The appearance of a bay-breasted warbler - the second record for Britain - has proved a magnet for UK birders since being discovered earlier this week on Ramsey Island off the Pembrokeshire Coast. It is a species which intrigued the pioneering American artist-ornithologist, John James Audubon, but, as he wrote in Vol 2 of his book The Birds of America, published in 1841, it was one that he found puzzling.
This species does not breed in the US or, if it does, must spend the summer in some of the most remote north-western districts so that I have not been able to discover its principal abode.
It merely passes through the better known portions of the Union where it remains for a very short time.
There is something so very uncommon in its appearance that I cannot refrain from briefly mentioning it.
It is sometimes found in Pennsylvania or the state of New York as well as in Jersey as early as the beginning of April but it is only seen there for a few days.
I have shot some individuals at such times when I observed them employed in searching for insects and larvae along the fences bordering our fields.
At other times I have shot them late in June in the state Louisiana when the cotton plant was covered with blossoms amongst which they were busily searching for food.
The bay-breasted warbler has so far eluded my inquiries that I am unable to give any further account of its habits.
*The first UK record of the species is believed to have been the bird reported from Land's End, Cornwall on October 1, 1995
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