Confessions of a lapsed birder

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...!