Portland Bill - Mon 8 May

Today I twitched a bird, in fact, more importantly, I successfully twitched a bird! When news broke mid-afternoon of a male Spectacled Warbler at Portland Bill I knew I had a tough decision. After finishing work, taking care of family matters and having dinner I finally managed to head off at 7.20pm and arrived at Portland about an hour later. Just half a dozen birders were present, but luckily so was the warbler and I got great views of it straight away. Lucky!
Despite failing light, I decided to try a few ropey phone-scoped record shots, this is a Spectacled Warbler...honest.

To be honest, I was more interested in watching the bird, which I managed to do for about 15 minutes before it vanished in to a bramble clump and didn't reappear, so presumably it had gone to roost. What a cracking little bird it was, only the ninth UK record, the first for Dorset, and a UK lifer for me.