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