurice & Doris in their Nissan Micra doing all of 20 mph top whack...40 minutes to Selsey or 40 minutes to lifer? No brainer I believe the expression to be. Photos and video were hampered by the heat haze and I've yet to see any that do this stunning bird justice though I'm sure some will emerge. Today I lent my scope to at least four people so they could get better views than with bins and others were putting people on the bird as they arrived; this gives the lie to the person who called us all "selfish twitchers" for not immediately getting out of his way at the Minsmere Bluethroat (despite getting great views himself, hypocrite).We love you all as someone once said :-)


Black-Eared Wheatear:

Video here: Black-Eared Wheatear