20241111 (6)_Scarlet_Tanager
When the year reached November and I still hadn't seen a new bird for my British Isles list I began to quail (pun not intended) at the prospect of my first calendar year without one... the tradition of the "November biggie" came to my rescue with a fantastic reveal by a householder in Shelf, Halifax, of a first-winter male Scarlet Tanager from North America attending his feeders. Overnight the car was heading steadily North! Having missed early morning sightings the bird then kept us and a crowd of keen twitchers waiting till late afternoon when it finally appeared in bare late Autumn trees and sat up, occasionally preening, for several minutes causing near delirious happiness in a crowd desperate for food and facilities. Tick!
20241111 (6)_Scarlet_Tanager
When the year reached November and I still hadn't seen a new bird for my British Isles list I began to quail (pun not intended) at the prospect of my first calendar year without one... the tradition of the "November biggie" came to my rescue with a fantastic reveal by a householder in Shelf, Halifax, of a first-winter male Scarlet Tanager from North America attending his feeders. Overnight the car was heading steadily North! Having missed early morning sightings the bird then kept us and a crowd of keen twitchers waiting till late afternoon when it finally appeared in bare late Autumn trees and sat up, occasionally preening, for several minutes causing near delirious happiness in a crowd desperate for food and facilities. Tick!