Spanish Visitor hiding away

On Tuesday morning Dave Mcgrath heard a strange Chiffchaff whilst walking his dog through Devonshire Road Rock Gardens in Bispham, and when getting to work he listened to some Iberian Chiffchaff songs on the Internet and thought they sounded a good match. He checked the park that evening however the bird was nowhere to be found, however luckily it was present again the following morning and he managed to get a recording of it singing. He sent the recording to Chris Batty who agreed that the bird was Lancashire's first Iberian Chiffchaff and it was heard singing throughout yesterday till about 13:30, which typically meant when I went down after school it had gone silent and wasn't showing. Apparently it was heard again before dark at 20:20 which gave me hope for today.

After the most dry April on record the weather has turned in the past few days with showers arriving from the south west. A particuarly heavy one of these broke just as I headed out after school with my dad to mythop where I managed to see the Wood Sandpiper (yeartick) feeding on the back of the pools. A few hours at home after this was then ended with my second trip to try and see the chiffchaff, and when I arrived a few birds were singing including Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat. For about a minute at 19:45 2 Chiffchaffs started singing in the area where the Iberian had been heard, and although one of these sounded slightly wierd it only sung twice so I couldn't get any conformation and not going to try claim anything without better sound/views! I gave up at 20:15 however I may try tomorrow morning before school if it isn't raining.