Black Scoter – off Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd, 16^th November 2005

Black Scoter, off Llanfairfechan, Gwynedd, November 2005. Follow the huge yellow beak-on! 

My attempt at capturing the joys of looking for rare scoters in amongst flocks of common ones, in poor viewing conditions, involving less than good light, a swell, distant birds which are constantly diving / changing position, etc.. The huge yellow schnozzle certainly helped!!!

In September and October 2005, I had quickly learnt a lot more about Common Scoters in the Irish Sea than I had ever imagined I would. This was as a result of my involvement writing a report on the initial year of post-construction ornithological monitoring for the North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm, off the North Wales coast (the one they always show library footage of), on behalf of ERM Scotland. And on the 15th / 16th September 2005 this work had even involved a (night and) day on the fantastically well-equipped Prince Madog survey vessel during one of the current monitoring surveys visits, during which we sailed from Menai Bridge out to the site off Rhyl and back, seeing small packs of Common Scoter as we did so.

I had idly wondered about the Black Scoter that was frequently reported off Llanfairfechan then, but at this time this was solely that, idle wonderings. After all, it was only the North American subspecies of Common Scoter…… .

However, just under a month later, (but too late!), circumstances changed. On the 14th October 2005 the BOURC announced that it had made the decision to formally treat Black and Common Scoter as two separate species, thus making it far more attractive to twitch the one off Llanfairfechan. This bird was a regularly returning bird, having first been recorded between the 10th March and the 8th May 1999. It was either missed (or not reported) or elsewhere the following winter, but in was reported there, (albeit intermittently) on the 19th, 20th and 28th January 2001 and between the 17th December 2001 and the 8th April 2002, between the 3rd November 2002 and the 28th April 2003, between the 28th September and at least the 31st December 2003, between the 28th October 2004 and the 30th April 2005, and from the 3rd October 2005 onwards....... .

So, it was there, and it was now a full species, a tick in its own right. I just needed to find the excuse to go....... .

As luck would have it, salvation was at hand in the form of a Green Heron, which turned up at Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey on Monday the 7th November, although it had probably been around for at least eight days before it was first reported. This bird was proven to be the same one that had previously (and frustratingly for me, given that I could go to see Eddie Leahy in County Limerick whenever I wanted) been seen at Schull in County Cork, Ireland between the 11th and 13th October 2005.

Now the combination of both Black Scoter and Green Heron were (almost literally) an attraction and a half, and I began to plot how best to arrange a trip to take in both at once.

The most sensible way was to wait a few days and tack the trip onto my planned trip south sometime before Thursday the 17th November when Gary, Chris, Steve and I would be meeting up for our annual lads weekend away, this time in Cologne.

However, this was a high-risk strategy as it would involve a substantial delay before I got there; always twitch early and so on.

Life was complex enough at the time, so I had to be patient and just hope the Green Heron would stick. Certainly, there was every chance of the Black Scoter doing so, as it had been present for the past few winters, but the already highly mobile Green Heron…..?

Anyway, for a variety of reasons I made arrangements with Gillian not to have the girls overnight on Thursday the 17th November, and so once I had dropped them off at school on Wednesday the 16th November, I was a free man until I collected them again on Tuesday the 22nd November.

As such, I packed everything the night before and then once I had dropped the girls off at school, I hurtled along the M8, M74, M6, M56 and A56 to north-west Wales. My original plan was to get to Red Wharf Bay and see the heron and then stay overnight to give myself time to locate the potentially tricky and tidal Black Scoter the following day.

However, the journey went well, and once I was in Lancashire there was a pager message saying that the Black Scoter was showing off the café on the promenade in Llanfairfechan. This caused me problems, as now the temptation was to take this in first, and then go on to the ‘biggy’.

This I then did. By the time I reached Llanfairfechan it was probably around 14:00, and I had to navigate my way to somewhere nearby to park, make sure I was looking in the right place, locate the bird, take it in, and then move on quickly to continue on to Red Wharf Bay to repeat the process.

Recollections beyond the very basic are minimal to say the least. I have vague memories of getting off the A56(T), finding somewhere to park, and then crossing the trunk road to get onto the promenade. Once there, I was well and truly on my own. Fortunately (or not) the stage of the tide cycle and state of the waves were in my favour and once I had set up my ‘scope and had a quick scan I was quickly able to locate the scoter flock(s?) offshore, and easily enough one with a huge amount of yellow-orange on the upper mandible. Little more to say really. Certainly not the best views as quite distant and not the best light, or the longest, as I had a bird to see, but..... .

Seemingly, this bird was about the sixth individual ever to be recorded (difficult to determine exactly because of returning birds). Given the specific status of Black Scoter changed in October 2005 there may have been an increase in interest in the species (and so more effort put into finding and reporting them); having previously looked for them at Lunan Bay in Angus and Dundee, for example, I saw another off Murcar in Aberdeenshire with Stuart Green (possibly after seeing the Sandhill Crane at Strathbeg in 2011?).

Black Scoter, off Llanfairfechan, Gywnedd, photographed during one of its prolonged stays; I saw it in November 2005 (photograph credited to Steve Young).

 Gray-tailed Tattler – Burghead, Moray, 28^th November 1994

So, there I was at Birmingham Airport, on Sunday 27th November 1994, on my way back from the Department of Environment Wildlife Inspectors Annual Seminar in Birmingham, along with several other Scottish-based Wildlife Inspectors, namely, as best I remember, Roger Broad, Roy Dennis, Brian Etheridge, Rick Goater, Alan Heavisides and Eric Meek.

The pager, which had caused ‘interest’ throughout the weekend, proved its’ worth when it announced the presence of a Gray-tailed Tattler at Burghead, in Grampian(!!?!). I, in turn, announced this news to my colleagues, to mixed response, although closet twitchers may well have been amongst my colleagues.... (who included two ex-Fair Isle Bird Observatory wardens and a future Chairman of the British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee and Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust, for example…… )!!

I had no such reservations, and planned my strategy there and then. Once back in South Queensferry I ‘phoned Nick Smith and altered my plans for the whole week. Having freed up Monday, I plotted my approach, and as a result Gilly agonised over whether or not she was going to be ill.

She wasn’t, so I set off alone at 07:30. As I got to Pitlochry the pager armed me with the good news of the birds’ continued presence and so I made a pit stop to ‘phone work to make my excuses, and fuel-up for the rest of the journey.

Then it was on to Speyside and beyond, until finally I reached my destination, successfully navigating into Burghead itself, and then to the appointed spot / stop. Some 20 or so cars were parked up on the green behind the seawall. I assembled my kit, and, typically, as I got ready to join the ‘throng’ it dispersed! However, it was apparent that the bird had moved east along the shore. The shore was backed by a loose rock wall, and was comprised of rock outcrops with pools and expanses of sand in-between. The seawall was separated from the houses and the maltings by a green shore-walk area, which afforded a fine vantage point. Jim Pattinson (?) and others moved along the track in search of the tattler. I asked Jim whether the bird had moved this way, and he indicated it had and that it frequently moved along the shore in this manner. We scanned the waders, and Jim suggested that it had doubled back again.

However, I spotted it close to us. It remained in sight for the duration of my stay, some 50 – 60 minutes. I watched it feeding at less than 30 m range for most of this time in a scene that was – for me – very reminiscent of those involved with the Wandering Tattler at Galveston. At this point I must declare that I had ‘previous’ with tattlers; Mike Thompson and I found the first Wandering Tattler for Texas on St. George’s Day in 1992, just 2½ years earlier.

Anyway, it was a really smart bird – and in my opinion quite distinct from Wandering Tattler.

It had a blackish eye-stripe in front of the eye, with strong supercilium, and a browny-grey crown. Also apparent was a pale grey-brown upper breast and neck, with a paler chin and throat. The bird had darker grey-brown upperparts with dark grey wing tips with faint flecking on coverts. The underparts were white other than a very faintly barred area on the flanks. It had chunky (short) yellow legs, parti-coloured straight medium length pale-yellow and grey bill with long nostril slot, and black eye. Build most similar to Terek(?) Sandpiper or perhaps Green(?) Sandpiper. Overall, it was a very distinctive wader.

An epic twitch. A memorable bird which was well-watched and even car-ticked!

An image of the Gray-tailed Tattler, at Burghead, Moray,  in November 1994  taken by yours truly. It is in there, but let's just agree this is a habitat  shot.

Gray-tailed Tattler, Burghead, Moray, November 1994 (photographer unknown)

Gray-tailed Tattler, Burghead, Moray, November 1994 (photographer unknown)

 Masked Shrike – Innergellie House, Kilrenny, near Anstruther, Fife, 30^th October 2004

So, a bit of context is necessary here.

As was the routine at the time, I originally wrote this account soon after seeing the bird on Saturday the 30th October 2004.

It was an excellent bird and an excellent twitch, and there was a lot to relate. And I had done so, in some detail. And then there was one of those inexplicable word-processing glitches, I somehow completely lost the file. Gone!! Completely vanished from the inner workings of my p.c..

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! All that creative genius, gone!!! Forever...... . I was completely demoralised and became disenchanted with the idea of writing any up such accounts, let alone attempting to re-create what I could never re-create.

And anyway, as has been alluded to in other such accounts from this ‘era’, by now life had got very complicated, and I was struggling to balance everything – work, life 1, life 2, etc.. Something had to go, and certainly one of the things that went was writing up the new species accounts as soon as I could after seeing a new bird.

This remained the case for the next 30 or so ‘ticks’, for ten or eleven years, until my desire for real birding excitement was rekindled by the Isle of May, St. Agnes, Unst, etc., with Ken Shaw, et al..

For instance, when we found the White’s Thrush on Unst I ended up doing a ‘Finder’s in the Field’ account for the Rare Bird Alert website; in effect, this was the same idea, but made even more ‘live’. Even then there were still gaps; although in principle every new bird from Little Bustard at New Year in 1988 (266) to Ovenbird (445) existed in either a hand-written or word-processed form, there were some very significant gaps from Masked Shrike onwards, certainly until White’s Thrush (476) and even beyond in a very few instances.

So, one of the major projects I tasked myself with doing during the COVID-19 lockdown was word-processing (in a standard format) all existing accounts, and filling all the gaps (i.e., writing at least something!) for those species for which there wasn’t any proper write-up. Of the 260 accounts this involved, this, symbolically, was the very last one I tackled..... .

By then I had obviously written all sorts of vacuous nonsense, so I now felt better that I was writing yet more, instead of the highly detailed factual account that once existed (very briefly....).

So here goes. Before the news was released on Saturday the 30th October, Mark Oksien, Alan Lauder and Ken Shaw, plus the original finder Tom Glass (who had first seen it on the 29th, but, unfortunately, he was the only one to see it that day) and various other Fife birders at the scene (and expert birders in Shetland and elsewhere) had agonised long and hard about the identity of the bird. Sure, it wasn’t right for a juvenile or first-winter Woodchat Shrike, but was it right (enough) for a juvenile or first-winter Masked Shrike? That was a big call on a Saturday in October when a potential first for Britain had been found in the East Neuk of Fife (I remember Stuart Green raging, “What the fuck were they playing at – it’s an obvious Masked Shrike?!?!?!?”, down the ‘phone at me at some stage.......!).

Anyway, catching and ringing it was authorised and organised, and once it had been processed the weight of argument was convincing.

It was therefore put out as a presumed Masked Shrike early on the afternoon of Saturday the 30th October.

I had Ellen and Tessa that weekend (I’d only recently returned from a fantastic October half-term raid to the Scillies with Elizabeth, where we had seen Cream-coloured Courser and I had seen Ovenbird). Fortunately, the tap, modern and ballet dance lessons (or were they still so young it was gymnastics?) hell I had to endure on such Saturday mornings had come to an end. I’ve no idea whether we rushed home so I could collect my optics, etc., or whether I’d done so whilst they were doing their lessons, or whether maybe they were already in the car for some reason.

I also have no recollection whether we had to get extra clothing and footwear for them, given they were going bird-watching; I somehow doubt it – I would have adjudged what they already had on would ‘do’.

I’ve no doubt though that I made sure they were catered for before we left, or maybe the news didn’t break until we’d come home and had lunch.

Anyway, once it did, I am very sure they were both bundled into the car for an exciting journey to Kilrenny in Fife. This was an hour long, usually.... . No, I had my very young daughters in the back; I sure I was the exemplary driver.

I, like a very high proportion of the birders throughout mainland Britain, was making my way to Kilrenny (or at least planning to) asap. Being only an hour away, and being able to depart (presumably?) very soon after the news first broke meant that only birders based within an hour or so were ahead of me. As a result, when I arrived in Kilrenny (how had I navigated there beyond knowing it was beyond Anstruther?) it was relatively easy to park, despite Kilrenny being a very small place. There were a good number of birders there, but it was all perfectly manageable. Better, the bird was showing and had been doing so for a good while, meaning that, although more birders were arriving all the time, many of those who were already there were leaving, or at least moving away, chatting and celebrating. I knew many of them, at least by sight; after all, they too were birders based in south-east Scotland and immediately beyond. Better still, immediately adjacent to where the bird was showing was a children’s play-park. How good was that? Ellen and Tessa were promptly pointed in the direction of the play-park, and I was obviously promptly pointed in the direction of the bird.

It truly was the dream scenario for a birder twitching a first for Britain with one daughter who had just turned six, and another who was just four and a half. I subsequently asked Stuart Rivers whether it was Scottish Ornithologist’s Club policy to provide play-parks at all twitches. A jokette that completely bombed, given the audience….. .

I cannot remember too much more about actually seeing the bird other than ‘scoping it at a reasonable but acceptable range across the park as it rested and watched for, and occasionally actively chased and captured, prey from the lower branches of large sycamores, etc..

Seemingly I returned for more on the 14th November (when I saw two parakeets at Denburn Wood.....).

It was a small shrike, with a long narrow tail. It had plumage which was broadly similar to that of a juvenile Woodchat Shrike with a barred crown and back, blackish mask, broken white shoulder patch, white patch at the base of the primaries, black primaries, primary-coverts and alula, and slim black tail with white edges. It had whitish under-parts. It looked cold grey with no warmer tones.

Hurrah!

Masked Shrike at Kilrenny, October 2004 (photograph credited to Tony Davison).