Feeling twitchy
Bird spotters swoop on a Scottish island in pursuit of this little rarity
An army of twitchers has chartered private boats and planes to reach the Isle of Tiree in search of a rare sighting of a tiny bird’s first recorded visit to Europe.
The yellow-bellied flycatcher ended up in the Hebrides after being blown off-course as it flew from the spruce forests of Canada to winter in Mexico, or South America.
Clare Jones, who first noticed the bird in her garden on Tiree last Sunday, said birdwatchers had been queuing at her gate to get a sociallydistanced view of it.
She said: “Some came on a flight from Oban on Wednesday, another group came on a flight from Glasgow and there
was also a charter flight. Then on Thursday morning another group came by boat from Kilchoan.”
Clare, who is not an avid birdwatcher, didn’t
realise the importance of the newcomer at first and said: “It’s the size of a small robin and I didn’t think there was anything exceptional about it.”
But her next door neighbour John Bowler, the RSPB officer for Tiree, recognised the rarity of the visitor when it hopped across to his garden.
He said: “I opened my curtains on Tuesday and there it was. I knew straightaway what it was.”
As he went to meet another group of twitchers off the Thursday morning ferry from Oban, John said: “The majority of the visitors have come from England and there are one or two from Wales and some from Scotland.
“It has been difficult for them to get across here so they have used any means they can. There have been charter boats and two charter planes.”