Western Black-eared Wheatear –Stiffkey, Norfolk, 30th October 1993
Too good to miss says I.
So I travelled from my new job working on the Scotland to Northern Ireland Pipeline Project in Newton Stewart in Galloway to Leigh in Greater Manchester, on Friday the 29th October. Another twitch with Paul Pugh was in the offing.
At 06:00 the following morning we (Paul Pugh, Neil Tasker and I) were on our way to our appointment with a real blocker. After a run-in with a tractor and trailer en route we made it by c.09:30 – good going. The rest was equally easy – we parked up, walked along the shore path and then inland to the pig farm and (after a minor panic as it moved around as we arrived) the bird.
This proceeded to show well, firstly around the field beyond the pig farm, and then secondly, and memorably, around the pig farm itself.
It was a small(ish) wheatear – a pied-type. It was broadly similar in appearance to a female-type Northern Wheatear but was compact looking. Its plumage was pale and it had a orangey flush on the breast, and a wheatear tail pattern which involved a white rump with a narrow black tail band T which extended along the edges of the tail.
We made the most of our trip to North Norfolk by taking in a very confiding Olive-backed Pipit at Holkham Pines, before driving back to Wigan. En route, as we reached the A1, the pager alerted us to a Red-flanked Bluetail at Winspit in Dorset, but that was another story.
Subsequently, this bird become a Western Black-eared Wheatear....... .
So I travelled from my new job working on the Scotland to Northern Ireland Pipeline Project in Newton Stewart in Galloway to Leigh in Greater Manchester, on Friday the 29th October. Another twitch with Paul Pugh was in the offing.
At 06:00 the following morning we (Paul Pugh, Neil Tasker and I) were on our way to our appointment with a real blocker. After a run-in with a tractor and trailer en route we made it by c.09:30 – good going. The rest was equally easy – we parked up, walked along the shore path and then inland to the pig farm and (after a minor panic as it moved around as we arrived) the bird.
This proceeded to show well, firstly around the field beyond the pig farm, and then secondly, and memorably, around the pig farm itself.
It was a small(ish) wheatear – a pied-type. It was broadly similar in appearance to a female-type Northern Wheatear but was compact looking. Its plumage was pale and it had a orangey flush on the breast, and a wheatear tail pattern which involved a white rump with a narrow black tail band T which extended along the edges of the tail.
We made the most of our trip to North Norfolk by taking in a very confiding Olive-backed Pipit at Holkham Pines, before driving back to Wigan. En route, as we reached the A1, the pager alerted us to a Red-flanked Bluetail at Winspit in Dorset, but that was another story.
Subsequently, this bird become a Western Black-eared Wheatear....... .
* In researching this post, I came across a quote by Alan Tate, the rare bird photographer in which he noted, when referring to Black-eared Wheatear, "Until this record, the most notorious of species for never staying for a second day. I once met a birder who had twitched fourteen and not seen one! This popular October bird in Norfolk bucked the trend and stayed nine days, showing very well to a constant stream of admirers”. All the more amazing then, that we unblocked the even more enigmatic Red-flanked Bluetail the following day.
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