I never thought I’d see a Dartford warbler in my local area; in fact, I never thought I’d see any of the few that live in Wales. Yet, here, in these photographs taken on Tuesday in one of the local coastal fields, is the bird itself. (These are what we birders call ‘record shots only’, meaning that they are really quite poor images but you can at least recognise the bird species.)

This bird was found by local birder Alex last Saturday when he and several other local birders were on the trail of a swift species that had been spotted nearby (the swift was initially thought to be a rare Pallid swift but turned out to be a Common swift, still a rare sighting at this time of year when most swifts have already migrated to Africa).

The Dartford warbler was heard a couple more times on Saturday but not seen, despite a lot of eyes searching for the little skulker. It finally popped up for one birder around midday Sunday after him looking for three hours but then disappeared again. Several birders, including me, spent several more hours searching on Sunday and Monday but nothing.

Then, finally, when I returned on Tuesday, I got on to the bird almost immediately, as the Stonechats with which this species often associates, were chasing it. I enjoyed fabulous views of it for perhaps an hour and, as I had got the word out, several other birders were able to get there to see it too. I may not have got good photos but this little bird was certainly worth the effort to find it.