Rufous-tailed Robin, South Landing Ravine, Flamborough Head (Mike Watson)
The fifth British Rufous-tailed Robin at Flamborough Head, was found on 20 October 2026, and stayed for an unbelievable eight days, just enough time for me to return from Australia and see it on its final day! This was most likely thanks to 2026 storms Austen and Boelo, which must have suppressed the urge to continue on its journey. On the day it was found I was watching birds like White-bellied Whipbird and Southern Scrub Robin and each day thereafter I could watch the progress of its sightings, and also the awful crowd ordeal its watchers put themselves through to catch a few seconds glimpse of it, standing on stepladders etc. [When stepladders become standard birding equipment that is a sign to go and do something else for fun].
Luckily it only took me and Rocket about one minute to see it on the morning of 27 October. [The first twitch for him in five years!!!] There were even people coming away from it at 0720 as we parked in the car park at the South Landing! Definitely belonging in the mythical Siberian vagrant category, it was first recorded in Britain on Fair Isle in 2004 (I saw one less than two months later in Vietnam!), with two of the three subsequent records on offshore islands. So, I didn’t really expect to see one here. Johnny Mac said ‘It is the bird everyone here has been dreaming of for 50 years’. So, that’s me currently on #499 for Britain (BOU, with only Western Reef Heron pending). I wonder what 500 will be.