Alpine Swift – The Verne, Portland, Dorset, 1^st April 1988

My attempt at capturing the Alpine Swift hawking the cliff tops at The Verne, Portland, Dorset, in April 1988, based on a drawing made soon afterwards.

Thank fuck for that!! After a dawn vigil at Peveril Point, and another attempt at midday there and at Durlston Head the previous day (for what proved to be two and one – different – birds), Paul Pugh and I finally caught up with this gem!! At this time Paul would regularly travel all the way from Wigan to Wareham by train to have a few days birding with me. This was one such occasion.

At first it was very elusive and then only viewable in the distance. However, even then it was evidently large with flashes of white. Eventually though, after terrorising and tearing around much of north-east Portland it was intensively watched as it hawked backwards and forwards along the cliff-top in front of us and over our heads (at a location we had already visited......). This was at a location at The Verne on Portland, overlooked by the imposing Victorian prison.

As we stood watching the bird with our backs to the prison the delightful inmates in various of the cells on the upper floors hoyed anything they could lay their hands on down at us...... . And all the time they did this Martin Cade (then in his pre-Portland Bill Bird Observatory warden days) stood about 10 or 15 m in front of us, watching us (as opposed to watching the swift) and just looking ultra-cool in his red Kicker boots and brightly coloured jumper. Well, he’d probably seen a good few Alpine Swifts at Portland previously and we were probably even more entertaining........ . Or just maybe (and if so I was oblivious at the time) he was watching us just in case a flying mug came too close to one of us whilst we were concentrating on the bird..... .

The bird.......? Well, it was very fast in flight and like a massive Swift / Sand Martin hybrid; Swift shape, Sand Martin plumage.

Many years later, in 2017, I saw one on a similar date (actually a few days earlier) at Baron’s Haugh Nature Reserve in North Lanarkshire. And in-between times I had seen breeding Alpine Swifts in Cappadocia, Turkey (including the bizarre apparent ‘farming’ of young birds by using purpose built lockable nest-boxes) but that’s another story..... . 

Oh, and later that same day Paul and I dashed off to deepest West Sussex to see a Little Bittern, but that is quite literally a different story, which was posted on this cure for insomnia last but one.

Alpine Swift, The Verne, Portland, Dorset, April 1988 (photograph credited to unknown).

 Snowy Owl – flanks of Shore Hill, Unst, Shetland, 28^th May 1990

Oh, that they were all so easy! Within five minutes of driving off the Gutcher to Belmont ferry between Yell and Unst, we were scrutinising a tea-cosy on the hillside, which I had seen as we drove north – in a way reminiscent of the Capercaillie – through my lucky window in the passenger door of Dave McAleavy’s car. On grilling, the tea cosy turned into a Snowy Owl. Wonderful! Huge size (it was a female)!

Not a lot more to add really, Dave’s contemporary photographs do convey at least something of what we saw. 

I will though add, that when, within the next couple of days, Dave and I were outside the Sumburgh Hotel, I had the rather perverse pleasure of advising Bobby Tulloch (who was there with a bird tour group) of just where he and his group could see one of ‘his’ Snowy Owls! (By way of context, as we are talking of events in the late 1960s(!), Bobby Tulloch was very much the man associated with the Snowy Owls which successfully bred on Fetlar, of which this bird was a last remnant. As I was to learn many years later, besides being Mr Snowy Owl, Bobby was also colloquially known as 'Tubby Bollock' 😅).

In typical fashion, within eight months of ‘twitching’ the Shetland Snowy Owl during my pilgrimage to the far north, one turned up in England, touring the east coast from early 1991 onwards.

This gave all and sundry the chance to get it on their lists, causing me to curse everyone else catching up with this tick so soon after I had trailed all the way to Unst.

Nonetheless, I saw it twice, having to be content with its value on various non-existent year / country / county lists.

On the first occasion, it was near Friskney / Wainfleet All Saints in Lincolnshire where Gary and I ‘twitched’ it en route to Lincoln City versus Burnley on the 19th  January 1991. It was resting in a ploughed field where it was visible after a yomp along the flood embankment protecting arable farmland to the north-west of The Wash from being reclaimed by the sea. As a result of the colour of the local soil, the bird was discoloured and was vaguely pink.... . Having seen it, Gary and I realised that we were potentially going to be late for our intended visit to Sincil Bank, and so we started jogging back to the car along the flood embankment. We were asked by birders if we were running for something else. Naturally we replied, “Yes. Lincoln City v. Burnley,” which caused some confusion...... .

On the second occasion, it was at Burnham Market in Norfolk to where Pete, Mike and I travelled to see it on the 24th March 1991. Much more recently, there has been other opportunities to see Snowy Owls in Shetland when I have been there in autumn, but I haven't taken the opportunity. 

Dave McAleavy's contemporary photographs (I'll admit I don't remember flushing it!).

Snowy Owl, Unst, Shetland 1990 (photograph credited to Tim Loseby)

 Little Bittern – Oreham Common, Henfield, West Sussex, 1^st April 1988

Not sure I have, but with this sketch I was keen to try to capture the 'Grumpy Humpty Dumpty' appearance of the Oreham Common Little Bittern. It looked less than impressed with life.

This was an exceedingly silly example of twitching, fittingly occurring on April Fool's Day. Having seen the Alpine Swift at The Verne, Portland (which had involved driving from Swanage to Portland) Paul Pugh and I then dashed for two hours across Southern England from Portland to Oreham Common, near Henfield (remember visiting Sally Holmes there?). I had a good hire car at this juncture which helped but...... .

Once there, we were parked near a pond adjacent to a minor road where there were some 30 birders grilling ‘it’ at ranges of some 30m. Talk about a budgie in a cage!!!!

Apparently the bird had been rescued exhausted on the beach in Hove, and after being rehabilitated it had been released at the pond, which was part of the nature reserve near the headquarters of the Sussex Wildlife Trust.

Consequently, I was very worried until it moved, but when it did it became a star bird as it began hunting. It stalked about amongst the pond-side vegetation very deliberately, and eventually caught a Smooth Newt, which was seemingly fooled by its body-swerve. After turning it around, it swallowed it and promptly stalked off into the cover.

It was an avian Humpty-Dumpty; it was always egg-shaped due to its hunched shoulders and wings obscuring the tail. The plumage involved a brilliant striking contrast between the black crown, nape, back and wing tips and the rest of the plumage which was a pale peach-brown. The eye was yellow and there was a yellow eye-ring. It had a typical heron type bill which had a yellow base and pink lower and upper mandibles which were black tipped. The legs were yellow-green and chunky.

The Oreham Common pond, plus the Little Bittern. If you have a magnifying glass to hand.

The Oreham Common Little Bittern twitch. Some familiar faces. Flusher Pugh down at the very front.

Little Bittern, Oreham Common, Henfield, West Sussex, April 1988 (photograph credited to unknown).