Shetland shafts Scilly. Again.

As Scilly began to flicker into a semblance of life this weekend with a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers reported from the fortunate isles, Shetland came roaring back with yet another mega bird.

Initially reported as a Western Bonelli's Warbler, the pagers sprang into life this morning with the bird re-identified as the considerably rarer Eastern Bonelli's Warbler, a subtly different species altogether.

Whilst planes were being chartered from England for chequebook birders to catch up with this challenging species, some birders were fortunate enough to be on-site already.

Barry Gagwell, a twitcher-type and media whore from West Sussex said eagerly, "I was already in Shetland, so this was easy for me. As soon as I got on site, I knew this was an Eastern. Identifying it was a complete piece of piss. I heard it called as one".

Eastern Bonelli's Warbler is said to have a distinctly different call from its Western counterpart. Arthur Balsam, a birder from East Yorkshire who had spent the past fortnight hacking through iris beds in Shetland's south mainland remarked, "It's true. Barry actually did hear a couple of credible local birders say they thought it was an Eastern after all.

"Granted, he's fucking hopeless at identifying birds, but he's red hot at repeating what other people have told him. Credit where it's due and all that".