Blackpoll Warbler – Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland, 9^th October 2025

What do you mean don't go near the sea? I've just flown over hundreds of miles of the stuff!!!!!

Having successfully stayed in Northdale on Unst with Mark Wilkinson and Andy Stirrat for a week during October 2024, Chris Pendlebury and I quickly decided that we should arrange to book the place again for the week 4th – 11th October in 2025.

So, soon after we returned from Unst Chris had re-booked, and we offered Mark and Andy the first refusal for the option for joining us again.

Mark and Andy suggested they would let us know of their plans early in the New Year, which they did. They declined to join us again, as they had other plans, and so it was just Chris and I unless we could find someone else to join us.

Meanwhile, the bird that had saved my autumn 2024 seemed like a long time ago, as I endured a series of rather epic dips. Immediately after returning from Costa Rica where I saw lots of them, I dipped the Scarlet Tanager at Shelf, near Halifax on the 12th November 2024. This error was then compounded when, a few weeks later, David Steel and I decided it would be a good idea to twitch another bird I had seen lots of in Costa Rica, but disastrously, we dipped the Yellow Warbler at New Hythe, Kent on the 3rd January 2025, as the previous day proved to be the last of its long stay. And then, to round things off, I ridiculously opted not to go for the Solitary Sandpiper at the Butt of Lewis on the 12th May 2025, this despite being at Cabot Highlands (my long-term golf course development project) just outside Inverness and having time to get to Ullapool and get on the CalMac ferry as a foot passenger. Alright, I would have had to scrounge a lift to the Butt of Lewis but that would have been feasible, Al McNee, for example, successfully twitched it from Inverness. Knowing the Butt of Lewis car-park area where it was, I just couldn’t imagine it sticking around. If only it had been correctly identified the day before (he said contentiously).

Ironically, one of the people to connect with the Solitary Sandpiper was James Grundy, who had asked me for advice on visiting the Hebrides in spring with his non-birding father. And, getting back to the subject in hand, James was one of the many people I had sounded out about joining Chris and I in Northdale in October 2025.

Come October 2025, despite our best efforts to find others to accompany us, inevitably, it was just Chris and I. And, as we intended to be there on the 4th October, it was just over a year since my last tick, the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler at Bempton Cliffs, which I had successfully twitched on the 2nd October 2024.

I’m not complaining. I’d enjoyed an Isle of May week in late spring, and then I’d forgone ‘my’ week there in late-August as I’d had a better offer; instead, I’d had another ‘once in a lifetime’ trip with my very best mate Gary Hitchen (and his partner Janet Smyth) which involved visiting Ecuador and the Galapagos. Ken Shaw had effectively given me a good talking to and offered to stand in for me as group leader whilst I went to Ecuador and the Galapagos instead of the Isle of May.

Then in mid-September Andy Williams, Ken and Amanda Shaw and I had a week on Lewis for the third year in succession, but again it was a bit of a struggle.

So it was that, in early October, Chris and I prepared for another trip to Unst with mixed expectations.

Even before we’d arrived, it proved to be something of a challenging saga.

We were booked on the 19:00 overnight sailing to Lerwick from Aberdeen on Friday the 3rd October, as our Northdale booking involved a week from Saturday to Saturday. However, Storm Amy intervened, and, due to the ever-worsening forecasts, it became apparent that our sailing just would not be happening.

So it was, that (despite being as busy as ever at work) on the Thursday morning Chris had the inspired idea of us going later that day, and just getting somewhere, anywhere, to stay on the Friday night (and him finding some way of still ‘working’ on the Friday). A huge dialogue of WhatsApp messages ensued, as we discussed our options.

Ultimately, we both hurriedly changed our train bookings, and packed, and, firstly and crucially, but with some difficulty, changed our respective ferry bookings. I had ‘phoned Northlink and established it would be possible to change my booking as there was still availability, but I was advised to do so quickly, as everyone else was doing the same.

Having conferred with Chris we decided we should go for it, except now neither of us could get through on the same number I had just successfully used.

Ever adaptable, Chris WhatsApp messaged me to say that he had successfully changed his booking to the Thursday from the Friday online (even again arranging for a cabin for us), and so I did the same.

In the middle of getting ready to go to Shetland a day early someone from Northlink ‘phoned me to advise that the Friday sailing was going to be cancelled, and I advised him that I had already changed my booking accordingly…. .

Once packed I yomped from home to Dalmeny Railway Station with my (Tessa’s) rucksack. I caught an earlier train from there to Inverkeithing than the one I was scheduled to get and felt good about being ahead of the game.

However, my train from Inverkeithing to Aberdeen was somewhat delayed, and once I was on it, I began to be concerned about whether I would arrive at the ferry terminal before boarding for foot passengers was closed. I WhatsApp messaged Chris, saying, “On a train. Maybe get me there around 17:30 but was significantly delayed. What time do foot passengers need to check in by, can you remember?”

To which Chris responded, “Fuck”. Only now did it emerge that the Thursday sailing departed at 17:00 and not 19:00 like the Friday one. There was no way we were going to make it, and we both quickly decided to abandon our mission and return home. I alighted from my train at Kirkcaldy, and journey back to Inverkeithing and Dalmeny, and then yomped back home from Dalmeny Railway Station. I was shattered and dejected. Best laid plans.

Anyway, another dialogue of WhatsApp messages ensued, before we resolved to try to get on the next available sailing, which was a 17:00 on Sunday the 5th October. Once again, we changed our ferry and train bookings as necessary, though this time Chris was only able to secure us two pods rather than a cabin.

Although I realised it would be dependent on any subsequent booking, I suggested we ask Northdale if we could get the booking changed from Saturday to Saturday (as it wasn’t our fault we hadn’t been able to arrive on the appointed day). Fantastically, as a result, we were granted Monday to Monday instead of Saturday to Saturday.

All of this moved my sense of optimism further in the right direction. I had privately dreaded another windy, rainy and largely bird-free autumn week in Shetland, particularly as Chris and I would be paying twice as much for the accommodation. Equally, I knew if I didn’t go, my two prime target species, Siberian Rubythroat and Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler would be everywhere, whereas if I did…. .

But now, what with everything that had happened, there was a sense of things coming together, like it was meant to be?

And indeed, once there, it felt really good to be back; Unst had definitely worked its way into my soul.

As ever, birding on Unst proved to be hard work in trying conditions but overall, I was happy with life on ‘our’ very windswept island.

As ever, not a lot had changed really, though the Saxaford UK Space Port and its resultant changes to the roads going out to Skaw had moved on (not necessarily in a good way) and again, access to Lamba Ness was precluded.

Favoured sites such as Clingera, Halligarth and Houlland were much the same, although there had been some excellent habitat management at Valyie, which had opened up the woodland understorey, making viewing from inside the wood much more tenable.

Sadly, a notable change was that David Cooper wasn’t working the island all day every day, as he (and Brenda) were back ‘home’ in Sussex as his father was in a bad way.

None of this made any material difference to Chris, who just walked and walked every day. As a result, he also produced, finding a Marsh Warbler and Bluethroat near Holsen’s Bridge on consecutive days, Tuesday the 7th and Wednesday the 8th October. However, this wasn’t without cost. When yomping through the marsh between Holsen’s Bridge and the Norwick Beach bus-stop, Chris had partially fallen into the burn and, as a result, his bridge camera had packed up.

In addition, Chris was having big issues getting his mobile to charge, due, as it turned out, to a dodgy cable… .

Although, necessarily, Chris and I didn’t always bird together, we did so on other occasions, and as part of this, we routinely walked the minor roads around Haroldswick in conjunction. Whilst doing so earlier on the 8th October Chris had seen a Turtle Dove adjacent to, and on, the road near the garden and allotment at Rockfield I had always fancied. However, (partly as his camera wasn’t available) Chris hadn’t nailed the Turtle Dove, and as such hadn’t necessarily ruled out Oriental Turtle Dove.

Therefore, in conjunction with Scott (and Angela) Wotherspoon we’d searched the Haroldswick area; given the episode earlier in 2025 when a ‘Turtle Dove’ seen on Unst in the spring transformed into an Oriental Turtle Dove when it reappeared in South Mainland, we were keen to get better views. We failed, but later that afternoon, Chris and I returned to have another go.

As such, I dropped Chris off near Rockfield before going to park and walk around part of our 'Haroldswick circuit' in an attempt to relocate the Turtle Dove.

No sooner had I parked near the former Victoria’s Tea Rooms than I got a WhatsApp message from Chris saying, "Help needed Rockfield". I didn’t necessarily take in whether the message was specifically for me, or was on one of the WhatsApp groups, but I quickly drove back towards where I’d dropped Chris and instead parked near the junction of the minor road and the road alongside Haroldswick Bay.

I then walked back up to Chris who was still near Rockfield. As this was where the ‘Turtle Dove’ had been, this was what I was anticipated he needed help with.

As such, when I got there I was somewhat bamboozled when Chris started telling me about what he was confident was a Blackpoll Warbler..... .

I wasn't the only one bamboozled by Chris' attempts to get the news out. As suggested, as well as his trusty bridge camera having packed up, he was labouring with a malfunctioning mobile and as such, he had only had about 2% charge left.

Hence, commendably, he’d tried to get a message, any message, out as soon as possible.

However, this had the inadvertent effect of causing almost instantaneous WhatsApp message group fuelled pandemonium. For whatever reason, Chris’ message went ‘viral’ before he had intended and caused great confusion and consternation. I'll stop there out of diplomacy's sake (but why do people who aren't even there know better than people who are?).

Anyway, very quickly afterwards, people did arrive on-site, including Dougie Preston (from Yell, on a whim, out of his experience of such things in Shetland), the very interesting Wayne Glossop, and also Robbie Brookes, Mike Pennington and Brydon Thomason, who, very gently, managed the twitch a best as he was able.

Clearly, all efforts aimed at relocating the bird concentrated on the excellent cover available in the garden and allotment at Rockfield. Indeed, Brydon liaised with the owners of Rockfield who were very amenable given the rapidly growing crowd outside their house and even suggested they had seen the bird in the hydrangeas, etc., they could see immediately outside their kitchen windows.

However, suffice to say, after Chris’s initial sighting, despite the assembled twitch, the bird wasn't seen again on the 8th October.

This meant, that that night, all sorts of agonising and doubting ensued, as Chris tried to rationalise what he had seen. He had previous experience with Blackpoll Warbler, which was good, but when the bird appeared on the fence on the opposite side of the road to the Rockfield this certainly wasn’t what he expected to see when he raised his binoculars. Given where we were, frankly, he’d expected to see, another way more like warbler species with two wing-bars, namely Yellow-browed Warbler.

And, with hindsight, as his views had been so brief, he wasn’t necessarily convinced it was ‘just’ a Blackpoll Warbler. We discussed and researched other similar American wood warblers, notably Bay-breasted Warbler, but I cautioned Chris’ about writing down, ‘capturing’, just what had had seen and sticking with his instincts (rather than being swayed by what he subsequently read), noting that unless he did so, there was a chance that someone could turn up the next day and relocate the bird and ‘clinch’ its i.d., and then claim that it was his find.

Meanwhile, as Chris and I were agonising and doubting (and I was counselling 😂) it is fair to say birders elsewhere in Shetland were also agonising and doubting (and worse!). As we’d seen when Chris’ initial attempt to get the news out (somehow, anyhow) had immediately gone viral this had produced some very unhelpful responses (“Can we clarify what (the) hell he is talking about!” Adrian Kettle, which then got a thumbs up!) there were people out there who clearly knew better than the only person who mattered, the only person who’d seen the bird, Chris.

Chris coped commendably when with the pressure involved and remained his usual rational self.

Having firstly asked for the thoughts of others in relation to his drafts, that evening he sent a couple of messages to the Unst birders WhatsApp group, drafting, sending, receiving comments and amending the same all whilst still chatting to me.

Initially (in direct response to the Adrian Kettle message) he sent a message saying, “Sorry everyone. Phone died after sending initial message. That initial message seemed to do the job though! Thank you to those that came to look for the bird, and let’s hope it gets found tomorrow”, to which Brydon responded with a supportive message.

Subsequently he sent another message saying, “Hi all. Based on my views of the bird and my previous experience of the species, my initial thoughts were that it was a Blackpoll Warbler, but I knew I needed to see it again – so asked for extra help relocating given I had a phone about to die. In retrospect on the identification I don’t think I saw all characteristics to be able to safely rule out options for other American species. We’ll hopefully find it again tomorrow!”

So it was that we were up around 07:00 the following morning, and on-site at Rockfield soon after it was light. Others, including Wayne Glossop, quickly joined us.

Unfortunately, despite people looking (at Rockfield) and some people searching the wider area (Chris included!) there was no sign, so soon after 09:00 I opted to return to Northdale for breakfast.

Predictably, so it was, that, as I munched my Dorset Cereal and quaffed my coffee, that I received a message at 09:33 which involved Brydon forwarding a message from one of the main Shetland WhatsApp groups to the Unst birders one stating, “BLACKPOLL still”.

I opted to hastily finish my cereal and coffee (but just leave the bread in the toaster) before quickly driving back to Haroldswick.

On arrival it emerged that the bird had suddenly appeared when some young birders had used playback. It had seemingly flown into the garden at Rockfield from the rough field on the other side of the minor road, before returning there.

Some birders were in the field searching for it, and I briefly attempted to do the same, edging from the roadside ruined croft to the one further into the field. It quickly emerged that, without my walking pole anyway, I was no longer best-suited for this role, nor was I able to discern what the assembled birders at Rockfield were gesturing I should do (beyond being confident it wasn’t rude). I retreated back to the road, and soon afterwards it was apparent the bird had been relocated as there was more frenetic activity in the field.

I failed to get on it, even though it apparently perched on the roof of one of the buildings associated with the roadside house called Ark. However, despite the strong wind, and as though it had a routine, it seemingly made its was onto the beach and the huge mounds of wrack thrown up by Amy….. . or maybe beyond…. .Donald Wilson arranged for five of us to check out the croft North Booth beyond the end of Haroldswick Bay (he, I, Mike Penningto, Wayne Glossop and one other).

We were unsuccessful, but meanwhile it was indeed relocated on the beach. Again, here I initially struggled to get on it, as it was either flighty or got pushed or both, but eventually I did get on it, memorably searching for food amongst the wrack by perching up right on the tide-line, and then later, moving in the open on the track to North Booth.

Brief views, but more that good enough. I was happy.

After being a very small part of the first part of the story on the 8th, it was great to be around when everything came together for everyone present on the 9th.

And I was SO, SO pleased for Chris when the bird was eventually relocated, and, at times, performed very well for most in attendance, including even me. ☺️

I’d felt quite protective of Chris, being under siege like he was just for trying his very best, and so I was elated that he’d been vindicated. It was a strange sort of reflected glory, I guess.

Obviously, everyone else was very happy too, and there was a good atmosphere all round. I enjoyed seeing Paul Harvey, and introducing Chris to him, telling Paul, “This is Chris, who found the bird”. All the more so later, when we’d retreated to the Final Checkout for some lunch and again saw Paul there, who said to Chris as he was leaving, “Good find”.

So, thanks to Chris, I’d managed a long overdue tick, which was a good grip back, as perhaps nowadays it is no longer the most frequently occurring Yank as it had been in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was a stunning looking bird, way more so than perhaps I’d expected. Although an American wood warbler, there was definitely a hint of ‘bright’ pipit going on due to its general appearance and stance, and the prominent double wing-bars and (less prominent) streaking on both the upper and lower parts.

That said, the head, throat and upper breast were unmistakably yellow, and the rest of both the upper and lower parts also had a hint of yellow, although the upperparts were mainly grey-green and the underparts off-white. There was a darker eye stripe, and the head and face pattern involved somewhat darker areas on the crown, ear coverts and nape. There was some broad darker streaking on the lower neck, and the underparts, although this faded and thinned lower down.

The scapulars and the wing coverts had broad white edges, creating the double wing-bar effect, and the primaries, secondaries and tertials were white tipped and edged in part at least, although some primaries and secondaries were yellow edged. The flight feathers, wing coverts and alula were dark centred. The tail was similarly coloured.

However, the stand-out feature was the day-glo yellow-orange legs. If Pale-legged Leaf Warbler was my preceding tick, this one could justifiably be renamed Bright-legged American Wood Warbler!!

Blackpoll Warbler, Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland, October 2025 (photograph credited to Mike Pennington).

Blackpoll Warbler, Haroldswick, Unst, Shetland, October 2025 (photograph credited to Tom Hines).

Western Subalpine Warbler – Levenwick, South Mainland, Shetland, 11^th October 2025

Pre-amble – Subalpine Warbler(s)

By way of context here (and also elsewhere – see Western Subalpine Warbler, and hopefully, eventually, Moltoni’s Warbler!), I must explain that I had some ‘previous’ with ‘Subalpine Warbler’. The ‘species’ was split from Moltoni’s Warbler by the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) in November 2014 and ‘Subalpine Warbler’ was split into Eastern and Western Subalpine Warblers by the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) in May 2020 (and thus by the BOURC, which had opted to adhere to the IOC list from the 1st January 2018 onwards).

However, at this time, the only ‘Subalpine Warbler’ I had ever seen was a female-type bird at Spurn in May 1986 which (despite it being caught and ringed) couldn’t subsequently be re-identified to species level).

In addition, I had heard what was seemingly an Eastern Subalpine Warbler at Porthgwarra in October 2014, though this seemingly never got submitted or accepted, although it was filmed.

As such, I could no longer count the Spurn bird and opted not to count the heard-only Porthgwarra bird either, so, as a result, I had two, or three, ‘Subalpine Warbler’ species to make up post- these splits.

Narrative – Western Subalpine Warbler

As described more fully in the Blackpoll Warbler account (as this was first seen by Chris Pendlebury just two days after we had eventually arrived in Shetland), following the travel disruption precipitated by Storm Amy, we’d arrived in Shetland on Monday the 6th October (rather than, as had been originally planned, Saturday 4th October) for our annual October Shetland visit.

We collected the Bolt’s hire car, and completed a Tesco’s shop, and I never even considered the option of going for the available Western Subalpine Warbler which, it transpired, had been so since the 3rd October. Besides blaming old age, I guess it’s presence and significance had just got lost in amongst our travel chaos.

Somewhat belatedly, then, I realised that I’d stuffed up, and I began casually checking if it was ‘sticking’ each day.

The excitement around Chris’ Blackpoll Warbler definitely distracted, but otherwise there wasn’t a lot happening.

Whether this and his outstanding success influenced Chris’ thinking I’m not sure, but he decided he’d quit whilst he was ahead, and, as had originally been planned, travel home on Saturday 11th / Sunday 12th October, although our stay at Northdale had been kindly re-configured to Monday to Monday (rather than Saturday to Saturday) owing to our travel woes.

We discussed the options Chris had for getting to Lerwick (including getting the bus, cadging a lift or me taking him) but in the end as both the Siberian Thrush at Asta and the Western Subalpine Warbler at Levenwick still lingered, it became more and more obvious that I should take Chris to Lerwick, and we should take in both birds in the process. As such, I asked Andy Williams for any gen he might have on seeing the Western Subalpine Warbler, and he duly provided some excellent info which he in turn obtained from Al McNee.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the Siberian Thrush on the Saturday morning, so we concentrated on just twitching Western Subalpine Warbler on the back of taking Chris to Lerwick for the Northlink ferry. We drove straight from Northdale on Unst to Levenwick in South Mainland via the two necessary inter-island ferries, seeing Dougie Preston and family on the second.

On arrival we parked up as Al’s directions suggested and then walked some 70m down the Levenwick road to the nearest two houses. The nearest one, on the left, was that of Dr. Will Miles of Shetland Oil Terminals Environmental Advisory Group, and, fittingly, it had a superb garden.

Although I briefly checked out the garden of the house opposite, we concentrated on the garden of Will Miles’ house, partly as it was suggested that the Western Subalpine Warbler often frequented the area around the pond which was visible in the back left corner of the garden. We produced a Chiffchaff but nothing else.

Soon after we arrived, we were joined by Andy Williams and Bob McMillan; Bob had just arrived in Shetland having flown from Inverness to Sumburgh, where Andy had collected him.

Soon after they arrived and we had all reacquainted ourselves, Chris heard and then saw the bird in the cover at the back right corner of the garden.

And soon after this, Bob again had it when it briefly showed on the adjacent fence. He ventured that it would do so again, which it duly did, and this time I was also able to get on it, albeit that my view was partially obscured by the intervening cover.

However, it then flew away from left the garden out over the adjoining field and disappeared out of sight, behind the intervening near horizon created by a change in slope in the field. This turned out to be a bank alongside an old track through the field.

Fortunately for me I surmised it might still be viewable from a gate into the field which was further along the road. I quickly moved to said gate, which both allowed me to look back along the track and, usefully, steady myself by leaning on the gate.

This enabled me to scan the bank alongside the track properly, and in doing so I was able to relocate the bird perched on top of a large rock which effectively marked the start of the bank alongside the track.

Here it showed suitably well, if briefly, as it soon flew back into the garden. We didn’t really look for it again after that. Soon afterwards we were joined by Kevin Kelly, the RSPB Sites Manager for Shetland. He was doing his rounds checking visiting birders were behaving, (or maybe he was just coming to say hello to two fellow ‘Serious Bird Bantering’ WhatsApp group members 🤣🤣 ).

In terms of appearance, it has to be said, from memory, the bird was, unsurprisingly, (given the complexities of subalpine warbler i.d.!) virtually identical to the Wester Quarff Eastern Subalpine Warbler I had seen with Andy Williams in October 2023.

As such, there is no point writing a ‘different’ description. So, here’s one I prepared earlier. The bird was most similar to perhaps an eastern race Lesser Whitethroat. It was of similar size, although it was perhaps slimmer and slighter in shape. Further, in overall terms, the plumage was superficially similar to the latter species although it had an ‘emptier’, plainer face with no hint of grey on the head, etc.. Otherwise, the upperparts were greyish mid-brown and the underparts pale brownish off-white. It had whitish outer tail feathers, but suffice to say, I wasn’t able to grill this, or the primary projection, for example (and although I did just about hear it call, I couldn’t transcribe this).

Nonetheless, it was ‘on my list’.

Western Subalpine Warbler, Levenwick, South Mainland, Shetland, October 2025 (photograph credited to Paul Frost).

Western Subalpine Warbler, Levenwick, South Mainland, Shetland, October 2025 (photograph credited to Kristian Wade).

Marsh Sandpiper – Elmley RSPB Reserve, Elmley, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, 29^th April 1991

Marsh Sandpiper at Elmley RSPB Reserve, Elmley, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, in late April 1991. As suggested, the light was not good rendering the bird somewhat monochrome.

Dipped Serin!! How many times will I have to write that?!?!? (This, evidently, was a recurring theme at the time).

However, I then tonked down to Elmley and caught up with another frustrating one, Marsh Sandpiper.

And relatively easy it was too, once I got to the hide. It was not good light, admittedly, but other than that, I had reasonably views.

It had extremely long legs – Jerry Hall! It also had a long, fine bill. Its summer plumage was very evident, as there were black markings within the mid-brownish upperparts.

Turned out, the 29th April was the last day of a six day stay. Just over four years later, on Sunday the 6th August 1995, I saw three juvenile Marsh Sandpipers at Cantley Beet Factory, Cantley in Norfolk, two days into their ten-day stay. Unfortunately, though, I did not see all three together as two flew off and over us as we searched for the right place; once we got there only one was to be seen.

Many, many years later, (having not been able to twitch the bird at Musselburgh Lagoons on the 18th and 19th May 1997 as my Dad and Barbara were visiting) I saw one for my Scottish list at the lagoon at nearby Morrison’s Haven on the 7th September 2025.

Marsh Sandpiper, Elmley RSPB Reserve, Elmley, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, April 1991 (photograph credited to unknown).

Cream-coloured Courser – Golf Course, St. Marys 24^th October 2004

After an absence in the British Isles of almost exactly 20 years, on Tuesday the 28th September 2004, a Cream-coloured Courser was reported in the Scillies, first on St. Agnes and then on St. Martins, and then finally on St. Marys. This followed one that was in France a few months earlier.

Four weeks later it was taken into care on Tuesday the 26th October. Thankfully, by then I had successfully twitched it from Edinburgh via Coventry with Elizabeth, and as a result seen it on both the preceding two days...... .

As such, this surely comprised one of my more unlikely twitches; almost a month after the bird was first seen, a desert bird in a very stormy Scillies in October, and with that ardent twitcher, the errant Elizabeth!

This scheme of things had emerged when Elizabeth and I agreed to go away for part of the October half-term, and I had indicated that it being October, my preference was not to be too committal regarding a destination, and further, that if there was anything to be seen I would want to go to see it. As such, we tentatively resolved to visit Dorset for old time’s sake, and as this was theoretically well-placed on the south coast. However, the greater the staying power the ‘CCC’ demonstrated, the more I wanted to go to the Scillies instead. During the preceding week therefore, I made tentative plans for a twitch there, including getting all the appropriate ‘phone numbers sorted and so on.

So it was that early on Friday the 22nd October I left home and then flew from Edinburgh to Birmingham. After a day rattling around Coventry with and without Elizabeth and a brief visit to her sister’s that evening, we finally set off for the south-west of England after 19:00.

The drive went well, so well in fact, that, with some debate, we just kept going. There was an argument for finding somewhere sooner rather than later and then set off from there at some stage the following morning. Conversely, there was a preference on my part to get as far as possible, so that we could get onto St. Marys sooner rather than later, so that Saturday would be taken up with the twitch of the CCC, and we then had at least two full days to explore the Scillies.

We also debated our accommodation options, and against our better instincts considered stopping in Travel Inns, indeed stopping at the one east of Okehampton on the A30(T). However, we then continued all the way to Hayle where we failed to get a room at a similar large travel inn. This meant we were arriving in Penzance after midnight with no accommodation. Anyway, without any real problem we managed to get a room at a ‘hotel’ on the seafront in Penzance. This wasn’t the most salubrious of places, but it did the job.

Saturday emerged, or we emerged on Saturday, to find a stormy, squally, windy day, and huge Isle of Scilly travel problems as a result. I ‘phoned all the travel numbers I had, to find out what I sort of expected and feared. The Scillonian was cancelled for the second day running, the Skybus was also cancelled, and the helicopters were struggling with the weather and the resultant backlogs too (and also with the lack of a second helicopter for the Tresco flights). However, we were encouraged by the staff at the heliport to ‘phone or call in at various times, just in case there were no shows and so empty seats, or spare seats on flights that had to be put on later. This we did, whilst still enjoying an interesting and exhilarating day in cataclysmic weather.

We visited St. Just, Marazion and Praa Sands and basically chilled. Most memorably we sat in a gallery windowed café-bar looking out over Praa Sands watching the incoming waves (this was Elizabeth’s old stomping ground from her childhood years, so she was very happy, and I was happy to be with her there). I was phlegmatic about the unexpected extra days delay before my intended audience with the CCC. The storm thrilled and excited me; what would it bring with it, if anything?

That night we managed to find far more salubrious accommodation in Marazion, so that the following morning we were refreshed, and ready to continue our thwarted attempt on St. Marys. Again though, we were frustrated by the disappearing prospect of places on additional helicopter flights that morning (we also bumped into Pete and Angela Ewer at the heliport, which was, er, interesting, given I was with Elizabeth and not Gillian....).

Instead, we faced the prospect of a rough crossing on the Scillonian which we were told was to sail at 12:30, and even this seemed unlikely when we turned up at the booking office to find it shut. Anyway, we managed to sort out this minor difficulty, and arranged places on the ferry, park the car (‘illegally’ as it turned out) and, critically, get me some sea-sickness pills.... !

So it was that just before 13:00 we sailed for St. Marys. I stayed on the deck for the entire crossing, getting wet and cold, and trying to maintain a trance-like ‘I’m not going to be ill’ state throughout. Whether it was this, or my taking two (rather than the recommended one) pills, I was, much to my surprise, totally unaffected by the rough seas!!!!

Once on St. Marys, we quickly gathered our belongings and walked into Hugh Town. We still needed accommodation, and after a couple of failed attempts to find bed and breakfast, we got a room at Lyonesse.

Although the sailing was some one hour longer that the usual 2.5 hours, there was still plenty of time to walk up to the golf-course. Or so I thought. For Elizabeth this wasn’t such an appealing prospect, but out of devotion she followed me, on what to her seemed like an enforced route march! Anyway, we got up there in reasonable time, and I was quickly able to find the small group of birders watching the CCC, and therefore, it itself!

It was actively feeding on the fairways around the small group of birders, at times at ridiculously close ranges.

Somehow, and possibly more to do with the past few hours, the bird looked ‘damp’. It also appeared to be duller / darker pale brown that I assumed it would be, although perhaps if it had been in brilliant desert sunshine..... ! Alternatively, the shade of the bird’s plumage was perhaps due to it being a first year bird.

Anyway, it was a quirky looking bird, similar, if anything, to a plover in terms of size, shape, stance and moves. It also had a down-curved bill that was pratincole-like and long legs that were curlew-like. It had an upright and pot-bellied appearance, and fed by running a few metres and then probing at the ground. The birds plumage was overall subtle shades of off-white / light brown, with darker remiges visible. It had a distinctive head pattern involving a ‘smudged’ dark brown patch around the ear coverts, bordered by off-white supercilia, which met at the rear of the nape. The crown was a slightly richer light brown compared with the rest of the plumage. There were some indistinct darker flecks on the coverts, indicative of the bird’s first-winter age. The eye was largish and black, the bill was mainly black with a blue-grey base, and the legs were greyish blue white.

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? As I wrote at the time, “A brilliant twitch, with the woman I love, who loves me and what makes me ‘tick’, despite the wet and cold, and lack of comforts to which she has become too accustomed. Some 18 years and 220 ticks on from the Subalpine Warbler and Red-breasted Flycatcher I saw with Elizabeth at Spurn in May 1986 we twitch Cream-coloured (or Vauxhall?) Courser together! Brilliant. And a celebratory evening necessarily followed...... “.

Little did I know what was to follow the next day, when I was to see Ovenbird and the Cream-coloured Courser again within an hour of each other...... .

Cream-coloured Courser, Golf Course, St Marys, Isles of Scilly, October 2004, taken the day before I first saw it (photograph credited to Steve Valentine).

 Sooty Tern – Cemlyn Lagoons National Nature Reserve, Anglesey, 19^th July 2005

Thank fuck!!!!

In July 2005, this bird had been tantalising off Anglesey since Tuesday the 5th. It was seen at Rhosneigr on that date, before then being seen intermittently at The Skerries between Thursday the 7th and Sunday the 10th.

However, although still intermittently, it was then seen at Cemlyn Bay from the 10th July onwards..... . This was much more accessible and somewhat more reliable....... . I had previous with Cemlyn Bay obviously, dipping the Bridled Tern there in July 1988 when I abducted Carol Carrington in my attempt to see it (whereas Paul Pugh did!) and seeing the Whiskered Tern there on the 19th June 1993, the day after seeing Lesser Crested Tern at Spurn.

As I had a long planned weekend in the Highlands on the weekend of the 16th and 17th July (having worked at Castle Stuart the previous week) I wasn’t able to twitch it then.

I had hoped that I might have been able to make a ‘strategic diversion’ on Monday the 18th July when I was driving from Edinburgh to Ryton-on-Dunsmore to have a week with Elizabeth, but I was thwarted by a lack of any news whilst en route.

I was though rescued by belated news on the Monday, and so negotiated with Elizabeth to go for it the next day if it was reported. There was an argument to just go, but as ever, I opted to bide my time.

When the news eventually came through the following day I was off within minutes for what proved to be a 3.5 hour drive, taking in the M6, the M56 (as it happened!) and the A56. This was longer than anticipated, and included a refuelling stop, as well as something of an inadvertent diversion on Anglesey itself. However, I made it, with some increasingly frantic driving.

Perhaps this was unnecessary as the bird proved to be constantly on view from my arrival onwards, at least until it eventually departed out to sea.

During the intervening time it was either resting on the tern island or flying over or round it, although once or twice it flew further afield and also briefly alighted on the beach amongst the other roosting terns.

It often got harried by the nesting terns, possibly due to its superficial skua-like appearance.

It was a tern of large-ish size, which basically had distinctive black-and-white plumage. However, in the very good light conditions and with some scrutiny the black plumage proved to be dark brown at least partially, particularly so in the wings.

The under-parts were brilliant white, with the under-wings being white overall, excepting for the trailing edge and the primaries, which were black. The upper-parts were black, as described, with white outer-tail feathers. The crucial head pattern was a combination of black and white also, with a black cap, white forehead and black eye-stripe meeting the bill and extending beyond the eye, both of which were also black.

A brilliant scoop after a fraught delay...... . Five years later Dad, Ellen, Tessa and I had a lovely holiday in North Wales and we visited Cemlyn Lagoon, which was again nostalgic.

Sooty Tern, Cemlyn Lagoons NNR, Anglesey, July 2005 (photograph credited to Stuart Elsom).

Turkestan Shrike – near Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve, Bempton, East Yorkshire, 12^th July 2022

Although it had disappeared 20 minutes after it was first noted near Staple Neuk at Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve near Bempton in East Yorkshire (before it was then relocated just inland the following day, Tuesday the 28th June), nominally a stunning adult male Turkestan Shrike had been available for days and weeks after it was first found on the 27th June……. .

I needed it, but first…… .

Taxonomic context…..

The British List, as curated by the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC), adopted a series of taxonomic decisions made by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) from the start of 2018. One of these was that Isabelline Shrike was (in the context of British records anyway) split into Daurian Shrike (Lanius isabellinus) and Turkestan Shrike (Lanius phoenicuroides) (called Isabelline Shrike and Red-tailed Shrike respectively by IOC).

Although ‘Isabelline Shrikes’ are almost annual, with over 100 having been recorded in Britain by the time this split officially happened, I had only seen one, way back in October 1988 in Durlston Country Park outside Swanage in Dorset. This was partly as I only need to see one for my list, although I subsequently regretted not to bothering to see the November 1993 one at Fife Ness in Fife for my Scottish list.

Further, since the first record of an Isabelline Shrike (on the Isle of May in 1950!), there had been 108 records of Isabelline Shrike spp. until the end of 2020. These had not been assigned to either isabellinus or phoenicuroides as they haven’t yet been re-submitted and / or reviewed and accepted as one or the other (or as insufficient detail was recorded to assign the bird involved one way or the other); presumably the BBRC may eventually consider further assessment of previous records to see how many can be assigned one way or another? Meanwhile, up until the end of 2020, there had been ten accepted records of Daurian Shrike and seven records of Turkestan Shrike.

Put another way, between when the split came into force on the 1st January 2018 and the end of 2020, there were six accepted records of Isabelline Shrike spp., just one accepted record of Turkestan Shrike (involving a bird on North Ronaldsay for two days in August 2020) and no accepted records of Daurian Shrike.

So, although, to date, Daurian Shrike has been regarded as the more regularly occurring of the two species, as most birds have not yet been officially accepted to the level of the new species this may not be an accurate reflection of the actual situation.

Sometime after the split came into force, I casually conducted an online search to see whether I could ascertain whether or not the Durlston Country Park had been identified to sub-species level. According to my sources (presumably the Dorset Bird Club, but sadly this wasn’t recorded) the bird had been considered to be a Lanius (isabellinus) isabellinus.

So, I was happy enough that ‘my’ bird had been considered to be Daurian, but I then omitted to check whether it had indeed been accepted by BBRC as such!! It hadn’t, as it happens, so technically, therefore, I still need a ‘good’ Daurian Shrike, but that’s another story....... .

…… and, now, the horrific ‘tales of woe’ context….. .

By the time spring 2022 commenced, my last tick, the Long-toed Stint at Swillington Ings, West Yorkshire, in October 2021, seemed like a very long time ago.

However, months earlier I had lined up two visits involving a week or more – to the Isle of May between the 14th and the 21st May 2022 and to Shetland between the 1st and 8th June 2022, respectively, and, additionally, much nearer the time, I had wrangled an additional week on the Isle of May between the 27th April and the 4th May 2022. I fantasised with Steely the ultimate ideal of finding a tick for myself on the Isle of May – one of the three Subalpine Warbler species would do; after all, the timing was bang on, so why not? And failing that, surely the first week of June in Shetland would deliver something?

As it happened, there was a dearth of common migrants, let alone scarce or rare ones, on both visits to the Isle of May. On the last day of my Low Light visit (I had stayed in Fluke Street during my first visit) we thought we had managed to save the trip. That said, this had already involved Honey Buzzard and Bluethroat for some of us, and then a stonking Rustic Bunting that Ken located and suspected and I relocated and confirmed (before disgracefully then managing to lose it for the assembled crowd, only to be saved when Chris Broome extracted it from his nearby net and produced it before my very eyes….). This ultimately proved to be the bird of the spring for me, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

On our last day, Andy Williams had a Ring-necked Parakeet come in off the sea from the direction of Fife before landing on the crest of the brae opposite the Low Light terrace. Here it showed for everyone before flying south before the returning Steely reached the island…. . I even contemplated the ‘fact’ that we had a winner in the predict the next (i.e., the 100th) new species for the Bird Observatory, as someone had predicted ‘Green Parrot’. However, no sooner had we left the island than the bird was rediscovered and promptly proceeded to disgrace itself by, firstly, accepting food from the hands of those staying in Fluke Street before, secondly, willingly moving in to the residential quarters there. As such, soon afterwards ‘Leo’ the parakeet was unceremoniously repatriated back to its owner, who travelled from Glenrothes to collect ‘him’ (actually ‘her’) from the crew of the May Princess in Anstruther.

Anyway, where was I? Months earlier, Gary, Chris, Steve and I had all agreed we fancied taking in the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at the New White Hart Lane in London on Saturday the 28th May 2022, and so Steve had duly arranged tickets. As the base for the weekend was necessarily going to be Gary’s flat in St. Albans, and as I no longer had ‘staging posts’ en route like my Dads in Chesterfield on my car journeys, I opted to book return train tickets from Dalmeny to St. Albans via Edinburgh Waverley via King’s Cross and St. Pancras. Besides, fuel was increasingly expensive, taking the train was more environmentally sound, and I had a senior railcard. It was a no-brainer.

I travelled south on Friday the 27th May. The previous day an Eleonora’s Falcon had been reported on RBA, having been identified from photographs flying over the scrapes at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory, before briefly being seen at Stodmarsh. So, the following day, as I sent off on my train journey south, the significance of further sightings at Worth Marsh barely registered; it was a highly aerial / very mobile Eleonora’s Falcon after all, it was never going to linger….. .

I was intent on travelling light, and never gave any thought to taking my binoculars. However, by the time I reached King’s Cross and St. Pancras (as close as I was to get!!!) that evening, there had been 30 Rare Bird Alert messages about it ‘still showing at Worth Marshes’. Ho-hum.

These continued as I travelled to St. Albans, rendezvoused with Gary, and we rendezvoused with Chris and Steve, etc..

I was very slow to realise the significance of this; it was, as I say, a highly aerial / very mobile falcon, and just wouldn’t linger. Would it?

But it did, big-time. It was there the following day, when again I got as close to it as King’s Cross and St. Pancras en route to the New White Hart Lane in Tottenham. By the time we had returned to St. Albans and retreated to the Goat Inn for the evening to watch the chaotic Champion’s League Final I had cracked, and very provisionally I had agreed with Gary that if it was still there then following day, I could borrow his car and drive it on a third party insurance basis to Worth Marshes and back, taking with me the binoculars Evan and Kirsty had bought him for his birthday so he could take them to Chile, the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica when we went on our expedition there….. .

I tried not to drink too much that night and was in a reasonable state the following morning. Helpfully, there was very early positive news at 05:11 on the Sunday morning, but as Gary hadn’t abstained the previous night, I was loathed to either wake him, or to just take his car. Then, the next message, at 07:04, suggested there was no further sign, and I convinced myself it had moved on; after all, it and several Hobbies and a Red-footed Falcon MUST be rapidly depleting the available aerial insect prey?

So, I abandoned the provisional scheme I’d agreed with Gary, and this remained the case when there was again positive news at 08:44, 09:38, etc.. There would still have been time, as my return train didn’t depart from St. Albans until the late afternoon, but, frankly, I had bottled it; it just felt all a bit too contrived, driving there and back in Gary’s car without proper insurance cover, with just some rather average binoculars….. .

How I regretted this when I saw some of the photographs taken that day, and on other days. I journeyed back home, and it remained faithful to Worth Marshes until Saturday the 4th June, well into my visit to Shetland…… .

AAAARGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! One of my truly most disastrous ‘misses’; right up there with Long-billed Murrelet.

Anyway, having arrived back home very late on Sunday the 29th May, on Tuesday the 31st May I drove to Aberdeen and collected eldest daughter Ellen and her long-term boyfriend Shane before we boarded the overnight Northlink ferry to Lerwick via Kirkwall.

Ellen and Shane had for a good few-years both lived in Aberdeen when they were students and now lived there together as they had both started full-time employment. Given that Aberdeen was often my point of departure if and when I went to Shetland, I had asked Ellen whether she might like to go to Shetland sometime. To my delight she had suggested she would, so I had picked up the idea and ran with it, eventually booking my car and berths for us on the ferry, and an AirBnB place in central Lerwick between the 1st and 8th June. What was not to like, Shetland in early June with eldest daughter and her boyfriend…. ?

That was the principle, and a fine one it was, too.

However, in practice, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. I was very much forgetting that Ellen and Shane were a young couple, who were both until recently full-time students, and were now both in their first full-time employment. So, despite the vague idea that I was going to show them Shetland, and that, as and when birds turned up on off-islands, we would go for them so I could show them the islands as well as mainland, it didn’t quite work out like that.

Ellen and Shane were committed to enjoying a very relaxing holiday, their first together since Shane had started his job. As such, early on in the week, I often waited around in the morning until they finally got up at 10:30 or 11:00; after all, I was meant to be showing them around!

And then once they were up, it was sometimes tortuous deciding what we were going to do.

Anyway, one thing we were agreed on was going to Mousa one late evening to see the broch and its Storm Petrels. Ellen, bless her, was proactive in booking this for £30 each online on her mobile; in doing so she had managed to get us places on what was an additional sailing.

This was booked for the late evening of Sunday the 5th June, and undoubtedly it was one of the very best things we did.

It involved getting to the quay in Sandwick by 22.30 so we could be on the island ‘after dark’, or, at least, after what passed as dark in the midsummer dim.

We had a leisurely day visiting St. Ninian’s Island, and various places in South Mainland, before returning to our place in Lerwick to have a meal and prepare for our evening adventure. Or at least it was leisurely until when news broke of a Moltoni’s Warbler at Valyrie on Unst just after 18:00. Now, I could have got there (and back) that night, but that would have meant ditching our booked trip to Mousa, which had cost £90 and was something we had all committed too. Things had been quite fraught at times so I just couldn’t, and indeed wouldn’t, go there. And anyway, it would still be there the following day, and we could all have a day on Unst. Surely? Was it thump!

AAAARGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Another disastrous miss.

This was compounded by the news that earlier in the day a White-throated Needletail had been picked up and released on the Ortelius expedition ship close to Fair Isle, Shetland at 05.37 that morning, which SO easily (if it had done the decent thing) could have ended up at Sumburgh Head and / or Noss Head (as a Pacific Swift did a few weeks later).

So, Shetland was a tale of what might have been yet again, with the best birds ‘seen’ being a Icterine Warbler and a Quail (which were both actually heard only!). Just to rub it in, within days there was a bull Orca cruising around of the tombolo at St. Ninian’s Island, oh, and a summer-plumaged Broad-billed Sandpiper at various places in South Mainland; just a Scottish tick, but, in the circumstances, it would have done.

Anyway, consolation was perhaps to hand, as the returning Short-toed Eagle had been seen in deepest Sutherland on a more or less daily basis every day ever since it was first seen on the 24th May. Necessarily, I hadn’t been able to go for this between the Isle of May and the Shetland trips, but I could go direct from the Shetland trip IF it continued to behave? Maybe that could be my compensation after the disastrous misses of Eleonora’s Falcon and Moltoni’s Warbler?

Throughout my stay in Shetland, it was seen day after day, and as such, I gathered what information I could to facilitate my twitch. In particular, I contacted Donald Wilson on the 3rd June as he had seen it on the 1st June, and he certainly produced the goods in terms of gen.

Ellen and Shane got the overnight ferry back to Aberdeen on the 7th June, whereas I had to wait until the 8th June as there was no room for the car on the 7th. When I had booked, I’d thought this was a bonus, an extra day in Shetland during early June, what’s not to like?

The Short-toed Eagle was seen on the 7th June, when I had a leisurely day pre-ferry, walking the Wester Quarff circuit and touring South Mainland, and generally seeing nowt.

So it was that I drove off the ferry at around 07:30 on the morning of Wednesday the 8th June, and drove direct via the A96 and the A9(T), and various roads to and beyond Lairg all the way to Dalreavoch. Even though part of my premise was that there was no point driving from Aberdeen home to Queensferry and then from there back up to the wilds of Sutherland, it was a long drive!

However, once there, after some indecision about the right place at which to commence my walk (despite Donald’s excellent instructions), I teamed up with a youngish birder who had also travelled from Aberdeenshire who arrived just after I did. He and I then walked up the track behind the Dalreavoch Lodge to beyond the plantation alongside it and then up onto the low hill which comprised the viewpoint from which people had been seeing the eagle. We didn’t necessarily make to climb up together; I found it a real struggle carrying all my gear and generally wobbling about due to my balance issue.

Anyway, we watched from the viewpoint and had an Osprey (which caused him a minor panic), before another birder, Colin Auld, arrived, and my original companion departed. Colin and I, in particular, put in a real shift, but to no avail. It was a great site; I could see why a Short-toed Eagle could get by there but….. . By c.18:30 I’d had enough and tramped back down to the car to continue the long drive home. I consoled myself by ‘phoning Andy Williams to tell him of my woes, and he suggested he would speak to fellow Highland birders to get as much gen as possible before making his own attempts to re-locate the bird so that I could then travel to Ullapool (possibly with Ken) to attempt to see it from a nearby base but…… . To add further ignominy, as I tonked the car home on the M90, a speed camera flashed me near the Amazon Depot on the outskirts of Dunfermline (although thankfully, no fixed penalty notice subsequently arrived, certainly not to date…).

Again, AAAARGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Another disastrous miss.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, it was in the context of this disastrous spring that the Turkestan Shrike turned up and both taunted and tempted me. As such, it took me almost three weeks before I finally twitched it!

As it happened, I’d had some dialogue with Viv Hastie as we’d been actioned at the Isle of May Bird Observatory and Field Station Trust ‘gathering’ in Anstruther on the 18th June to commence the roll out of the membermojo online membership platform for members of the Trust. I’d asked Viv about her availability to get together to do this, having had a reminder from membermojo that the trial I had commenced would lapse on the 24th July, and, amongst other things, she had told me she would be going to Bempton on the 27th June to cover for someone else whilst they were on leave as part of her new role tagging Kittiwakes in relation to offshore wind-farm development.

As such, when the shrike was relocated on the 28th June, I immediately let Viv know, and she duly sent me a half-decent digiscoped image of the bird later on… .

For me though, it wasn’t so easy. The events of the past few weeks, in terms of me missing absolutely stonking ‘available’ birds, had completely done for me; I had no enthusiasm for a twitch. This was also partly because it was a long drive from Queensferry to Bempton, and nowadays it wasn’t something I could readily tack onto a visit to my Dads, for instance, as had undoubtedly been the case in other such instances when I had twitched Yorkshire.

To compound things further, irony of ironies, in an instance of déjà vu, Gary, Chris, Steve and I had agreed we fancied taking in the Rugby League Magic Weekend at St. James’s Park in Newcastle on Saturday the 9th July 2022, and so Steve had duly arranged tickets. We were making a full weekend of it, and going out on the ‘toon’ that night, and so, as I had done when I attended Gary’s brother’s Stag weekend in Newcastle earlier in the year, I had arranged return train tickets from Dalmeny to Newcastle. So, although I was half-way to Bempton that weekend, and if I had driven to Newcastle, I could have simply continued beyond to Bempton on the Sunday after our get together ended (or indeed gone on the Friday before and then stayed over in Newcastle), this wasn’t to be…. .

So, I just serially swithered about going, putting it off one way and another, almost willingly it to move on and make my mind up for me. For example, when Viv suggested that she could be available to do the work we had been assigned to do on Monday the 11th July, the day after my lad’s weekend in Newcastle, I’d responded saying that this date sounded good, if I didn’t twitch the shrike.

However, in the end, I decided that we should go ahead with the proposed get together (as Viv was available), and instead I’d go the following day. Clearly, rolling out the membermojo online membership platform was more important than some shrike….. .

Despite the declared intention of going on Tuesday the 12th July, when there was eventually negative news at 08:20, I assumed it had perhaps done the decent thing and buggered off, so I breathed a sigh of relief, and resumed work on a briefing note about the work Viv and I had conducted, only for positive news to eventually come through at 09.26….. .

For the rest of the week, I concentrated on getting good drafts of most of the next Isle of May Bird Observatory newsletter in place. This went well, such that, by the end of the (working?) week I had run out of excuses, and decided that, if it was still there the following day, I would go, come what may.

By now I figured it was too good an opportunity to miss as it was an adult male, and had lingered for days and days. Part of me knew that if I didn’t see it, there wouldn’t be another one available for me, whereas if I did see it, I would undoubtedly bump into one in Shetland the following autumn……. .

So, on Saturday the 16th July I finally made my move……. . Was it a mission involving madness, or a sojourn offering solace? Who knows, but…. .

As is traditional, when I’m getting up early necessitating an alarm to be set, I don’t necessarily sleep too well, and such was the case that morning. I set the alarm for 07:00 but there wasn’t any news for somewhile after that, so I didn’t get up immediately. There was though, positive news by 08:10 by which time I had been up for a good while, so this and the preparation I had done previously meant I was in the car and away soon after 08:30.

It was a long, long drive. I opted for A1(T) and the A19, before skirting Middlesbrough and crossing the North York Moors to Whitby and Scarborough and beyond. The first bit to Tees-side was fine but beyond that, it was tedious, especially in coastal Yorkshire, as it was the weekend, and lovely weather. Anyway, I eventually arrived at 13:45, as it suggested on Google Maps directions, just over 5 hours later.

Once parked in a rather full car-park, I quickly used the (back up) Portaloo facilities in the car-park (well, it had been a long journey!) and then assembled my gear and set off. I’d a rough idea where I was going due to my research, but enquired anyway at the help-desk outside the RSPB Visitor’s Centre. The very rudimentary directions I received involved walking to the coastline, finding the Staple Neuk viewpoint (where the albatross was regularly being seen from) and ask there. I, partly by intuition, made my way to the Staple Neuk viewpoint, and by the time I had reached there, had a good idea where I was going, but I asked someone amongst many people coming along the coastal path towards me if he knew where the shrike was. He confirmed that from the next viewing point at which people were congregated, there was a footpath back inland alongside a field boundary hedge, and there were birders looking at (or for) the bird from a field along that path.

Somehow it had seemed to take a long time to walk there, which I did at some pace, but seemingly it was only a walk of 20 minutes or so. When I arrived, the scene involved a few ‘birders’ standing in a recently mown grass field about 30 or 40 m away from a youngish looking hedge (on the same field boundary along which was the footpath). I joined them, and set up my ‘scope; it seemed that the shrike frequently the hedge and appeared occasionally in two partial gaps, and very occasionally, actually on our side but, given the very strong ‘Sirocco’ type breeze at our backs, was mainly on the opposite side of the hedge (where all the large insects would be).

Suffice to say, that, given this was the third weekend and twentieth day the bird had been there, the assembled audience (which constantly changed but which amounted to eight or so people at any one time) wasn’t exactly cutting edge. It included ‘no binoculars toggers’ (“Where is it, have you got it?”) and professional Yorkshiremen with NO volume control who insisted in talking very loudly, whilst saying nothing of any value (“CAN YOU HEAR ME? I’M FROM CHUFFING YORKSHIRE ME”). Whilst these distractions annoyed me, it has to be said that the sole reason the bird was generally out of sight on the other side of the hedge was because of the wind.

After what seemed like a long wait (but again actually wasn’t) one of the more together of the ensemble quietly gestured that it was visible on the edge of one of the gaps. I moved across towards a point alongside him from which I could see it with the naked eye and quickly managed to get it is the ‘scope.

Although it wasn’t on view for very long, I could see enough of it to know it was an isabelline type shrike, (although admittedly, not necessarily a Turkestan Shrike!); I even began to sketch it, poorly.

Anyway, soon enough it was back out of sight, and although I saw it again briefly with the naked eye flying out from the hedge into the field edge after some prey item, that was it. I could have stayed much longer, and maybe I would have had further brief ‘scope views when it was in the gaps, but it was very apparent that the wind was generally going to keep it out of sight.

So, I left within an hour of arriving on the scene, which might make me sound like some sort of heretic, but this was an entirely pragmatic decision; it was around about 15:20, and I had a five plus hour drive back, and having seen the bird, albeit briefly, I’d done what I set out to do.

I’d got back on the bike (or in the car in this instance) and, shortcomings or not, finally had a successful twitch after the horrors of the past few weeks. I’d proved once again, (admittedly to myself) that major birds being available and me successfully twitching them weren’t two diametrically incompatible concepts; I COULD safely twitch again.

I hadn’t walked far when a RBA message came through on my mobile saying that the Black-browed Albatross was showing at Staple Neuk. This gave me further conviction my decision to leave very promptly was the right one, although when I arrived at Staple Neuk the albatross wasn’t apparent, and it seemed if it had been there, it had only been there briefly. Either that, or it was out of sight and / or the punters there were oblivious.

All the same, I enjoyed the spectacle from the viewpoint briefly; certainly, Bempton Cliffs is a very impressive place.

I then continued on to the café at the visitor centre where, after some confusion as I entered the café queue from the field rather than direct from the car-park, I quickly purchased and consumed a chicken salad sandwich, some fruit cake and a can of dandelion and burdock.

I then departed, and commenced the long (and winding!) drive back. I opted to take a different route from Filey to Malton and thence to the A1(M) and A66 (then the M6, M74, A702, etc.). This I did, although beyond Malton I ended up going to York and then Thirsk rather than straight across to the A1(M). However, again, it was approximately a five-hour journey, lasting from about 16:30 until 21:30.

All in all, I drove about 437 miles in more than 10 hours, all, as suggested, to see a bird for just a very few brief minutes. BUT, like I say, the main thing was simply that I saw it, and in doing so filled a gap created by a modern taxonomic split, AND I successfully twitched a bird. A sojourn offering solace, I’d say?

Potentially, ‘my’ bird it wasn’t even the first Turkestan Shrike for the parish of Bempton, but that has yet to be confirmed. And, another factiod I like is that seemingly this bird was the same one that had previously been seen in the Low Countries.

So, what was the bird like? It was the typical size and shape of a Red-backed or Woodchat Shrike, and was clearly an adult (and apparently an adult male). Overall, it was pale-brown, lighter below and darker above, with an impressive black mask with a wavy outline, and a rufous rump and tail (seen briefly in the ‘scope when it moved from perch to perch). It had somewhat darker remiges and a white patch at the base of the primaries (seen with the naked eye when it chased prey low at the base of the hedge / on the field edge). There was a hint of rufous on the crown. However, the clear white stripe above
the black mask and below the crown was not seen. The bill and legs were black. All in all, a stunning bird, and yes, it’s a shame I didn’t get better views of it. Maybe one in Shetland?

A ‘context’ image, showing the relevant part of the hedge inland of Staple Neuk at Bempton Cliffs on the 16th July 2022.

Gannets at Staple Neuk, Bempton Cliffs on the 16th July 2022.

 

The Turkestan Shrike, exactly how I didn’t see it (Photograph credited to Darren Chapman).