Hundreds of birdwatchers from across the UK have been flocking to Pembrokeshire to catch a glimpse of rare feathered friends blown in by Hurricane Lee.
A Magnolia Warbler and a Canada Warbler – both making their first known appearance on the UK mainland – were spotted in the St Govan’s area.
By coincidence, both were first sighted by a young professional ornithologist, who is originally from Pembrokeshire.
Toby Phelps, 25, has been catapulted into celebrity status in the birding world for his rare finds, which he said left him ‘literally shaking’.
Toby – whose dad, Kevin Phelps, is the headteacher of Tavernspite and Templeton CP Schools – now lives in Chester and works as an ornithological consultant. He visits Pembrokeshire as often as possible because his speciality is sea bird ecology.
His most recent visit home saw him strike gold when he found a Magnolia Warbler one evening the week before last in a small valley near St Govan’s Head.
The North American warbler was likely to have blown across the Atlantic by the remnants of Hurricane Lee before arriving on our shores.
It is the first time the warbler has been recorded on the UK mainland, making this an incredible find for Toby and the pinnacle of his birding career.
Hundreds of twitchers from across the UK soon descended on the area hoping for a glimpse of this striking bird with its yellow breast, which continued to show itself to its grateful audience.
Toby immediately recognised the bird.
He said: “The moment I saw it I knew exactly what it wasand that it was a ‘mega’, as birders describe very rare bird findings.
"It had only been seen before on the Isles of Scilly 40 years ago and briefly in Shetland but never on the UK mainland, certainly never in Wales and never showing this well. I was literally shaking - I knew the whole birding community would go crazy.
“This was the rarest bird I had ever found; it was an incredible experience and I thought that I would probably never top that!"
Incredibly, three days later the unbelievable happened when Toby found an even rarer bird, a Canada Warbler, near Stack Rocks - a very first for the UK - to complete a fantastic double.
Great excitement spread through the birding community for the second time in a week, with birders once again returning to Pembrokeshire to glimpse this striking golden bird.
Toby added: “I simply cannot believe what has happened. I will never forget this week for as long as I live. It has been brilliant; I have received so many messages of congratulations and thanks.”
He explained: “Whilst Hurricane Lee tracked up the east coast of America, birds which were migrating from north to south got caught up in the storm and carried across the Atlantic before ‘falling’ in western Britain.
“I knew that the conditions were perfect for possible rarities such as these. I am so happy that I was able to find, not one but two.”
Also blown into Pembrokeshire was a Bay-Breasted Warbler seen on Ramsey Island, where it was watched by four boat loads of visitors who had rushed to the county, while an Alder Flycatcher and a Bobolink were sighted on Skokholm.
The British birding website Rare Bird Alert described the 'spew of uber-rare land birds' as ‘one of the most memorable couple of days in British and Irish birding history’.
So far, 15 species have been spotted, with 49 individual birds.
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