Pallid Swift – Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, 28^th October 1999

Sketch based on sketch drawn soon after seeing the Pallid Swift, at Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, in October 1999.

On Monday the 25th October 1999, I spent the pertinent part of the day waiting for a ‘phone call from Jim Steele regarding going for the Isabelline Shrike at Burnmouth. It never arrived. As a result, there was no trip to Burnmouth and so I missed a good Scottish tick. Much, much worse though was the small matter of the Pallid Swift I apparently also missed when it too briefly turned up at Burnmouth (albeit briefly – as in before it was taken by a Sparrowhawk!).

After this fiasco I was taunted by the presence of several other Pallid Swifts in England and also by the continuation of the stunningly good autumn in the Scillies / south-west of England. I was particularly tantalised by the presence of one (or was it two?) Pallid Swifts at Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire.

An available tick, offering the prospect of a fourth tick in less than three months, in what was for me, and generally, a stupendous autumn, was too much to resist, after a drought of some 22 months without a tick.

I spent much of the week sweating and equivocating about the Flamborough Head bird, which exceptionally, was sticking around – a bit like me!

It was a long way to go, and twitching a swift, especially several days after day one was always going to be a dodgy proposition.

On the night of Tuesday 26th October, after I had walked the BP Grangemouth Natural Gas Pipeline route and then unsuccessfully ‘twitched’ the phalarope spp. at Linlithgow Loch (where I was told more of the Burnmouth Pallid Swift story) I had a ‘phone call from Tommy Charlton. At the time I was in the bath with my one-year old daughter Ellen, and so my ex-, Gillian, had fielded the ‘phone call for me. Apparently, the call was about a weeks’ work in the AMEC offices in Darlington.

My discussions with the two birders at Linlithgow Loch indicated that others had attempted to twitch the Pallid Swift at Flamborough Head from Scotland with mixed success, indeed, apparently some had bottled the Flamborough Head bird and then jammed in on the Burnmouth one. So, it was possible, and now I had the prospect of somehow combining it with this work in Darlington.

However, once again I was thwarted, as I wasn’t able to speak to Tommy himself until the Wednesday evening. When I finally did speak to Tommy, we quickly established that it might be advantageous for me to call into Darlington earlier than the following week!

I made arrangements with Gillian along the basis that if the Pallid Swift was still around on the Thursday morning I would have to go for it, and then stay over somewhere near Darlington so that I could be there early on the Friday morning.

Unfortunately, having packed and prepared in part that night, and completed this task the following morning, there was a noticeable absence of any positive news until 11:00! I was very much on edge until then, with the pager not in silent mode for once, and struggling to do anything useful by way of diversion.

However, in the middle of another ‘phone call to attempt to sort out my dodgy modem, the news I had been waiting for finally came through, at long last! I quickly curtailed that call, and then made one to Gillian, who gave me some friendly grief, before wishing me well.

I left at 11:00, and it proved to take a lot longer than I had anticipated. I was annoyed about the lost three hours or so as it then took me more than three hours to get to the A1(M) at Darlington. From there it didn’t get any quicker due to traffic, traffic works, etc.. I finally was able to thrash the last few miles to Flamborough Head without obstruction and was glad I did!

Throughout much of the journey, there was no news on the pager, or if there was it was one of the very few messages I missed. Once on the A1(M) though there was news and apparently it was c.1 km north of the lighthouse, but as I approached the final destination a message came through indicating that it was now near the fog station. Better still, and no need for a jog along the coast once I got there!

Unfortunately, the car park was pay and display and I had just no small change, but I was far too thrilled at being so close to another tick to be too bothered by this. I assembled my gear, made use of the very conveniently situated conveniences and then walked towards the fog station. Memories of Black Redstart and Snow Bunting on the geology field trip at the very beginning of my time at university in Hull in October 1979!

I could see that there were a few birders were there, and yes, better still, I could see the swift dashing backwards and forwards over them. On how many occasions had I ticked a bird before I got to the twitch itself?!

Anyway, for much of the next hour the bird was generally on view, although often distant, or temporarily lost to view. Soon after I first arrived it flew the closest and lowest it did throughout my stay on several occasions, most memorably back-grounded against an adjacent stretch of cliff-top, against which it appeared incredibly pale. The time of my arrival was fortuitous in other ways in addition to the location from which the bird was showing, and the ranges at which it was showing down to. The sun was already low, and the horizontal light it gave was good enough but not too bright, so plumage details were reasonably easy to see, as the bird wasn’t rendered into silhouette by bright light.

Of the pertinent i.d. features, I was able to see that, in comparison to Common Swift the:

- plumage tone was paler, milkier;

- wing-pattern involved dark outer primaries and leading edge of the underwing contrasting with the rest of the underwing, and similar on the upper-wing, where the greater coverts and the secondaries were paler;

- body colour was darker than the paler underwing, although the darker mantle producing a saddle effect was not too evident;

- feather edgings on the underparts were paler;

- the forehead and throat had a larger pale area, and there was a dark eye mask; and,

- the wing-tips and tail fork were slightly blunter and slightly shallower respectively.

Much of this was very arbitrary, although from the views I had the bird was blatantly not a Common Swift.

I was also able to see both a Fieldfare and Marsh Harrier coming in off the sea during the time I was at Flamborough Head – migration in full swing!

Some years later Graham Clark and I called in at Waterston House at Aberlady on the way back from an unsuccessful twitch for Chimney Swift on Holy Island. Here, whilst we were in the reception area we happened to be in the right place at the right time as Ian Thompson called in to report a swift was flying around over his nearby cottages. This was undoubtedly a Pallid Swift on jizz and flight action, but we just couldn’t get enough on it.

White-winged Scoter – off Murcar Links Golf Course, Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, 30^th June 2016

White-winged Scoter, off Murcar, Aberdeenshire, June 2016, attempting to illustrate the subtleties of i.d., especially when asleep on a lumpy sea!

Having bided my time (given it was found on Saturday the 25th June 2016) I banged in the 'deglandi' (er, that is, saw the (American) White-winged Scoter.....) the following Thursday.

I had bided my time as I had various commitments at the weekend and earlier in the week, but also as I was conveniently working on the Moray Reinforcement Pipeline Project in Aberdeenshire and was travelling there on Wednesday the 29th June, so it had seemed best to wait.

So, as it would have been rude not to, as was commented whilst I was there, I went after work on Thursday the 30th June.

I was increasingly hacked off at work, so I gradually hatched my plan, and left at around about 16:00 hours.

I travelled cross-country, avoiding the rush-hour A96 and A90 / Aberdeen by-pass and reasonably successfully navigating my way to the A90 north of Aberdeen. I struggled to decide whether I needed to take the A90 further north or south towards Aberdeen. Eventually I opted for the latter, and then misguidedly turned off into Blackdog. Here I consulted my mobile and realised I needed to continue further towards Aberdeen to find the Murcar Links Golf Course road. This I successfully did, and once there I parked up and assembled my gear and marched off north along the track through the Murcar golf course, as the RBA App suggested.

All a bit too literally though. I continued north, rather than diverted east as I realised I should have done on the way back. Eventually this track allowed me just to cross (carefully and respectably) one hole of the golf course to the sand-dunes, from where I had a good view out over a further sand-dune ridge, and the nearby North Sea. And lots of distant scoter, etc..

The trouble was, between the sand-dunes I was on, and the next ridge of sand-dunes was an intervening valley with a burn and dense reed-bed to traverse.

I continued north along the dunes, and then clambered down and along the steep eroding face of these dunes to the burn which I eventually crossed close to the point at which it reached the beach. Then I returned south across the beach and then onto and along the seaward sand-dune ridge. Once opposite the huge rafts of scoter I selected a suitable viewing point and erected my tripod and mounted my telescope, and scanned and scanned and scanned.

Initially this produced good views of huge numbers of Common Scoter, plus a range of other ducks, etc.. Eventually, as I got my eye in, and realised that the Velvet Scoter were mainly in small groups which tended to be further out. It was very hard work given the huge numbers of scoters Murcar in June / July involves and the range the flocks were at, and the sea state. And a jogger running along the beach helped not, as he flushed large numbers of birds, including many of the scoters........ .

I tried very hard but failed. I had seen no one (apart from golfers) nearby so as I contemplated what to do and opted to move further south along the sand-dunes and view from there (or leave!) I was somewhat surprised to find an update suggested the object of my quest was ‘still there’ at 18:00. Eh?

I was flummoxed. It was now c.19:00 and I had been there for at least an hour (and much more perhaps) and had seen no one.

I made my way south along the dune ridge and in doing so suddenly happened upon (to use a quaint expression) a couple, familiar from Fair Isle, who were grilling the flock from a point some few hundred metres south of where I had been.

What’s more, they had it, or at least, had had it.... .

But the fact that they had had it was fantastic news, which gave me renewed optimism.

Could he / we re-locate it? We gave it a good go, but struggled, and struggled really badly in my case. However, with commendable persistence he re-located it, and then managed to get me onto it. This was some achievement in both regards, and by me as well as him (though massive respect to him for his efforts!).

I slowly got my eye in on the bird in question, and once I had done it became somewhat easier to (lose and) re-locate the bird. Very often it was resting ‘with its head under its wing’ which made it all the harder to identify. Well, that is, until I realised that even when it was ‘at rest’ the exposed white wing patch was way more pronounced than it was on the few Velvet Scoters adopting the same pose.

So despite the birds’ un-cooperative behaviour (it was sleeping a lot of the time), etc., it was very rewarding eventually seeing the bird, and then, when the couple left, having it to myself and keeping on it, and then, finally, getting someone else who arrived later on it.

In addition to the highly distinctive wing flash when at rest, and despite the rolling sea and thronging mass of scoters, the views I obtained were good enough to see the pinky bill hues, the appropriately-shaped bill bump, the extensive white ‘lick’ back from the eye and nicely contrasting brown flanks, all of which enabled a useful (and reassuring) comparison with Velvet Scoter.

So ultimately, I was very happy, after a less than happy day at work.

And all the more so once I was back at my guest house in Huntly. Here I researched the status of White-winged Scoter. I belatedly realised that it now had full species status and that I had just had another tick!!!!

Subsequently, further audiences with White-winged Scoters in Shetland and Fife followed as birders got to grips with the i.d. of the split species (i.e., both White-winged and Stejneger’s).

White-winged Scoter, off Murcar, Aberdeenshire, June 2016 (photograph credited to Kris Gibb).

Lesser Grey Shrike – Great Wakering, Essex, 22^nd August 1989

What’s this???? Minshull twitches a Lesser and is successful? Yes thanks, although it would have been far better without the military intervention.

Sunday the 27th August 1989 saw me on another twitch from St. Albans with Mike Thompson and Pete Ewer. This involved us travelling out into the wilds of the Essex marshes beyond Southend-on-Sea and Great Wakering. Here a Lesser Grey Shrike had been for the past ten days. The only problem was that it was extremely distant, in a location bordering a military danger zone.
After winning a spot the dot competition dissatisfaction with the view lead to persistence beyond the call of duty.

We encircled the birds’ position and eventually it surrendered to one of the scouts. Despite the range good views were achieved, allowing the diagnostic features of the plumage to be ‘scoped, including the wrap around black mask, wide white secondary flash, pink flush(?) on the breast, etc..

Not the best of views of what was still evidently a stunning bird.

This was rectified in September 1994 when my ex- Gillian and I got very good views of one at Elie in Fife.

Two less than prize-winning images of my second Lesser Grey Shrike near Elie, Fife in September 1994.

 Oriental Pratincole – Gimingham, Norfolk, 22^nd May 1993

A well-watched bird, well-watched....... .

I had been determined to avoid a potential bad miss, so I had driven from South Queensferry to Leigh after finishing work on the Forties Crude Export Expansion Project in Dalmeny on the afternoon of Friday the 21st May 1993. I’d arranged a lift from Leigh to Gimingham in Norfolk with Paul Pugh, et al., for the next day. By this time the bird had been around for a week....... .

Having departed work in my little AMEC works van at 14:40, I made surprisingly good progress and arrived in Leigh at 18:40. Here I was informed by Janine that Paul wasn’t going.... .

Less than helpful. I could have driven for four or more hours south on the A1 instead, and I was just in my noisy little Ford Escort van. Annoyed more than somewhat, I continued on, and on, via Dad’s in Chesterfield and through the night to Cromer in Norfolk and a chicken kebab. Then I continued on to Gimingham, where, after looking for the venue in the dark, I opted to park in a lane near the hospital. It was now 00:20 on the very early morning of the 22nd May. Whether I slept much is not recalled, but four hours later I was up and soon afterwards I was at the scene, as evidenced by some 15 or so cars and 20 or 30 birders in a field.

The bird was already showing in the nearby potato field, but as I was looking into the light and looking much further away than the bird actually was, I struggled at first. It was standing on a ridge in the potato field, standing somewhat static in the dawn light, giving good views but it was not exactly dynamic, apart from a few sudden flurries of activity as it shuffled its plumage.

A move by some of the watching gallery of birders produced excellent views. Slowly more birders arrived and slowly the bird became more and more animate, and I obtained better and better views of a storming bird. As the bird made its most distant foray over the field directly opposite the ‘car-park’ the gallery surged. Thus, when it returned to the potato field, I was in pole position. At this point Mike Thompson arrived but he was too embarrassed to stand with me as this would have involved standing in front of the birders behind me.

It had taken me five hours to get decent views in flight. Mike arrived and saw it well on the ground for five minutes, and then it, playing its audience to the optimum, decided to fly up and over the gallery, to perform over the horse paddock. Fantastic. It was my preference to think of it being from the Dutch East Indies rather than being Dutch. A class act.

After enjoying the circus, I retreated for a well-earned breakfast.

So, after Collared Pratincole in Turkey, much better views of an obvious pratincole (by far the rarest, but my first).

In flight it had slow, deliberate wing-beats, like a tern display flight. It had coppery brown under-wing coverts, and a mid-brown upper-wing with darker primaries and secondaries. There was no pale trailing edge to the wing. It had a short black forked tail, and white rump and under-tail coverts and belly.

It had mid-brown upper-parts and lighter redder mid-brown under-parts. It also had a black face mask and surround to the buff-white throat part. The bill was black with a bright red base to the lower mandible. The legs were also black. The eye was black with a white lower eyelid.

I saw it again some weeks later when it had taken up residence near Burnham Norton, and I was visiting North Norfolk and staying with the Mostyn’s with my ex-, Gilly, Gary and Debbie Hitchen and Mike, and Susie Pearson.

Oriental Pratincole at Gimingham, Norfolk, May 1993(photograph credited to unknown).

Oriental Pratincole at Gimingham, Norfolk, May 1993(photograph credited to Rob Wilson).

Western Swamphen – Alkborough Flats Nature Reserve, near Alkborough, Lincolnshire, 10^th September 2016

Having ‘dipped’ the (same) bird at Minsmere RSPB Reserve in Suffolk (or at least failed to find the opportunity to go before it did on Saturday the 6th August 2016!) I was massively consoled when it was relocated some 140 miles to the north-west (if it flew like a crow.....) at Alkborough Flats Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire on Tuesday the 30th August 2016.

Just where it originally came from and what it was doing between the 6th and the 30th August didn’t particularly exercise me. What did exercise me was just how I was going to work in seeing it in amongst everything else. For example, I was in deepest Aberdeenshire when the news broke and remained there until returning to Edinburgh late the next night.

I was bogged down with work on the Moray Reinforcement Pipeline Project in Aberdeenshire and also the second Castle Stuart Golf Course Project in Highland until Tuesday the 6th September or so. However, simultaneously, I was ‘phoned by best mate Gary on Monday the 5th September offering me use of his season ticket for the Burnley v. Hull City game on Saturday the 10th September.

A scheme of things then began to emerge involve seeing the bird (or at least attempting to!) and seeing the Burnley v. Hull City game in a combined mission.

I was though, constrained by my commitment to take Tessa to gymnastics after school on Friday the 9th September. This meant I wouldn’t be able to leave until c.14:00 on the Friday; it certainly wouldn’t be a birthday tick, although it could still be a belated one....... .

I e-mailed Ken on Tuesday the 6th September, making a tentative suggestion of going for the swamp monster with him on the Friday.

This scheme of things came to fruition, so that having dropped Tessa off in Linlithgow before 14:00 we journeyed through indifferent weather (rain on the M74 and then it nearly went dark an hour or so before we got there whilst we were on the AI(M)!) via the M8, M74, M6, A66, A1(M), M62, M180 and M181 (eh?) to Scunthorpe and then local roads around Scunthorpe and beyond to Alkborough.

But where to go ........?

Under the duress of impending darkness, clarity of thought wasn’t foremost, and we were befuddled by the ‘directions’. Initially, we humm’ed and harr’ed about just which of the signposted car-parks in and around Alkborough to use. We selected the right one but hurried from there down off the escarpment towards the reserve below for no particular reason. Here we met a birder coming back from the reserve who suggested that the only other birders around were the local boys we had chatted to who were walking out to the hide from the car-park accessible from within Alkborough itself. We stormed back up the escarpment and jumped back in the car and returned back into the village and down the escarpment to the other car-park.

From here we yomped to the hide with the expectation that it would be on view from there.... .

It wasn’t, and worse, the hide was occupied by a couple of ‘know very little’s’ and a couple who had the good sense to leave.... .

We stayed longer than was necessary in the forlorn hope of it suddenly appearing, but there was no chance (all the more so when we got to grips with its whereabouts the following morning).

But I am getting ahead of myself.

We returned to the car and travelled back into Scunthorpe where we eventually found somewhere suitable to eat, drink and be snorey. Not easy in somewhere like Scunthorpe.

Better, the place (a half decent hotel) did breakfast from 06.30.

We were there for said breakfast soon after that time, which meant we were back at the original car-park relatively early that morning. Two or more cars gave hope. As did a group of three birders making their way south along the top of the ridge as I now believed we should have done.

Better still, when we followed, we met two birders coming back from the same direction, one of whom provided Ken with confirmation that it was showing, and detailed directions as to the location from which it could be viewed.

We made our way along the field edge and then down the bank onto the parallel track, and then through a gap in the hedge to the west and along a footpath to a point above some horse paddocks. Here we caught up with the three birders and joined them scanning the distant pools.

Or rather, one pool in particular. Initially, I struggled to work out which pools we were meant to be looking at, but once I got properly set up, I joined Ken and the others scanning one particular edge of the pool in question. I quickly grew bored of scanning this one area, in which the monster was meant to be lurking / emerging.

I began to scan further afield, along the back edge of the same pool. Almost immediately I began to do so, a distant apparition appeared which I (slowly?) realised was it. “I think I’ve got it”, and then, “I’ve got it”, I heard myself saying. I indeed had, but how to get Ken and the others on it? An Avocet standing alone in the middle of the pool made a useful reference point and reasonably quickly everyone else got on it relative to this.

It continued to show, on and off, as it worked its way along the edge of the reed-bed for the rest of the time Ken and I afforded it.

At times it was difficult to locate due to the distances involved, and the light conditions, and the fact that it was often either against, or within, the edge of the reed-bed.

But when it was on view it was bleeding obvious (at least with the ‘scope zoomed up to 60x).

Indeed, it was massive and purple (actually blue) - fnarr fnarr.

No, it was indeed huge. And given the range involved, this was just as well (indeed, given the light conditions the previous evening, I think we may have struggled to see it even if we had been looking from the right place).

As suggested though, when it walked along / away from the edge of the reed-bed it was reasonably obvious, if only due to its size. It wandered alongside the reed-bed skulking in the edge and / or actively searching for and finding food (including, at one stage, what appeared to be a small fish, which it held in its foot).

It was large (the size of a chicken!), and could be of variable shape, depending on whether it was standing erect or reaching forward foraging, etc.. The legs were stilt-like but the neck could also be attenuated.

It had a large pinky-red bill and plate, long (very long) pinky-red legs and big feet and dark eyes (okay, we couldn’t really see this).

Its plumage was various shades of dark blue, constantly changing with the light, and otherwise it had brilliant white under-tail coverts which flashed as it regularly flicked its tail as it walked.

And then it was over to the BOURC....... (who did make the right decision).

Afterwards Ken and I journeyed from Alkborough to Burnley. We did this via Hardcastle Crags, Walshaw Dean, Gorple, Widdop, etc., as I indulged myself showing Ken around my teenage stomping grounds. We made it to Burnley in plenty of time and I duly went to the football match, and Ken suffered more, watching the game in the Talbot Arms. It ended 1.1 with Hull City equalising in the 96 minute.

But I’d seen the swamp thing.

Western Swamphen at Alkborough Flats Nature Reserve, near Alkborough, Lincolnshire, September 2016 (a still captured from a YouTube clip credited to Steve Clifton).

A further notebook type sketch of Western Swamphen. This also commemorates my finest ever moment speaking 'pidgin French'. Towards the end of  three plus weeks travelling alone whilst birding in Morocco in December 1991-January 1992 I visited the marshes of Oued Loukos, near Larache, hopeful of seeing Purple Swampthing for the first time.

Here I asked two young children tending their goats, "Où est l'oiseau avec le grand bec rouge," and they immediately responded,"Ici," pointing out at the nearby marshes! 

Clearly, even from a young age, Morroccans are very good linguists, and I am not.

 

Parrot Crossbill – Holme Norfolk Ornithologists’ Trust Reserve, Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, 21^st October 1990

Brutalist sketch of a hulking brute. male Pine Crossbill.

Pete Ewer, having missed the Pied Wheatear at Newhaven in Sussex, was keen to see the one at Holme, Norfolk, and so despite having driven from beyond Penzance to St. Albans the previous day, off we went from St. Albans to Holme-next-the-Sea, or, more specifically the Norfolk Ornithologists’ Trust reserve at Holme.

On arrival we were hugely entertained by an eastern race Crossbill, huge being the operative word. We then moved on to the female Pied Wheatear which, once located, was also good value.

However, I suddenly became very much disinterested as news reached us of Parrot Crossbills in the plantation (whereas Pete, having seen the famous birds in the car-park at Well-next-the-Sea, was still more interested in the Pied Wheatear). Hurrying there, I was quickly able to locate the birds. After a crossbill autumn this was very instructive. Most diagnostic was the huge bill and head. Cumbersome birds clambering clumsily through the pines....... .

..... which also applied to birds seen in the plantation at Setter Hill Estate, Baltasound, Unst in October 2017.

The 'eastern race' Crossbill. Stonking. Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, October 1990 (photograph credited to Peter Ewer).

Stonking x 2. Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, October 1990 (photograph credited to Peter Ewer).

Male Pine Crossbill. Stonking x 2. Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, October 1990 (photograph credited to unknown).

 Spectacled Warbler – Filey, North Yorkshire, 27^th May 1992

After the news broke on Sunday the 24th May 1992, I endured a non-twitching (non-) Monday Bank Holiday the 25th May. This was a lazy, misty non-event due to indecision and inconsiderate disappearances / reappearances of what, we were assured, was an authenticated first for the British / Irish List.

However, eventually I managed to work a situation which allowed me the tick. Circumstances prevented me going for it on the Bank Holiday, as suggested, when I wasn’t at work, and again did so on Tuesday the 26th May, when I was, but on Wednesday the 27th May, when I was – but wasn’t.... I finally twitched it. Successfully.

Having confirmed that it was still there I embarked on what proved to be a five hour drive to Filey. However, this was eased by Radio 5 and good navigation all the way to the scene.

Once there it was as simple as through the hedges, along another to a gap and then literally, there it was, very deliberately working its way along the same hedge, giving frequent views good enough to ‘scope, even though it was only c.15 m away. Whilst I was there it worked the quite thick hawthorn hedge slowly, generally moving right, and in so doing providing excellent views.

Then I just had to drive back to be at work the next day..... .

It was a diminutive Whitethroat / Lesser Whitethroat cross. It had a dark mask, a bright yellow-orange eye ring, and russet secondaries / primaries.

Wow!!! My first ‘first for’ since the Ancient Murrelet!

Spectacled Warbler, Filey, North Yorkshire, May 1992 (photograph credited to unknown).