Late on the afternoon of October 9, Scott Surner, Ken and Margaret Smith and I had excellent views of the Northern Wheatear at Orange Airport. It was still present just after 6 pm, and offered some nice digiscoping opportunities. A beautiful sandy-colored individual, very confiding, it was present for its fifth straight day next to the public parking area at Orange Airport.

Back in the UK, I grew up near a local park in Sheffield where Northern Wheatears were regular spring and autumn passage visitors. Autumn birds would often 'stage' at this park, on average, for about five days so it should be very interesting to see if this bird sticks around a little longer.

James P. Smith

See the Northern Wheatear page on James's web site, www.keenbirding.com.