A Pallas for lunch

An early start on Holy Island saw us checking out the excavations with little success however as we headed towards the Quarry it was obvious there were still migrants about mainly in the form of Redwings and dozens of Goldcrests. Whilst checking Reed Buntings amongst the dunes a Great Grey Shrike suddenly exploded from a bush, scared the Buntings and headed over the next dune. Our next point of call was the Willows at the north end of the Straight Lonnen, here a Red-breasted Flycatcher was showing well along with a Lesser Whitethroat, further along the Lonnen we came  upon a second Red-breasted Flycatcher and on the wires a second Great Grey Shrike perched. At this point along with Alan Hall we headed off too the Vicars garden to stand by the wall and consume our Turnbulls Steak Pies ( other pies are available), we could hear a Yellow-browed Warbler and when a small bird came into sight we all though that is what it would be, then we saw the un-mistakable crown stripe and realised that it was in fact a gorgeous little Pallas's Warbler. It then proceeded to endlessly forage amongst the leaves just above our heads before finally flying across the garden to give more distant views, more birders arrived and some did manage to get views. We headed back to the car via Chare Ends where we finished off the day with a Common Redstart.