Not long after we'd started our circuit of St Davids Head both Kathy and I were drawn to a Warbler which popped up on brambles at the corner of the Woodchat Field. It was big and yellow in the bright sunlight, with an open-faced expression. Kathy started to say it had no supercilium, realising it was something different and I recognised it as a Melodious Warbler. An expected scarce migrant for the early autumn but still pretty amazing. I rushed back to get my camera while Kathy stayed on it, noting its clumsy, bouncing actions and large size when it was briefly joined by a Willow Warbler. By the time I returned it was being difficult so we decided to carry on and see if it would settle so we could catch up with it again later.
When we returned it had been re-located by a visitor from Carmarthen but was skulking in the backs of some Long-leaved Willows along the roadside and though they were thin it still managed to remain obscured most of the time. In the shady conditions the wing panel suddenly seemed more pronounced and the legs were clearly charcoal-grey, both of which made me consider Icterine but then it popped out into the open and the wing panel was properly subdued again. For the first time the primary projection showed clearly as no more than half tertial length. So, as expected, a Melodious. But we had a lot of fun chasing it around and it remained till next morning so a few people saw it.
