Gull-billed Tern – Penclacwydd Wildfowl and Wetlands Reserve, near Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, 19^th July 1996

Patience pays off. Having previously bemoaned my luck being in Central Scotland when this potential tick had reappeared in South Wales for the second weekend running, I scored the following Friday. It was my ex’s Gilly long weekend, so I too left work in mid afternoon on the Thursday, to meet up with Gilly and travel to my mother’s in Burnley / her parents in Accrington, taking in the Spanish Sparrow on the edge of the Lake District on the way (if only it was that easy on the previous Sunday!). As we got to Lancashire, a message on the pager informed me that Phil from Bolton was offering a lift. I ‘phoned him from Gilly’s parents, and after he had given me copious amounts of directions, he then suggested a 02:00 departure. I was knackered anyway as it was so, belatedly I declined the offer!

Consequently, I was faced with another solo twitch as Gilly in turn declined my offer. I set the alarm, not knowing what time I wanted to get up at, but, as it was, I awoke anyway at 04:45 and so was away by 05:15. With minor delays in the vicinities of the Birmingham and Cardiff conurbations I made good progress into deepest South Wales. The pager had told me that the bird was still present, on the estuary from the Copperhouse roundabout, but then at 09:06, as I approached Llanelli, the news was updated to say that the bird had left there and flown towards the Penclacwydd Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve. I was therefore able to drive straight there, following the brown ‘constipated duck’ signs. The only trouble was that it wasn’t open until after 09:30. However, just when I was thinking it might have disappeared again by this time, at 09:16, as I got closer, a further message told me that the reserve was now open.

Once there I assembled my gear, and on reaching the entrance was greeted by a very enthusiastic staff member. I paid my (reduced) entrance fee, and was then escorted to the British Steel Hide. From here views across the saltmarsh and pools were possible. Roosting alongside the pools were flocks of Black-headed Gulls, amongst which was the Gull-billed Tern.

I took it in well, as at first it was roosting (looking almost moribund and so easy to draw), but later becoming more active. It flew around circling and wheeling over the saltmarsh, and showing well, at one stage mobbing a Grey Heron with an eel. It continued this pattern of resting and then flying around throughout my stay. 

The atmosphere in the hide was comparatively relaxed due to the ease of seeing this otherwise difficult bird. At one stage it was noted by the assembled crowd in the hide, including Lee Evans, to be really struggling to scratch itself with its right foot. It became apparent that its left leg was gammy as it badly hobbled each time it attempted to stand on its left leg. I said something like, “I wonder how long it will take it to work out that if it swims it will be able to scratch its head whilst it floats,” at which point someone suggested, rather bizarrely, that I must have been a Gull-billed Tern in a past life!?*?

It was excellent to get such good views of an otherwise difficult bird. Its overall appearance was similar, obviously, to Sandwich Tern, with the same basic plumage pattern of light grey upperparts and white underparts, and a black cap. However, the build was heavier, and it was longer legged. The legs were black, as was the bill which was a sturdy dagger shape. The black cap was more like Common Tern in size and shape. Whilst resting, the tail streamers were observed to be just longer than the wing tips, although it was not noted whether this was the case when the bird standing. In flight, the upperwing showed a definite primary wedge on the outer primaries, which was also observed on the underwing. The tail was only slightly forked, perhaps as it was in moult.

An excellent bird, leaving me very grateful that finally one had stayed around!

A general view from the hide at Penclacwydd WWT Reserve.

Gull-billed Tern at Penclacwydd WWT Reserve, Llanelli. Carmathenshire, July 1996 (photograph credited to George Reszeter).

White-tailed Lapwing – Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Reserve, Caerlaverock, Dumfries and Galloway, 6^th June 2007

At 10:32 on the morning of Wednesday the 6th June I was travelling south on the M74 to Elizabeth’s in Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire. (Warwickshire, where the only previous twitchable White-tailed Plover (as it was in old currency) had been, in 1975; I could have seen it if only I’d starting twitching 18 years before I did!).

I was just passing Ecclefechan when I received a text from my erstwhile mate Stuart Green saying, “There’s a White-tailed Plover at Caerlaverock. Not a wind up”. Driving or not, I immediately ‘phoned Stuart (who was seemingly doing a vantage point survey on a hill somewhere in Ayrshire) for confirmation. However, concurrently, (i.e., also timed at 10:32) I also received a message on my pager telling me the same thing. Stuart informed me that he too was on his way; he was abandoning his survey to twitch Caerlaverock from deepest Ayrshire.

Anyway, suitably motivated, I, er, ‘put my foot down’, and hammered to Caerlaverock. Now, as it turns out, there was a quicker cross-country route from Ecclefechan to Caerlaverock but as I was already on the M74 I continued on to the A75(T) and then west to Dumfries.

Anyway, less than 40 minutes after the news broke I arrived at Caerlaverock, probably amongst the very first person to arrive. It was 11:10.

Having parked up, and gathered my gear. As I did so, another birder arrived and I excitedly asked him if he was here to see the plover. I had misjudged him as he proved to be something of a novice, who, unsurprisingly was oblivious of any such news.

Anyway, I rushed quickly to reception and paid in. I cannot remember whether I received any guidance as to where the bird was at reception (or whether I knew this from the pager messages), but I rushed to Hide 8.

On arrival, rather than a hide full of celebrating twitchers, all eager to get me on the bird, it turned out to be just me and the novice I had met earlier in the car-park!

A what now? Said novice in an otherwise empty hide looking for a complete crip he'd never heard of.

Anyway, thankfully, I was, without too much trouble, able to relocate the bird, such that at 11:39 (less than an hour after first getting the news) I ‘phoned an update to good old Angus ‘Timothy’ Murray at Birdline Scotland.

I enjoyed the bird, and particularly enjoyed virtually having it to myself but obviously other then gradually began to arrive, including Mark Hannay, my land-owner friend from Gatehouse-of-Fleet in Galloway, who I had alerted.

He and I then we went to the Tower Hide, where views were much better (as it was elevated and the bird wasn’t as obscured) but more distant, and by then disrupted by the crowded hordes.

Eventually, because of this, I decided it was time to cut my losses and continue my journey south, having very fortuitously been in the right place at the right time to bang in an amazing bird en route. It was a fourth for Britain (and so supremely rare, certainly at the time!). It wasn’t always like that!

What can I say? Sex on legs! It was an adult, and had mainly buffy light brown upper-parts and under-parts, although the plain face, cheeks and throat and lower breast and under-tail coverts were white. The striking black and white ‘lapwing’ wing pattern was largely hidden at rest (although black and white bands could be seen along the closed wing). It had a longish Lapwing-type black bill, and extra-ordinarily long bright yellow legs. In flight in had solid black wing tips, and broad white mid-wing band and a white rump and tail, beyond which (unsurprisingly!) the long yellow legs trailed.

Stuart never did make it. He ploughed into the back on a car turning right on the notorious A75(T). Fortunately, everyone was alright, but this twitching thing...!

White-tailed Lapwing at Caerlaverock WWT Reserve, Caerlaverock, Dumfries and Galloway, June 2007 (photograph credited to Paul Bowyer).

White-tailed Lapwing at Caerlaverock WWT Reserve, Caerlaverock, Dumfries and Galloway, June 2007 (photograph credited to Paul Bowyer).

 Pallid Harrier – Elmley RSPB Reserve, Isle of Sheppey, Kent, 15^th August 2002

My sketch drawing of the Pallid Harrier, attempting and failing to 'capture' the views involved, which were distant, and in soft, evening light and through a blizzard of thistle down. Somewhat of a challenge for my artistic 'ability'.

On Saturday the 10^th August 2002 news of a seemingly good Slender-billed Curlew (*%@****!) again in Northumberland was accompanied with more than a mild flurry of anticipation. This flurry disappeared almost straight away only to be replaced by the desperation of a bloody good bird down south with no prospect of getting there – a Pallid Harrier at Elmley, Kent. I suffered in relative silence, biding my time….. .

Once back at work in Hammersmith, London, I spoke to my St. Albans based mates; Pete Ewer had seen it on the Sunday having driven to Elmley from Cley and Mike Thompson had reverted to his ‘seen it elsewhere in the W. Palaearctic / World mode’ and wasn't interested, having just come back from Ecuador and the Galapagos.

I briefly thought about a train journey or something, but decided that I was too busy at work and what the hell.

However, I remembered that Graham Clark was driving down from Edinburgh to stop over at his Mum's in Rickmansworth before leading his next Limosa trip, to Rumania – including three days on a barge in the Danube delta after all the floods in Central Europe!!!!. We had planned to meet up anyway for a pint on the Thursday night in St. Albans, possibly after visiting Tring Reservoirs…..

When I contacted Graham early in the week, he said he would be up for the harrier if it was still around on Thursday.... .

How pissed off was I when it was reported as flying off high to the north-west on Wednesday and then not reported again! Graham and I resigned ourselves to Plan A.

So when the news of its ‘reappearance’ came on the pager on the Thursday early pm I was an extremely happy man. With some difficulty I managed to contact Graham, who was on a map buying expedition to Stanfords in Central London and didn't know about its reappearance as the message was paged when he was on the Underground. As a result, it wasn’t until I got to my flat in St. Albans that I was finally able to speak to him, although I had been able to leave messages with his Mum and on his mobile. I had left work early for an ‘interview’, and got to my flat by 15:30; in the meanwhile, the battery of my mobile had packed up, so until I managed to speak to Graham things had been quite fraught for me – would my gamble pay off?

Indeed, his mother was quite dismissive of the concept I explained, on the understandable basis that Graham had driven down to Rickmansworth the previous day and was getting up at 04:30 the following morning to be at Heathrow earlier than his clients. I had some faith, and so it proved when I finally managed to speak to Graham once back at my flat. He was up for it!

There was a slight catch in that having returned from London Graham still had some chores to do, including sending off his pager to RBA for a ‘brain operation’ whilst he was away in Rumania.

However, I occupied myself with some DIY, and having done this and got ready for a mad twitch, Graham eventually arrived at 17:00 and shortly afterwards we were tonking along the rush hour M25 and M20 and M2. There were some minor delays due to a thunder shower, but otherwise Grahams’ passion got us there very quickly, getting to Elmley at 18:30 – St. Albans to Elmley RSPB Reserve in less than 90 minutes! Meanwhile, there was some news in the affirmative to spur us on during the journey. Graham had never previously had the pleasure of Sheppey so I was able to prepare him and also reminisce about my earlier visits there.

On arrival, Elmley struck us both as being is not somewhere where you would want to be looking for something highly mobile on your own with its’ vast landscape of grazing marshes and vast skyscapes. No birders cars or birders were initially in view but fortunately as we approached the hill upon which the reserve centre at Kingshill Farm is situated, to my relief, both were visible.

Fortunately, about 25 birders were already there and had it staked out as it was perched on the ground. Unfortunately that was what it did for the majority of the time – and so seeing the key i.d. features was limited to a few short and distant flight views. However, given that it was no hassle to park amongst those birders already there and that I got a quick look at it in someone else’s ‘scope, before leisurely taking turns to look at it through Graham’s over the course of the next hour or more.

This was very relaxing, having left work behind early that afternoon and spent some time at home, I was now looking at a bird I had always wanted to see in the UK., and despite being in southern Britain, near the motorway network, there were very few other birders there.

I took in the bird as best I could, but it was distant, and most of the time partially obscured by the vegetation in the field within which it was perched on the ground. Although the light was initially good, this began to fade, and there was lots of shadow, whilst at the same time there was also some heat haze, and a constant light blizzard of thistle down. Towards the end of our stay, the bird become more active, flying around and perching on fence-posts, and generally showing better. However, by this time the light had significantly deteriorated, with the result that Graham and I eventually lost the bird.

By then though, it was duly on my list. Whilst on the ground (which was interesting enough, just seeing a harrier on the ground) it was a typical male grey type harrier. However, there was the perception of it being a relatively slight harrier, even though there was nothing for it to be relative to. It just looked to be rather delicate. In terms of plumage, the overall colour was obviously a pale grey, but around the upper breast this appeared to be lighter, whilst the scapulars and wing coverts appeared to be darker than would be expected in a fully adult bird. In addition, at certain angles the face pattern appeared to involve as darker mask area around the eye. As such, the bird sometimes recalled a Black-shouldered Kite in a similar sub-adult plumage.

The most diagnostic and dramatic moment came the second time the bird flew. The previous time it flew just a few metres and then landed again. However, this time, as I was watching it through the ‘scope I was able to get almost a ‘freeze-frame’ view of its fully raised right wing, revealing the neat thin lozenge-shaped black wedge at the tip of the central primaries. On the previous occasion I had observed that on the upper-wing these patches appeared to be a very dark brown and slightly diffuse.

Very little other plumage detail was noted, but that was enough – I had got my ‘fix’ on its i.d.. I wasn’t really able to appreciate any detail regarding the soft parts.

In flight the bird was a typical harrier, but looked reasonably slight in terms of its build.

I also managed Peregrine, Hobby, Kestrel, Marsh Harrier, Little Owl, c.100 Yellow Wagtail, c.3 Wheatears, etc., in our hour and a half stay. Catching up with such a good tick was excellent news particularly after the disappointment of the weekend, Burnley getting thrashed 3-1 at home, and my consolation prize disappearing – only to reappear!!! And we still got in our beer in St. Albans.

  Pallid Harrier, Elmley RSPB Reserve, August 2001 (photograph credited to Richard Andrews).

Many years later, in May 2017, I saw the fantastic displaying male near Dunsop Bridge in Bowland Lancashire. This was a mixed experience as watching the bird sky-dancing was absolutely superb, but a complete **** gamekeeper rather spoilt the ambience, and I was journeying back from my father’s funeral.