All twitchers will be aware of the recent visit to our shores of the Olive Tree Warbler. An Olive Tree Warbler was discovered at Boddam (Shetland’s main isle) after flying around 2,000 miles off course; not previously recorded in western Europe it suddenly appeared in Britain and was seen catching insects in a garden. The warbler should have headed from eastern Europe to somewhere between Kenya and South Africa.

A first for this particular species, which has never appeared anywhere west of Croatia before, the very western limit of its known breeding territory.

A meteorological expert has just solved the mystery of how this bird came to be so far away, all down to the weather it is believed that the Olive-Tree warbler was taken off course by a ridge of high pressure over the Black Sea’s western coast. This would have caused the bird to fly in the wrong direction – northwards – traveling over Moldova, Belarus, eastern Sweden, with a north east wind carrying it over Scandinavia and finally south west into Shetland some 4 days later.

Some journey for something so small.

Olive-Tree Warbler (Hippolais olivetorum) is an old world warbler in the tree warbler genus Hippolais. It breeds in southeast Europe and the near east. It is migratory, wintering in eastern and southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa. This small passerine bird is a species found in open-canopy oak woods, olive groves, orchards and almond plantations. 3-4 eggs are laid in a nest in a low tree or a bush.

This visit has been added to the official list of wild bird species recorded in Britain we thought it was worthy of mention on our website as the globetrotting namesake bird of our company!