Confessions of a lapsed birder

Brünnich’s Guillemot – Portland Harbour, Portland, Dorset, 30^th December 2013

Wow!!

Who would have thought it?

Scored with Brünnich’s Guillemot on the penultimate day of 2013!

The bird had first been reported on Thursday the 19th December, but although it then hadn’t croaked and lingered day after day, Christmas nonsense and distance precluded any thoughts of going for it.

I had Christmas at home, and completed a vantage point survey at Greencraig on Saturday the 28th December.

Then, for unknown reasons I was on a train between Southport and Wigan on the 29th December (I assume I had been in Southport overnight?) as I have notes suggesting I saw Whooper Swans from the train near Martin Mere. Just what I had been up to, and why I wasn’t in my car I know not.

I do know that that once I was reunited with my car I was planning to drive to my Dad’s in Chesterfield for the New Year.

As it turned out, I did so via Portland in Dorset, as you do...... . The things you do when a good bird is available!

The first leg of this involved driving south on the M6 and the M5 to Somerset. From there it involved navigating through Somerset and Dorset from near Taunton, to Yeovil, to Dorchester, to Weymouth and finally Portland. This took some five hours, which meant, as it was mid-winter, the remaining daylight hours, once I finally got there, were a serious consideration.

Anyway, I duly made it by mid-afternoon, and parked up, assembled my gear, etc.. The bird was on the Portland side of the harbour, and was generally close inshore, moving rapidly (particularly when underwater) just off the nearly created sea defences and esplanade, the marinas and the buildings, jetties, etc., around Portland Castle.

Being a sunny day in the period between Christmas and New Year there were a good number of birders there, and we roved backwards and forwards attempting to keep up with the bird swimming and diving at ranges of approximately 50 – 100 m offshore.

I shan’t attempt to detail these toing and froings; suffice to say I quickly got my eye in and did my own thing tracking the bird more than adequately with just a little bit of intuition.

This was really instructive, as it was, if not in the company of, in proximity to both Guillemot and Razorbill.

As suggested, it was distinctive once you got your eye in. It was very black and white (unlike Guillemot). The subtleties of its plumage were interesting; there was something of a first-winter / winter plumage Puffin going on. It had a strong, thick bill, with highly distinctive white line along lower part of upper mandible.

Once I had enjoyed good views for a prolonged period, I journeyed on to Chesterfield through the middle of southern England.

Whether this whole experience stood me in any stead a few years later on Sunday the 25th September 2016 when Ken Shaw mobilised me to Anstruther to take in the Brünnich’s Guillemot he and Alan Lauder (et al.) had seen as they left the harbour for the Isle of May (and as such continue the good fight against the naysayers) is debatable.

I had really great views of this bird from the harbour walls and as such I was able to note the characteristics of this bird, and the differences this involved from the one I had seen in the depths of winter. It had the same ‘low in the water’ appearance, and also the winter Puffin-type plumage. The white line on the bill was a very subtle indistinct feature, and this in particular was the subject of much debate. Luminaries of the Scottish birding scene such as Martin Scott and Rab Shand were less than convinced, and Martin Scott had a call from Lee Evans asking (basically), “What the fuck was going on?”

Meanwhile, I was arguing (as best as I could) the case for Ken’s i.d., and providing Ken with feedback from the location on the ‘phone. All very, er, interesting, and very much saved by Willie Irvine, who was able to show us a back of the camera image of the bird which revealed the hard to see white tomium stripe.

It had a short bill, with a strongly curved upper mandible and discernible gonys, a pale bill tip, a tomium stripe, a ‘bumpy’ forehead, a ‘chunky’ head, and clean, white flanks. It also showed a little white flecking above the gape line and behind the eye and its upperparts showed brown hues which were somewhat ‘non textbook’ but presumably within the range of variation of a Brünnich’s Guillemot. For example, the brown hues were probably a function of the natural process of wear.

All very instructive, all the more so as it was in an atypical plumage in the UK context.