White-throated Robin – Hartlepool Headland, Hartlepool, Cleveland, 7^th June 2011

This is one of a sizeable batch of such accounts that was written retrospectively, several years on, after the loss of my Masked Shrike write-up due to some IT disaster completely killed my will to complete such accounts for all too long…… . However, I eventually renewed my efforts during the first part of COVID-19 lockdown.

Although, again, ‘source material’ was very limited, this was such a memorable twitch that I had somewhat more to work with; I could remember the day well.

On the morning Monday the 6th June 2011 whatever I was doing was thrown into chaos by the astounding news on the pager of a White-throated Robin at Hartlepool Headland.

The message said: “MEGA Cleveland WHITE-THROATED ROBIN Hartlepool Headland trapped + ringed + will be released shortly (not Red-flanked Bluetail) .... .” 

Apparently, the ringer involved had thought he’d seen a Red-flanked Bluetail before setting up his nets and then assumed this was the bird he subsequently extracted and bagged, before then advising Tom Francis that he had trapped a Red-flanked Bluetail. This ‘news’ was then relayed to the information services in good faith......... . It was then promptly corrected. It was 09:00.

For whatever reason I was very slow to react (I was especially busy at this time managing and undertaking bird surveys in relation to both the proposed Carcant and Cormaud wind-farms and also working various other smaller projects).

It wasn’t until much later that day, after there had been incessant updates for hours, that I began to realise that something as unobtainable as White-throated Robin might actually be attainable. By then it was too late to go to see it that day but if it was there the following day I had to go. That was it. That was the plan. I ‘phoned Kris Gibb that evening to see whether he was interested in going and he (obviously!) told me he had been there earlier that day with Dennis Morrison, and as such, in effect, thanks but no thanks. However, he volunteered that his uncle, Mike Thrower, would very much be interested in going should it still be there the following day. Kris gave me Mike’s number.

I then ‘phoned Mike and we made provisional arrangements to meet up at one of the car-parks at the Straiton Retail Park once there was any positive news on Tuesday morning. I then made the usual preparatory arrangements but otherwise carried on as normal. Or, at least, I did so as best as I could. A potentially twitchable White-throated Robin was a tad distracting.

As luck would have it, there was positive news from early on the following morning!!!! I relayed the good news to Mike, and sometime later that morning, we duly met up in the nominated car-park at the Straiton Retail Park. This all worked fine.

Now, as fellow members of the Lothian birding scene, Mike and I certainly knew each other prior to this. For example, when I had taken the girls to see a White-rumped Sandpiper at Aberlady Bay he and I had chatted. On a subsequent occasion, remembering this (and tangentially referencing his own life circumstances) Mike had urged me to look after (my relationship with) the girls. But we didn’t necessarily know each other well.

Mike is, let’s say, a character, a larger than life character. He’s a huge bloke who very definitely looks as though he’s had a life. Anyway, as I pulled into the car-park and located his (red?) car he promptly spotted me and quickly clambered into the car. More or less immediately he launched into an unwarranted explanation of his life circumstances (or aspects of it!). He explained basically that he had, “Got involved with the wrong people,” and, ‘Had ended up as a driver for gangsters in Edinburgh”. The fact that he’s huge and has a certain menace made me think there was rather more to his job description, but I didn’t pursue this. 

This was a very interesting way of starting what was to be a good few hours in the company of someone you didn’t necessarily know very well. In fairness to Mike we chatted away about all sorts subsequently. Amongst everything else Mike also told me that his partner was a legal secretary (I privately speculated about just how they might have met). He also told me that one of his grandfather’s had been a gamekeeper in the employ of Winston Churchill on his estate at Chartwell in Kent, and Churchill would ask Mike’s grandfather to row him out onto the lake whenever he needed ‘thinking’ time. Mike has certainly inherited his grandfather’s field skills – his photography of nesting birds is exceptional.

As a result of all this interesting chat, it was a good drive, taking what seemed to be no time.

Mike and I didn’t really know what to expect on arrival. He may have been told about the scenes involved by Kris on the previous day, but thankfully I think we were largely oblivious.

It subsequently emerged that the scenes during the evening on the previous day, when the bird had been eventually re-discovered in the ‘Doctor’s Garden’ were right up there with those in the Larkfield, near Maidstone on the Saturday of the Golden-winged Warbler twitch. After having been ringed and processed it was released at the bowling green, where, at first, it was well-behaved and provided the ever increasing number of birders good views. However, it became less cooperative later on, when it frequently departed the bowling green area into the adjacent high walled allotments, and irregularly returned. It then disappeared when a bowling match started. Eventually, it was successfully re-located in the high-walled garden of Dr Reece. There was no access as the doctor was away from home, and enterprising locals provided ladders and vans, etc., to enable birders to see into the garden...... . Incredible.

Fortunately, the next day, soon after we arrived we discovered that there was access to the Doctor’s Garden as he had returned home. We gratefully queued up, and (via the garage I think?) entered and parted with whatever was the suggested fee for the privilege. This allowed us into the back garden where we were easily able to enjoy good views in much better circumstances than the previous day.

Throughout our stay the bird could be watched as it fed unobtrusively in the opposite corner of the large garden. There were just the right number of birders allowed in at any one time and (as the bird was constantly on show and we were in someone’s private garden perhaps) everyone was well behaved.

It was a bit like a Nightingale in size and shape whilst also appearing pot-bellied and long-tailed. When feeding it was invariably on the ground, running and then stopping, often with its tail cocked. Its upper-parts were a largely concolourous brownish grey. The under-parts were paler, off-white in general with the exception of an orange flush on the flanks (like Red-flanked Bluetail) and a greyer upper breast. The chin and under-tail coverts were white. There was a very indistinct supercilium, and the ear coverts were warm brown. There was a faint eye-ring around the dark eye, and the bill and legs were dark. The bill was quite heavy.

Truly excellent!!! And we had twitched it in style, after the chaotic scenes later on the first day. Mike and I certainly had plenty to talk about on the journey home too.

This was the third record for the UK and the first twitchable one. Interestingly, the first was on the Calf of Man on the 22nd June 1983. I had been touted as a potential assistant warden for the Calf of Man by Mike Wareing at the BTO Ringers’ and / or Annual Conferences the previous autumn and winter. I’d had some dialogue with the then Warden, Adrian del Nevo, regarding the same, partly due to my vague Isle of Man connections given my visit there to help John Nuttall with doing some building work before doing some birding in the autumn after graduating university in 1982, and then my visits to see Lilian and Joyce there after John had sadly died. I could have been in on a first for the UK (although Ken is always very dismissive of this record..... ).

White-throated Robin at Hartlepool Headland, Hartlepool, Cleveland, June 2011 (photograph credited to Mark Coates).

Wonderful field sketches of the White-throated Robin at Hartlepool Headland by Stephanie Thorpe.

 Red-winged Blackbird – Garso, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, 10^th May 2017

My less than satisfactory attempting at drawing the Red-winged Blackbird playing hide-and-seek on a drystone wall. The icterid type bill was very noticeable, whether or not captured here.

My first and only tick earlier on during 2017 was the much-attempted (and -needed!) Hudsonian Whimbrel. However, ironically, very soon after I successfully twitched it, it was announced in January 2018 that Hudsonian Whimbrel was to be lumped again with Eurasian Whimbrel; for now, anyway, it was a very short-lived ‘tick’.

I had seen the Hudsonian Whimbrel on the 4th January, whilst on a desperate ‘escape’ twitch away from Chesterfield, where my father had been bed bound for at least a couple of months. As if this wasn’t bad enough, I really struggled with the foreboding presence of my sister Pauline during this time..... .

Hence going for the Hudsonian Whimbrel..... .

Unfortunately, Dad was finally taken into hospital whilst I away. This was for the best; he should have been in hospital weeks earlier.

Consequently, the next four plus months were spent travelling between home and Chesterfield so that I was able to keep visiting Dad in hospital. For much of this time I was also travelling between home and Keith / Huntly as I was working on the SSEN underground cables project between the substations at Keith and Blackhillock. This left little time; I was very rarely living at home, let alone even thinking of doing anything else.

Dad finally succumbed to his illness on Thursday the 20th April, within two hours of me leaving the hospital to drive back to Edinburgh.

The next couple of weeks were all a bit of a blur as Pauline and I arranged the funeral, etc.. This was on Tuesday the 2nd May, and I travelled back to Edinburgh on Wednesday the 3rd May.

Meanwhile, and of little consequence, the bird of the year so far had turned up on Saturday the 29th April. This was a Red-winged Blackbird, (potentially) a first for the Western Palaearctic, so not just any ‘available’ tick.

Given the circumstances (and all the planning and travelling this involved) there was no chance of going for it, and to be frank, I didn’t really give it too much thought.

However, it stuck. Day after day it was still there........ .

Whilst I was working near Keith in Morayshire (and staying in Huntly in Aberdeenshire) I had configured my planned visits to the project to do my agreed 2.5 days a week during early May around about Ellen’s exams, so that I could provide a taxi service between her study leave in Edinburgh and her exams in Aberdeen.

Whilst I was no longer able to take her Ellen back to Aberdeen on Wednesday the 3rd May (as this would have involved driving from Chesterfield to Aberdeen the day after the funeral) I was determined to honour my other commitments to her. Ellen and Tessa had volunteered and arranged to travel to the funeral by train from Aberdeen and Edinburgh respectively on Tuesday the 2nd May, and had then travelled back by train on Wednesday the 3rd May. I also travelled back to Edinburgh that day, before I continued on to Aberdeen the next day so I could bring Ellen back to Edinburgh after her first exam on Thursday the 4th May.

However, the following week the plan was to take Ellen to Aberdeen on Tuesday the 9th May and then back to Edinburgh on Friday the 12th May, and, given all my driving, etc., in the past few weeks and months, stay somewhere in Northern Scotland between times to have some much needed ‘downtime’.

Therefore, as the Red-winged Blackbird stuck and as my planned ‘mini-break’ got closer, a plan slowly emerged. Without wanting to stymie things, I tentatively researched my options for, firstly, getting to North Ronaldsay, and, secondly, staying there for a few days.

The latter option wasn’t possible, but by catching the Northlink ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall, staying over, and then flying from Kirkwall Airport to North Ronaldsay (and vice versa) it was possible to, in effect, day-trip North Ronaldsay, IF the bird stayed.

It was indeed still there on Tuesday the 9th May, and so my outline plan kicked into gear.

I had arranged a meeting with someone at the Nationwide in Corstorphine regarding my Dad’s accounts with the Nationwide on the morning of the 9th May, and so it wasn’t until the afternoon that I arrived at Gillian’s to pick up Ellen.

I had either booked or provisionally booked (or at least researched) all the component parts of my twitch, but everything was all a bit of a confused whirl.

Somewhat belatedly I realised that I had to be at the ferry by 16.30 as it sailed at 17.00 (rather than later as I had naively believed), so Ellen and I travelled up the A90(T) in somewhat fraught circumstances as it was all a bit last minute. She and I made various calls to confirm my bookings, and I tried to make sure I got to Aberdeen in time to get through the rush hour traffic around the harbour and past the city centre in time to park up at Ellen’s halls of residence, sort out my rucksack, etc., and get the taxi Ellen had booked for me back to the harbour before 16.30 hours..... .

Anyway, fraught or not, we made it with some five minutes to spare and so I successfully caught the Northlink ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall...... and breathe.

The crossing was uneventful and, after some initial birding from the huge upper deck, very boring.

Finally, at 23.00, we docked in Kirkwall (actually some way outside) and, once we disembarked, I successfully located the taxi my hotel, in Kirkwall had arranged for me. This quickly dropped me off at The Shore Hotel, where I was greeted and escorted to my room by a lovely receptionist before I sorted my rucksack, etc., prepared for bed, and managed to ignore the continental breakfast tray already in my room.

I was up at 06.15 and prepared and breakfasted before I departed to the nearby bus station to catch a bus to Kirkwall Airport. As I approached, I saw what was quite probably the earlier bus leave.... . I then had a wait before the 07.00 bus arrived.

This quickly and efficiently got me to the airport for 07.15, as I mistakenly believed was required. I disembarked, checking out a sculpture at the entrance to the airport building before entering it, and mistakenly turning towards what was the non-Orkney departures area. A friendly cleaner re-directed me to the inter-island departure area and I strolled over there. As I arrived, I could see the last people boarding a plane on the airport apron outside.

Only then was I informed that this was my flight and advised that I was too late...... . This was confirmed by the person who had been boarding the passengers when he returned to the building. Seemingly, it was him who I had spoken to when I had booked my flight and I had been advised that I needed to be at the airport by 07.00 (as opposed to catch the bus at 07.00). The few minutes’ difference was critical.

‘My’ flight departed. I was stunned. What to do? I asked whether there was a later flight I could get on. There was, but there was only one place left on it. There was no news about the bird as yet on RBA. I ‘phoned the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory and spoke to Alison Duncan who I had previously spoken to. She said that there was no news and wouldn’t be any until later, but took my mobile number to give to Simon Davies so that he could (hopefully!) text me as and when there was any news.

Comforted by the discussion I had with Alison, I then booked the remaining place on the early afternoon flight (which, annoyingly cost a further £36 as my inbound flight had be automatically cancelled by my failure to make the outbound flight..... ). Better news was that I was allowed to leave my rucksack in the Loganair office whilst I went for a much needed walk to clear my head.

Despite having to walk along the main road for quite some way, this was reasonably enjoyable and productive, as I birded a nearby lochan, beach and ‘wooded’ valley (the site of both Red-footed Falcon and Common Nighthawk records) and managed Whooper Swan, male Hen Harrier, Great Skua, Arctic Skua, Rock Dove and Mealy Redpoll, amongst other things.

(Eventually.....) and seemingly uneventfully, I caught the 15 minutes flight to North Ronaldsay. Once there I was greeted at the airfield building by Alison Duncan and then chauffeured in the bird observatory Land Rover to the Red-winged Blackbird site by Simon Davies, the finder of this potential first for the Western Palaearctic!

What service! Simon (a quiet man, who was evidently very bored of taking people to see the bird.......) advised me where to stand and what the bird would do, and then walked off into the nearby marsh, and gradually through the various stands of irises. A one to one organised flush featuring the finder and me!

After a nervous wait, during which I began to suspect it wasn’t going to appear as Simon had almost returned back to the road before it flushed, the bird suddenly appeared and flew over / past me to its favoured gas bottles and old farm machinery refuge.

I quickly had the ‘scope on it and enjoyed good views as Simon rejoined me. He asked me where it had appeared from, as he hadn’t seen it when he flushed it. After a brief while it again flew past / over us and up onto the overhead lines alongside the road. He I again enjoyed good ‘scope views.

It was at this point that I fumbled for my mobile as I thought I might as well take a record shot of it up on the wires.... .

Anyway, suffice to say, I couldn’t find my ‘phone in any of my numerous pockets, and neither was it apparent in the Land Rover. I suspected that I had either left it behind when we were called forward at Kirkwall Airport or somehow had dropped it on the plane as I faffed around with my seat belt.

This put something of a damper on proceedings from then on, as I was worried about whether or not I would ever see my mobile (and perhaps more importantly, my credit cards, etc.) again.

The bird had by now flown off to more distant overhead lines. I was less interested in it now, for this reason, but also because I was somewhat distracted by my missing mobile.

I decided to cut my losses and walk back to the airfield along the coast, in the hope of finding White-billed Divers which Simon advised me could be seen off a headland called Torness. Even this was thwarted by my lack of a mobile, as I had no means of knowing what time it was. This resulted in me getting back to the airfield about 90 minutes early after not spending long enough on a sleeping large diver to determine whether it had a banana for a bill or not...... .

I did though see some fantastic summer-plumaged Snow Buntings as well as good numbers of Purple Sandpiper, and species such as Knot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Great Skua and Wheatear.

So, sadly, there are no photos of a plastic bag caught on the overhead lines (as it would have been!) in lieu of record shots of the Red-winged Blackbird.

I did briefly and tentatively sketch it when it was on the nearby overhead lines.

As ever, unlike when I had seen this species in Texas and California I actually took some notice of its appearance as it was an extreme vagrant..... . The bird was broadly Starling size (and shape and appearance perhaps). It was rather stocky, with rounded wings and a fairly short fan-shaped tail. It had a moderately thick and sharply pointed bill. This, and presumably the pattern of the head plumage, was somewhat reminiscent of allied species such as meadowlark.

It was overall ‘brown and streaky; but in more detail the plumage was complicated and involved a dark crown, a broad, flaring supercilium which was yellowish at the front, a dark eye-stripe, a dark moustachial stripe, a yellowish chin patch, dark, bold streaks down the upper and lower breast and flanks , two obvious whitish wing-bars and chestnut scapulars and mantle.

It had called as it flew over me (a soft, chirruping call).

In summary, I had brief, but very good views, and despite my efforts to make it otherwise, a very enjoyable day. I had indeed managed to leave my mobile behind at the airport, and was, thankfully, I was reunited with mobile on my return. I think my head must still be all over the place so soon after Dad had died...... but as I say, all in all, a very good day.

I mused that I could get to like this ‘ere thing of having my eldest studying at Aberdeen as it was now already twice this has provided the springboard for successful twitches to the Northern Isles. I computed that excepting her year abroad that might mean I could do this several more times in the next few years with, hopefully, a similar success rate...... . I also speculated that maybe if the University of the Highlands and Islands did good art and design degrees that I could get Tessa on to provide a similar springboard for the Western Isles...... ?

Red-winged Blackbird, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, May 2017 (photograph credited to unknown).

Red-winged Blackbird, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, May 2017 (photograph credited to Simon Davies).

Red-winged Blackbird, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, May 2017 (photograph credited to unknown).