Monday 20 June 2011

Saturday 6th June 2011 - Murcar GC, Aberdeens

The WHITE-WINGED SCOTER had been showing offshore all week but sightings were dependent on the right light and tide conditions. I started to plan a trip up to there for the weekend but all week, a wet, windy day had been forecast, and I didn't fancy trying to see the bird in these conditions. PJ decided to opt out of the trip, and so that just left CJW, GAS and myself. It wasn't ideal for CJW, as he was finishing work at midnight on Friday, and therefore wouldn't be getting any sleep before we were due to set off.

By Thursday, I was beginning to have big doubts about the trip as the forecast was not improving. By Friday, after much discussion, I was virtually certain that the trip was off. The only problem was that it could be up to 4 weeks before we could go again. My concern was that I thought the "shelf life" of this duck was not going to be long, and I had visions of walking along the coast for 2.5miles alone searching for the duck in July!

On Friday dinner, after checking every single forecast I could think of (all saying the same - wet morning up to possibly 13-00hrs, stronger wind and a larger swell than earlier in the week), I sent a text to SR to ask if he was going. He certainly was going up, and whats more, he said according to the Met Office website, the forecast was for a dry, cloudy day. That made my mind up - the trip was on.

We arranged to pick CJW up at 02-00hrs on Saturday morning. Due to the location on the East coast and looking into the rising sun, there had been no early morning sightings, with the first ones usually at about 10-00hrs. Therefore, by setting off at 02-00hrs, we aimed to get there for 08-00hrs ish, in plenty of time for the first showing. Also high tide was at 15-29hrs, and this was the best time to see the Scoter flock as they all came in closer.

I walked out of the house at 01-50hrs and received a text from CJW. He had arranged for someone to come round and pick his dog up as we were probably going to be out all day. However, the person had not turned up. CJW was walking up and down the street looking for anyone to who could help, but, not surprisingly, there was no one about. Reluctantly, having waited to see if the dog sitter turned up, at 02-30hrs we had to set off without CJW.

The journey up was straight forward, but we hit heavy rain just south of Perth. We still had a long way to go North, and we hoped we would drive out of it. However, when we arrived on Murcar GC at 08-25hrs, it was still raining. We made contact with SR and we already knew that the WWS had been seen. We headed out to the dunes to stand with the crowd on the 4th tee, overlooking the flock. Moments after I arrived, the WWS was spotted again. It was down from the red boat, just left of the two GUILLEMOTS. I scanned frantically, but I just couldn't find the Guillemots. The sighting was brief and I had missed it.

While quite a few of the birders who had connected earlier wandered off, we stayed on the 4th tee to try and relocated the WWS. It was raining persistently now, but fortunately GAS had bought his umbrella with him. We learnt from our mistakes we had made at the very wet ALDER FLY twitch, and we put his scope in a bin bag to keep it dry. My scope was under cover.

For the next 6+ hours, we stood in the rain, continually scanning the flock. Conditions were appauling. When it rained heavily, visibility was further reduced and the Scoter flock would become black silhouettes. The swell was heavy, and duck would simply disappear in the waves and you wouldn't pick them up again. There were two drake Surf Scoters in the flock, but you could loose these birds and not see them for half an hour at a time despite continually scanning. If it was easy to lose one of these, what hope had we in seeing the WWS.

Then, at just after 14-00hrs, a small miracle happened. For about ten minutes, it actually stopped raining. We even dared to put the umbrella down. But it soon started again. The flock now was coming in quite close, as we were nearing high tide. SR, AA and JA had come back from seeing the KING EIDER, and so we walked down and stood with them. It was still raining on and off but conditions had slightly improved nevertheless. A small group of birders headed off down the dunes to view the main flock from a closer position. We followed them. After about 1/2 mile, we stopped and started scanning again. Times like this I find its useful to people watch as well as birdwatch, and I was soon aware that a birder to my left was on to something. SR was alerted as well. SR was soon onto the WWS as well, and it was quite close in, in with a group of four Scoter. I asked for directions, and was told the WWS was next to two Great C Grebes. I could see the flock through my bins, but for the life of me I couldn't find the grebes. I couldn't believe I was going to miss the WWS again after all this time. Directions were repeated. It was now swimming away from the small flock on its own, and then I picked up the 2s AMERICAN WHITE-WINGED SCOTER. It was side on and the head/beak profile was clearly visible. I moved away from my scope to let GAS had a look, but he couldn't see it. The WWS was spotted again in with the Eider, but despite its location being shouted out (off the right hand end of the boat), I couldn't get onto it again.




The crowd watching the WWS in the afternoon

Mixed emotions then at finally seeing the duck, but GAS had dipped. We were cold, wet and hungry, and at 16-00hrs, we finally hheaded back to the car. I had also seen two drake Surf Scoters, 30+ Velvets, 5+ Red-throated Divers, four Red-breasted Mergs, a Great Skua, five Arctic Skuas plus endless auks, Gannets etc.

We got changed into our dry clothes (again learnt from the ALDER FLY twitch) and headed up the coast to Newburgh. We soon found the King Eider, asleep on the sand bank. In fact, I only saw it lift its head twice. Oh well!


Monday 13 June 2011

Saturday 11th June 2011 - Tox Quarry and Blithfield

A rare solo trip out today as all the regular Clayhead members were unavailable. First stop was at the mighty Uttox Quarry. I snook in hoping no one would see me - but it was no problem as I was the only birder on site. I quickly found my target - a Red-breasted Merganser swimming about on the main pit. Looking directly into the sun gave only silhouette views, but its not a bad record for June.

Large Skipper

An arty silhouetted shot of the RBM at Tox

Then it was on to Blithfield. I went straight to Tad Bay where I was met with an ID poser. This is the view I was faced with.

I quickly went through all the white birds I knew and quickly eliminated a cygnet and a white goose. Eventually I managed to see a long leg and I was fairly certain as to what it was. All I had to do was wait for it to wake up and show me its beak, which it duly did.
GJM came into the hide and we walked down to the Forward Hide. Unbeknown to me, Sir Roger Broadbent was in the Forward hide going through the exact same processes and he came up with the same ID just after I did. We were fairly certain it was the same 2yr bird that was at Doxey recently.






Later on, an Osprey came over the bay and circled around briefly.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

The White-throated Robin twitch - video

Monday 6th June 2011 - Hartlepool Headland

The beginning of June has recently been quite good and so we were half expecting something to turn up. However, the weekend came and went with nothing doing. Understandably, it was a bit annoying to receive news of a mega on a Monday morning at 09-00hrs. Not the best time of the week. As the morning went by, the reports of the WHITE-THROATED ROBIN kept coming through, and I started to think about going after work. This week, Tuesday and Wednesday were totally out of the question, and I realised it was Monday or bust. Then news came that the bowls match had started and the bird became more elusive. The last sighting was at 13-43hrs when it flew back into the out of bounds Doctor's Garden. I decided to leave work at 14-30hrs but I was still very undecided as whether to make the effort or not. I could only think that the sightings would get less and less as the day went on, and we would not be there until 17-00hrs. I headed round to GAS's flat to discuss the situation with him. As he came down, he jumped into his car with all his gear. The trip was on.

We headed up the A50 and A38 and then received the news that it had been seen again briefly at 15-10hrs. That raised our hope a little, but as we were driving along, I worked out it had been seen once in 4hrs, and that was only a brief sighting.

We hit no traffic and headed out onto the headland. As we got nearer, we could see a crowd in front of us. They didn't look like birders, more like a riot of some sort. As we got nearer, we started seeing a few scopes and we realised we had found the crowd. But what on earth was going on. There were two vans with birders stood on the roofs, and loads more birders just standing around.

Our first impressions

We slowly discovered that the WHITE-THROATED ROBIN was showing in the garden on the other side of a 10ft wall. I then started to think how was I going to get on top of the van, and how was GAS going to get on. Then the ladders started turning up. I noticed one was being set up and we immediately joined the queue. There were only three birders in front of me. We had to wait about ten minutes for the bird to be found again, and then I simply had to wait my turn. Incredibly, after only being on site for less than 15 mins, I was up a ladder watching a female White-throated Robin sitting sunning itself. I reluctantly came down to let the next man have his go, but I joined the small queue for seconds. On my second go, I managed a bit of a video.

So after nearly not bothering to go up at all, we had our tick in no time at all. It really was a bizarre sight and one of the strangest twitches I've been on. Grown men on top of vans, grown men trying to climb wall, some covered in anti climb paint. Unforgetable!
Note the dirty hands These blokes were only popping down to the shop
GAS in the red cap up a ladder

A video grab (well what do you expect when I'm up a ladder!)
The bird is just right of the obvious white rose (This was repeated many times on our ladder)

There was more drama to come. Fellow Clayheads Rich Sutton and Phil Jones had set off at 16-45hrs from work. I had already worked out that it would be nearly 20-00hrs by the time they would arrive. We kept in touch as they drove up. When the Robin flew from the Doctors garden, we all walked round to view the bowling green but there was no sign of it there. I saw quite a few birders walking down the road, so I followed them, only to find they were simply walking to their cars. We walked back to the green, only to find most of the crowd had departed. It was only 19-00hrs, and it seemed that everyone had seen it. I really felt so sorry for the boys on their way up, as they were going to have no chance of seeing it. We headed off for home just after seven. I spoke to Phil; he was still an hour away.

Then, at 19-17hrs, I received news that the WHITE-THROATED ROBIN was back in the Doctors Garden. I sent this to Phil. He arrived in Hartlepool at about 19-40hrs. When he parked up, he saw three empty ladders and so presumed the bird was not showing. A quick question as to whether it was showing was asked, and they got a surprise answer back.

HE WHO DARES...RODNEY...HE WHO DARES!



An ecstatic PJ following his furthest after work twitch ever (finishing work at normal time that is)