Autumn recess?

Sketching a flock of salmon farm flotation pipes which were showing well near Noss, South Mainland Shetland, during October 2021, or maybe it was the nearby Eastern Yellow Wagtail....

I don't like making excuses, but equally, I appreciate there might just be one or two folks out there in cyberspace who anticipate (if not appreciate 😉 ) my 'regular' postings. 

I do try to be reasonably consistent with my blogposts, but what with working, and just trying to keep up with the conflicting demands of life in general, sometimes there's too little time to manage to squeeze out another load of waffle.  That's said. it is the drawings that take the time, whether or not there's much to go off in my notebooks or original accounts, etc..

So I'm getting in my excuses early, as what with working near Inverness every other week and going to various islands in coming weeks as part of my birding autumn, something might have to give..... .

However, who knows? Being on the Isle of May between 2nd and 9th September, Lewis between the 16th and 23rd September and the Scillies between the 14th and 23rd October may just produce, and as such generate a new species account or two? Watch this space. 

So apologies, normal service will resume as soon as possible!

 Stejneger’s Scoter – off Lower Largo, Fife, 30^th April 2023

The 'evolution' of velvet scoters on my list (or let's see who can develop the most ridiculous bill).

From bottom to top:

- Velvet Scoter, first seen at Spurn, Kilnsea, East Yorkshire, November 1984, when things were so simple;
- White-winged Scoter, Murcar Links, Blackdog, Aberdeenshire, June 2016, when I was slow to realise it was a full fat tick; and,
- Stejneger’s Scoter, Lower Largo, Fife, April 2023, after I had suffered attempting to see it in East Lothian in December 2022.

Stejneger’s Scoter, like his Stonechat, was perhaps a bird which ‘was coming’. The split of the previously lumped ‘Velvet Scoter’ had taken place as long ago back as 2005, meaning we now had the potential for six species of scoter to choose from, whereas way back in my youth there were just three; life was so simple.

Or just five in UK terms. Although White-winged Scoter had very definitely become a ‘thing’, Stejneger’s Scoter failed to arrive on the British list, despite several close failures. It had tantalised ever since the record off Rossbeigh in County Kerry, Ireland in March 2011, but putative records off Mussleburgh in January 2014 and in Holkham Bay in Norfolk in November / December 2021 (a female!!) failed to make the grade.

But, as I say, surely it was only a matter of time? And better, I was close at hand should one be identified at what was undoubtedly ‘Scoter Central’ – the Outer Firth of Forth coastlines of East Lothian and East Fife.

So it proved. Late on the afternoon of Saturday the 10th December 2022, Lothian’s top two rarity finders, Keith Gillon and Calum Scott, made the mightily impressive discovery of one off Gullane Point. The bird was still present the following day but I (predictably / mistakenly?) opted to watch QPR v. Burnley in what was their first game after the World Cup break, in what was already shaping up to be a fantastic season. Oh, and I’d entered into a car sharing arrangement with Tessa which had been an incentive for her to pass her driving test. As she had done this successfully, we had shared my car for some months, which basically meant I filled it up and she drove it. Any twitch was dependant on getting my car back…… .

So it was that I planned to go on Monday the 12th December, subject to the return of my car. Meanwhile, during the evening of the 11th December, I responded to Matt Jackson’s request for a lift to Gullane when he posted it on the Birding Lothian WhatsApp group. Young Matt was a medical student, previously at St. Andrews University and now at Edinburgh University.

We arranged for me to pick him up from the Straiton Park and Ride Car-park at around 09:00 the following morning. This I did successfully, and we quickly travelled to the main car-park at Gullane Bents. It was a bitterly cold morning, with remnants of snow and ice around. Once at the car-park there was something of a faff as the ticket machines weren’t working, but more so, because a car full of birders (I use the term lightly) from down south appeared soon after we did, which included one Lee Evans. He was already in hyper overdrive mode and recognised and assailed me, adamant that we were at the wrong car-park and that it wasn’t possible to walk to Gullane Point from here, mainly because he'd seemingly attempted to do so along the coast when the tide was in in the past….. . He banged on about we should have been parked somewhere else (Aberlady Bay, but….) and ignored me when I tried to explain that Graham Clark, Christine Bennett, Gillian and I had on several occasions managed to walk from Aberlady Bay to where we were in Gullane via Gullane Point with two very young girls in the past… .

Anyway, he ignored me and I ignored him, and Matt and I made our own way to Gullane Point without too much difficult, despite the underfoot conditions being less than helpful for me.

On arrival at Gullane Point we were greeted by a gathering of some 30 or so birders, all gawping out to sea, but not in any coordinated or excited manner. It gradually emerged (perhaps only as a result of subsequent messages on Rare Bird Alert) that the bird had been seen, but only at 09:40, and it was now some good while after that.

It was hard work – made all the more so be the reappearance of LGRE who somehow, miraculously, had made his way to Gullane Point from Gullane Links without any problem. Obviously, no apology was forthcoming, and instead, given that there was no positive news and the Black-throated Thrush was showing in Haddington, he selected Matt and I as the ‘two most likely’ and asked us if we were staying, and if so, to make sure we got the news out if it reappeared.

We assured him we were staying, that we were there for the duration, and that, obviously, we would out any news out as necessary.

Anyway, soon afterwards Matt and I, dispirited by the lack of the bird, any coherent news and any warmth, also opted to leave for the Black-throated Thrush in Haddington, on the premise that we could always come back to Gullane Point should there be any more news.

We quickly found our way to Haddington and the site of the Black-throated Thrush twitch, which happened to be within about 200 m of where Nick and Kathy Smith lived in the middle of Haddington. We parked up and in doing so bumped into Alan Brown who was on very good form. I introduced him to Matt (knowing that Alan had offered Matt advice on getting to Gullane on public transport on the Birding Lothian WhatsApp group). We then also, predictably, bumped into LGRE who thankfully ignored that fact that we’d left our station….. . We then enjoyed seeing the thrush easily, chatting to Darren Woodhead and seeing Mark Holling in the process.

Having done so, we opted to go into Haddington town centre in search of a late lunch. Once we’d been successful in our quest the day sort of petered out; although there was apparent positive news from back at Gullane Point soon after we’d departed, we decided it was too late to bother going back / we just couldn’t face going back, and instead travelled back to Edinburgh where I dropped Matt off in student land before continuing on to South Queensferry.

News about the bird continued during the early part of that week, before it faded away to negative news on the Thursday and Friday. However, there was new (somewhat garbled news?) on both the Saturday and Sunday, when single messages suggested the bird was again ‘at the mouth of Aberlady Bay…….. viewable from Gullane Point’.

So it was I returned to the area on my own on Sunday the 18th December. This time I travelled to Aberlady Bay with the intention of parking and walking from there, but the car-park was full, and so I resigned myself to driving on to Gullane to park in the car-park at Gullane Bents again.

However, as I passed through the golf courses on either side of the road as I travelled towards Gullane, I noticed the gated track entrance of the track through the Gullane golf course to the sewage works on a sweeping bend. Therefore, I opted to park here and walked along the track and then cross-country to Aberlady Bay itself, where I eventually joined a few other birders perched atop the sand-dunes overlooking the bay.

This seemed like a good idea, but my optimism quickly dissipated as I was once again faced with vast expanses of sea with a few distant scoters and no definite ‘leads’. And there was still a very distinct lack of warmth. Although RBA reported the bird was present mid-morning there was no further reports subsequently.

So eventually, I conceded defeat and walked back a more conventional way, down onto the beach and towards the main path, partly because this offered an easier route back, but also partly as this involved coinciding with birders who had chosen to walk out onto the sand- and mud-flats off the ternery to view even more distant scoter flocks.

In doing so I coincided with Stuart Housden, Ken Shaw’s former boss at RSPB Scotland, with whom I then walked back towards Aberlady. When we reached the sewage works, I said my  goodbyes and walked back to the car.

I was very cold and when I commenced putting my gear back in the car, taking off my boots and putting on my shoes, etc., I opted to make this easier by putting both my mobile ‘phone and the car key on the driver’s seat of the car, rather than lose them in the boot and / or to free up my hands. In doing so, fatally, and unknowingly, I pressed the ‘lock’ button on the key fob.

So, having changed my footwear, etc., I closed the boot, and instantly locked myself out of my car, with both the car key, and my ‘phone (complete with my debit card, etc.) there on the driver’s seat.

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once the horrible realisation sunk in (and it became very apparent there was no way I was getting back into my car), I frantically considered my options.

With no ‘phone and no money I had one option. This involved getting the help of others. I began trying to flag down passing cars. But who was going to stop in the middle of nowhere for some mad man dressed in dark clothes late on a mid-winter afternoon? No one!!!

However, incredibly, a young Canadian couple going to see friends in Gullane did stop, and basically, refused to leave until I had been sorted out. This involved them using their mobile phones and/ or allowing me to use their mobile phones to initially log off their Facebook and onto mine so I could message Tessa (who had a spare key for the car but failed to respond, surprise, surprise). We then tried smashing one of the windows of my car with a wheel brace they provided, so that I could reach in and get the key (not a good look alongside a busy road). We ‘phoned my car insurance (after I deliberated about whether it was Tesco Bank Car Insurance or Ford Insure) and attempted to establish whether my package included breakdown cover. It didn’t. We then tried ‘phoning standard national breakdown organisations such as the AA, etc.. None were interested in coming out, as it wasn’t a dire emergency, and there were very high levels of demand nationwide due to the weather, etc.. However, one, Green Flag, were willing to come out, but for a ridiculous amount of money. I’d explained my circumstances (no ‘phone, no credit or debit cards, etc.).

Even so, when I was asked whether I was willing to pay £250, and I had said yes out of desperation, I was asked for my credit card details! I explained that I couldn’t provide these (and had no other means of paying – I could hardly ask my new Canadian friends for £250 could I?). When I said I couldn’t provide this the Green Flag operator said they wouldn’t be able to come out!!!

So, I was at my wit’s end, and I was sure my Canadian friend’s patience had been exhausted, when her ‘phone rang. It was a local car-lock specialist. He had been ‘phoned by Green Flag about a nearby job, and in the process, they had given him the number of the young Canadian woman. Cleverly, when they advised him the job wasn’t going ahead, he then ‘phoned her number and, in effect, said he could do it and could do so for £100 (i.e., without Green Flag’s £150 mark up for doing nothing at all!!!).

The necessary arrangements were made, and he was with us within 15 minutes or so. At this point I was finally able to convince my Canadian friends I would be fine, and so we bid our farewells and they left me and the car-lock specialist to it. He was originally from Darlington, but now lived in North Berwick. He explained that Ford locks were somewhat trickier than most others and necessitated a 10-lever device rather than the normal 8, and that with my locks being less than clean it might be trickier still, but all the same he was in within 5 or 10 minutes.

Having done so he intimated that I should just pay him when I could, but I said this wasn’t good enough, and followed him into Gullane where we went into the shop and I withdrew £100 and gave it to him, before we too said our farewells.

So, not a good experience twitching Stejneger’s Scoter.

The ill-fated Stejneger’s Stonechat twitch (the DNA sample had proved insufficient) compounded my angst, but then on Christmas Eve came the news that a last-ditch attempt to retrieve the necessary DNA had finally been successful and it was a Stejneger’s Stonechat.

So, ultimately, I was philosophical about the scoter. I remember thinking and saying it was a long game, and ultimately it would give itself up somewhere on the Firth of Forth.

So it proved on Friday 28th April, when Jared Wilson located a Stejneger’s Scoter off Lower Largo. The news came through early in the evening but I was writing a Preliminary Ecological Assessment (PEA) Report and so although I could have gone (and made it before it was too dark) I didn’t. Similarly, on the Saturday, I also bided my time to firstly complete the PEA Report and secondly arrange to post my Red-breasted Nuthatch new species account on my blog.

So it was that I was able to go en-route to Inverness on the morning of Sunday 30th April. I planned to coincide with Andy Williams, Al and Jenny McNee and Bob McMillan at Lower Largo at 10:30.

On arrival at the Temple car-park in Lower Largo I noticed Paul Baxter eating a snack on a bench in the car-park. I parked up and, having assembled my gear walked over to Paul to have the craich, He advised the Stejneger’s was viewable from the roadside opposite the car park so I wandered over to the group of birders there, which included John Dempsey. John advised that the bird had moved west and was possibly best looked for from the stone jetty in the distance, so I walked through the village, seeing Rick Goater and his friend as I did so.

As I walked west, I opted to walk along the beach rather than the main road, and as I did, I walked with another birder. He and I then met up with Kris Gibb and Andy Stoddart at the base of some stone steps down to the beach, and typically, Kris quickly and remarkably located the bird from here. However, it was apparent the it would be best looked for from the stone jetty.

I continued on, and having walked along the main road again, circumnavigated the hotel, and pushed past the ‘barrier’ blocking access to the jetty itself. The group of birders assembled at the end of the jetty meant that viewing places were limited, so I stationed myself as best as I could, and bided my time until a better place became free. In the process I saw Calum Scott and Keith Gillon, the original finders of the bird when it was on the Lothian side of the Firth, who were with Mervyn Griffin.

A mixed flock of scoters were reasonably close offshore, and it was amongst them, seemingly. It was hard work, despite the near perfect calm conditions which produced a flat calm sea. There were only one or two markers, including a nearby yellow buoy, and two distant oil rigs, one of which was scarcely visible in the murk of the haar.

Thankfully Keith Gillon got on the bird, and provided coherent directions to get others, including me, onto it. I was very grateful, and when Keith and Calum departed, I thanked him.

So it was that I had seen it. However, I wanted further views, so I stuck around. It was all a bit overwhelming, there weren’t huge numbers of birds, but the were constantly moving and diving and even though the sea was mirror flat, birds could still disappear in troughs between low waves.

Eventually though someone picked it out again, and I finally had a second look at it.

In between times Calum and Keith reappeared and advised everyone that a White-winged Scoter was out there two, just to add to the confusion. Oh, and I chatted to Shaun Coyle, an erstwhile fellow birder / bird surveyor on the Derbyshire – Yorkshire section of HS2 and Geoff Wyatt (who I had seen as I drove through Lower Largo) a fellow birder from our trips to Unst.

When I was able to get views of the bird, I obviously noted the weird ‘knob’ protrusion on the bill, and besides the bill profile the bill shade was noticeable different, involving a patch of duller, pinker and less extensive colouring on the lower central part of the upper mandible.

I was also able to note that when I initially saw it, it swam very low in the water, but whether this is an actual field characteristic is highly debatable.

Once I’d enjoyed my second views, I continued the ‘all our yesterday’s’ tour through names and faces from my birding past by speaking to Helena and Chris Craig, Mya-Rose Craig’s parents, who I last saw on the Mourning Dove twitch.

Stejneger’s Scoter, Lower Largo, Fife, April 2023 (photograph credited to Steve Nuttall).

Sardinian Warbler – Stratton, near Bude, Cornwall, 11^th March 1990

Pete Ewer and his old friend Bill and I journeyed through North Devon from the A30(T) into the very edge of North Cornwall. The A3072 delivered us to Stratton, and once we had parked up we quickly located the scene of the twitch in what was a North Cornish village.

I missed its first showing so I went off to find it myself. And I did! I had a private audience with it as I looked over a gate. It may have been brief views but they were good ones; they were the best ones I had during the time we were there. It was sunning itself in the sheltered top of bush in gardens adjacent to a secluded close.

Basically, it was a sylvia warbler of broadly similar size, shape and appearance to Blackcap. It had grey upper-parts and slightly lighter grey under-parts, and an extensive black ‘cap’ which extended below the eye. It had a red eye-ring.

Subsequently, I've not seen any others, which is perhaps a bit remiss, especially as there have been a couple of relatively easy ones I could have taken in for my Scottish list...... .

Sardinian Warbler, Stratton, near Bude, North Cornwall, March 1990 (photograph credited to Peter Ewer).

Scopoli’s Shearwater – Long Craig Gate Jetty, near South Queensferry, Lothian, 10^th August 2020

Prologue 

Much of 2020 was a strange affair. Certainly, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Common Nighthawk and Eastern Yellow Wagtail type highs of late 2019 were VERY noticeable by their absence.

During March the entire country (er, both Scotland and the UK) was placed in lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which, in terms of rigorous application (and arguably observation), was applied more successfully and lasted much longer in Scotland than it did ‘elsewhere’…… .

For me, what was involved – mainly living in isolation and social distancing (together with improved personal hygiene!) wasn’t too much of an upheaval from the norm. I got on with all those things I never quite got around to, including sorting out the back catalogue of ‘new species accounts’ such as this (or at least as far as writing them all up goes… ). This certainly involved lots of ‘virtual’ birding, exercising the ornithological memory banks……... .

In addition, it also had some negative, and some positive, implications for my actual birding. Trips to the Isle of May in May and to the Hebrides in July were cancelled, as life, and aspirations of 500 were placed on hold. Suspended animation, with not a lot of animation.

However, I also enjoyed some good actual birding, participating in a competitive ‘lockdown house and exercise list’ ‘challenge’. This involved Ken Shaw, Jonny Holiday, Andy Carroll, Chris Pendlebury, John Nadin, Kevin Kelly, et al., using WhatsApp to convey our successes or otherwise as we maintained (and actively pursued!) both house and exercise walk lists during the first weeks and months of lockdown, resulting in me reaching the heady realms of 110 plus species on foot from Minshull Towers, including finding Great White Egret immediately east of the airport, apparently about the 5th for Lothian….. .

I had done very little work since HS2b bird survey work had dried up for me in autumn 2019, apart from some work for Hi-Def (courtesy of Martin Scott). As such, it was, in some very minor ways, a relief to do some work for them again from mid-July onwards, working from home using one of their workstations (as has been intimated might happen in the very early stages of lockdown, when I had briefly worked in their office in Linlithgow, before it was closed, and, eventually, the replacement one in Stockbridge, Edinburgh opened).

Concurrently, I also commenced some 16 or so vantage point surveys in the Queensferry area aimed at proving the presence (or absence!) of Honey Buzzards as part of the national survey being co-ordinated in much of Northern Britain by Chris McInerny and Ken Shaw.

Oh, and having previously failed badly in my mission to purchase somewhere suitable in South Queensferry in which to enjoy my dotage, from a standing start, having viewed a property (identified by Tessa in central Queensferry the preceding weekend) on the evening of Monday the 6th July, by Thursday the 9th July my offer had, unbelievably, been accepted, so I was to be heavily involved with the process of buying one house and selling the other for much of July and August……. .

I did do some other birding though.

Firstly, on the 6th July I was persuaded by David Steel to meet him at John Muir Country Park as he travelled back towards the Isle of May from north-east of England to see the Greater Sand Plover that had been there for a few days….. . Although I didn’t even need it for the site (as I had seen one there with Gillian and a very young Ellen in June 1999) it was very good to see Steely and a good bird.

Secondly, and similarly, on Wednesday the 29th July I indulged in another (very) local twitch, attempting to clean up my Lothian / Scottish Cory’s Shearwater tick (eventually seen – poorly – flying near Inchcolm Island from Hound Point in Dalmeny Estate years ago) by twitching another. This I did eventually see resting on the sea off Dalgety Bay (no thanks to ‘directions’ provided by John Nadin from the Fife side) from Whitehouse Point in Dalmeny Estate – so again very distantly. This was after Kris Gibb very coherently did for Darren Woodhead what John Nadin had attempted, very incoherently, during the course of four or five ‘phone calls between he and Dennis Morrison and he and I whilst we stood on the jetty at Long Craig (poor Dennis Morrison needed it full stop, but had to leave to go to work, in disgust). Darren Woodhead and two of his sons and dog then arrived, and they, Viv Hastie and I had moved from the jetty at Long Craig Gate to Whitehouse Point in the hope that this would make a difference.

….. in the (comparatively insignificant as it turned out) aftermath, I enjoyed some good Twitter banter with Adam Hutt who, amazingly, had managed to see the Cory’s Shearwater off Cramond during his lunchbreak from the new Hi-Def offices in Stockbridge in Edinburgh. By some means he had then scratched away some the dark area at the tip of the underside of the primaries in one of Kris Gibb’s images and posted it on Twitter, suggesting to Kris Gibb he should, “Check out that underwing on your pic!!” I asked him whether he was claiming it…… .

However, despite such fleeting interludes, 2020 had become something of a grind, with some work and little pleasure. As suggested, from mid-July onwards I was involved with doing the Hi-Def identification work using one of their workstations at home during the week, and doing vantage point surveys during the weekend; the pleasure of doing the lockdown exercise walk list had receded as lockdown was relaxed and the birding doldrum days of high summer arrived.

Little did we know what was to follow.
___________________________________________________

Act 1

Early on the morning news of Sunday the 9th August Kris Gibb relayed a message on the Birding Lothian WhatsApp group regarding a Great Shearwater which had been seen as it tracked north past various sites along the north-east coast of England.

At 08:53 Kris Gibb relayed another message about a Cory’s Shearwater that John Nadin has seen off Kinghorn Harbour in Fife at 08:50. At 09:36 Mervyn Griffin reported that (Jason McManus and) he had seen the same bird off Hound Point.

Subsequently, there were further such messages; Calum Scott reported it again from Hound Point at 10:36.

However, I was committed to doing a vantage point survey by this time. And anyway, it was ‘just’ a Cory’s Shearwater, and although poorly, I had seen one locally just eleven days earlier… .

As suggested, between 11:50 and 14:50 I was doing a vantage point survey. On this occasion, this was just south of the A90(T) at Burnshot, looking for raptors over Dalmeny Estate. I accessed this by parking near the newly reconstructed and recently reopened Burnshot Bridge at the north-east corner of the former army base accommodation at Craigiehall, and walking through a wheat field to my vantage point location. It was a lovely day (or seemingly so) but there was a strong easterly wind which created a slight haar over Dalmeny Estate and chilled me as I had just a tee-shirt and walking trousers on as I sat in the shade of a large field boundary beech….. .

Whilst I was doing the survey, further messages on the WhatsApp group (Calum Scott at 12:06 and Martin Scott at 13:21) reported the ongoing presence of the Cory’s Shearwater just a couple of miles north-west of where I was sitting, but diligently I didn’t leave my station / vantage point location…… .

By the time I had finished the survey I just wanted to go home to get warm, but messages still continued. At 15:40 Mark Holling suggested it had been moving backwards and forwards off Hound Point during the past five minutes, whilst at 15:41 Calum Scott reported he had seen it going west over towards the Fife side of the firth……. .

Then, at 15:47 Chris McGuigan reported a second Cory’s, and, two minutes later, that both birds were together….. ! I was at home resting by now, but I should have motivated myself, especially when Ian Andrews reported at 17:30 that both birds were off Inchgarvie next to the Forth Bridge (where it would have theoretically been viewable from the garden of my new residence….) and that one had a white flash on its right wing. Very occasional similar messages continued into the early evening.

Much later that evening Chris McGuigan confirmed that ‘Flash’ or ‘Patch’, as the initial bird had rapidly become known due to the extensive patch of damaged(?) white feathers on its right wing, had been reported a month earlier on the 9th July tracking north along the coast of north-east England before being lost at Seaham. Mark Holling asked whether either of the birds involved could have been the individual seen on the 29th July, and I reminded everyone that Steely had seen one tracking out of the Firth of Forth from the Isle of May on the 30th July…….. .

So, I’d missed two Cory’s Shearwaters in the Firth of Forth, but then again, I’d seen one just a couple of weeks earlier, and I’d completed my vantage point survey….. .
___________________________________________________

Act 2

The following day, Monday the 10th August, I attempted to continue with my Hi-Def work.

However, this proved a tad difficult as at 11:33 Mike Hodgkin relayed a twitter message on the WhatsApp group indicating that the Cory’s with the white wing patch was again in the Forth east of Queensferry, and at 13:25 Kris Gibb reported ‘Flash’ was on the sea in the Hound Point area.

Therefore, I cracked, and having done at least some work, at 14:43 I posted a message asking whether it was still showing.

At 14:50 Neil Maciver suggested that there was no sign, but that a few people were still looking. However, at 15:04 Dennis Morrison suggested that it was sat on the sea off the Long Craig Gate jetty. At 15:05 I responded that I was, ‘On my way. Ta Dennis. Déjà vu’.

Dennis subsequently sent me a rather stunning image which proved rather motivating, and also to be completely crucial in the whole ensuing affair.
___________________________________________________

Act 3

I must have had some sort of a premonition, as I drove from home to Long Craig Gate like a complete looney (90 miles an hour plus at times; I think the car became airborne as I went over the summit of the road alongside Dalmeny Estate before Leuchold Gate).

Anyway, once there, having assembled my gear, I bumped in to Chris McInerny and his daughter. Conveniently, they were watching it from the shelter of the sea cadets building at Long Craig Gate. He gave me good directions, and as he suggested I walked to the end of the jetty (and then followed me to shout even more specific directions) to view from there.

As a result, I saw it resting on the water east of Hopetoun, one of the Hound Point terminal tugs anchored west of the terminal, and then circling around nearby. Briefly, but well, or well enough. Hurray!!!!

Now, I’d like to be able to provide not just a detailed description, but also one which pinned down what subsequently proved to be a very problematic identification issue.

I can’t do that. I can say that I saw (albeit briefly) and superficially what I saw was a Cory’s Shearwater, both when resting on the sea, and when flying over it. It was a large shearwater, with white underparts and greyish-brown upperparts. Like the bird a few weeks before, I noted it seemed to sit low in the water. When flying it just ‘was’ an obvious large shearwater. However, I honestly did note to myself that, compared to the few Cory’s I had seen previously, it looked ‘slight in flight’…….. . Oh, and it had a fuck off big white plumage aberration on its right wing, which proved to be hugely diagnostic….……. 😉 .

Anyway, I contrived to lose it, and so not particularly desperately I continued to scan for it in what was a strangely familiar exercise (hadn’t I been standing on the jetty at Long Craig just a week or so before looking for a Cory’s Shearwater???). Just to add to the déjà vu, John Nadin ‘phoned me from his watchpoint on Carlingnose Point…. .

I was then joined by the Little brothers, soon to be my fellow Queensferry birders.

Necessarily, we chatted all matters Honey Buzzard and / or Ken Shaw, and then continued this conversation when we walked back up the jetty and joined Chris McInerny. It was like a raptor surveyors convention! As if to emphasise the point Chris picked out a Peregrine on the Forth Bridge.

As we were sat chatting beneath the fire escape of the sea cadet hut at Long Craig Gate, I couldn’t help thinking that for me, this was the best place from which to see scarce and rare seabirds, reminiscing about the cracking birding I had enjoyed there with Ken, Mervyn Griffin and Alan Brown years ago.

This continued once I had returned home and resumed work; I’d seen another really good seabird from the jetty at Long Craig Gate, and as such I had finally achieved decent views of Cory’s Shearwater in the Firth of Forth …… .
_______________________________________________

Act 4

However, that night, at 21:34 a message from Mike Hodgkin to the Lothian Birding WhatsApp group stated, “So guys and gals, it has been brought to Martin’s attention that ‘Flash’ is almost certainly a Scopoli’s Shearwater NOT a Cory’s!!!! He also posted a series of supporting images taken from the newly published North Atlantic Seabirds book, accompanied by THAT image taken by Dennis Morrison.

WHAT???????????? THE???????????? FUCK????????????

A series of incredulous responses followed.

I pointed out to the group that Adam Hutt had tried to doctor Kris’ photo on Twitter t’other week to demonstrate this sort of underwing pattern as a joke.

Martin Scott suggested that, “Through the evening he’d had lots of feedback on Dennis’s photograph, and that all had voted for Scop”. He also indicated that Paul French had concluded, ‘So worth submitting I would say’.

Dennis Morrison also reported that, “Bob Flood’s caveated assessment on Dennis’s photos I sent him is that it’s a Scopoli’s Shearwater”.

I enjoyed the evening, having a good WhatsApp message exchange with Steely, aka @SteelySeabirder, for instance.

I also re-visited Twitter, and congratulated Adam Hutt on his incredible voodoo predictive skills, skills I was unaware he had when I knew him from Spurn…. .
___________________________________________________

Act 5

Given that, technically, I hadn’t seen it in its Scopoli’s Shearwater guise (and admittedly, I had only seen it briefly), I was keen to go for seconds the next day, the 11th August. For some reason I had an even worse night’s sleep than usual, so I got up at 06:00 and was on site by 06:30.

Part of me was very driven to see what was potentially going to be massive a twitch on my doorstep, and I wanted to see just manic it was at Long Craig Gate, where, at the best of times, accessing and parking was tricky.

However, I didn’t see it between 06:30 and 09:00 but I enjoyed the company of Andy Stirrat and we were joined by Martin Scott before he left for work. I was also amused to see twitching glitterati (in particular Steve Gantlett!) there. I mused that I had seen a bird he hadn’t….. . I also had dialogue with Ken who was attempting to catch up with it from the Fife side, predictably…. . We saw very little in terms of birds, although as if to demonstrate COVID-19 had wasted much of the year, a couple of early autumn migrants in the form of a Common Sandpiper and a Whimbrel briefly landed on the jetty in front of us.

However, there was no sign of the shearwater, and partly because I was conscious that Martin Scott had left to go to work for Hi-Def, so did I.

Later though, having done at least some seabird i.d. for Hi-Def, I returned to Long Craig Gate that afternoon, partly as Andy Williams and Al McNee had travelled from Ullapool and Inverness respectively, and I wanted to catch up with them.

They had seen it when I got there, and left after we had chatted, and so I then continued on to Hound Point as Andy and Al had informed me that Ken had relented and crossed to the Lothian side in a desperate bid to catch up with the Scopoli’s Shearwater (him having surveyed Balearic Shearwaters off Porthgwarra for the RSPB, etc., etc.). Hound Point thus proved to be good socially (always fantastic to see Ken) and I was also pleased to see Donald Wilson and David Allen. However, Ken was keeping a very low profile due to the presence of a certain person, and both of us shared a reluctance to engage another occasional twitcher….. .

It was very apparent though, I wasn’t going to see the Scopoli’s Shearwater again that day (wrong times, wrong places) and so eventually I left, hearing Crossbill on the way back, when passing oblivious Johnny come lately birders rushing to Hound Point…… .
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Epilogue

Although people were looking, and although there were further sightings of Cory’s Shearwaters off Hound Point in the next day or so, the Scopoli’s didn’t show again, meaning that only those who had located or twitched it as a Cory’s on the Sunday or the Monday (like me), or, had successfully twitched it as a Scopoli’s on the Tuesday (like Ticker Gantlett), managed to see this ultra-rare seabird.

Amazingly, it was next seen off Mundesley, Norfolk on Saturday the 15th August…. (just what had east coast birders been playing at???).

Despite this, I had a strong suspicion it would remain an ultra-rare seabird (partly as it was a species which would continue to be virtually impossible to identify during a sea-watch from a Cornish headland, or from the deck of the Scillonian). Fate conspired to make this highly recognisable individual identifiable as it lingered in inshore waters over a couple of days (some of the time in the company of a Cory’s, allowing for comparisons to be made) enabling stupendous images to be obtained, and retrospectively used to clinch the i.d.. No, I suspect it could be a real blocker…. .

Anyway, I resumed a more routine pattern of work during the rest of the week, basking in the incredible success of seeing a second or third for the UK and a first for Scotland, just four or so miles from home. My only regret was that, if it had been a few days later, I might have even had it from my new home in Queensferry (just 0.5 mile away!). What a garden tick that would have been!!!!

Part of the basking in the incredible success involved discussing at some length with John Nadin nuances of his task of providing a suitable description; he was the first to see ‘Patch’ and as such Mervyn Griffin was magnanimous enough to say it was John’s bird. It was, on the basis that he had seen it first. John had also, clever boy that he is, got video footage of both birds flying over an extended period, not together, but concurrently. However, given his very palpable qualms, I actively encouraged John to involve ALL of those actively involved; Jason McManus and Mervyn Griffin for also first seeing the bird, Ian Andrews for getting really good images of the two birds together, Dennis Morrison for getting ‘the’ image that allowed re-identification, and Martin Scott (and presumably Adam Hutt) for peddling and pursuing the potential Scopoli’s theory in consultation with various authorities. Oh, and Bob Flood, Killian Mullarney and Paul French for commenting on the bird depicted in Dennis’s image. All in all, I felt both very local to the scene of a stupendous record, and really central (even though I played no part in finding or identifying the bird) to the whole thing, as I know so many of the main players well or very well. Way more so than any other rares, even the one or two that I have been actually involved in finding.

It was all the more gratifying then, that John was commended on his very detailed record submission.

 

An attempt at reproducing the images that accompanied Mike Hodgkin's momentous WhatsApp message… (including the photograph taken by Dennis Morrison). Who needs a written description?

Cory’s (left) and Scopoli’s (right) Shearwaters, off the Forth Bridge, South Queensferry, Lothian, August 2020 (photographs credited to, and montage assembled by, Ian Andrews).

Scopoli’s Shearwater, off the Forth Bridge, South Queensferry, Lothian, August 2020 (photographs credited to, and montage assembled by, Ian Andrews).

Tree Swallow – Porthellick, St. Mary's, Scillies, Cornwall, 9^th June 1990

Hurray!! Another tick – after an epic twitch – again a ferry journey was necessary to get us there. There wasn’t, perhaps, the anticipation of the Pallas’s Sandgrouse (owing to tiredness and drowsiness due to both pain-killing and sea-sickness pills!). Also, it was an instantaneous decision, without any time to consider dipping.

Pete, Mike and I had driven from St. Albans to Penzance between 19:30 on the evening of Friday the 8th June and 02:30 on the early morning of the following day. We then ‘slept’ in the car before getting the Scillonian to Hugh Town on St. Marys.

During the crossing I was ill.

All not helped by the fact that I had an as yet undiagnosed broken wrist..... .

What? You want the full story? The full, unexpurgated story....?

Right. So. Working for Bechtel on the Shell North West Ethylene Pipeline Project meant that I was reunited with Nick Smith (who had been the BP Environmental Officer on the Purbeck to Southampton Pipeline) and Dave Maynard (who had been one of the BP Archaeologists on the same project); I had been the Environmental Officer for the pipeline construction contractor, Press Pipelines, and as such worked ‘opposite’ the two of them.

Now, we were working together. This was brilliant, as we all got on very well. The week I returned back to work, having been trapped on Fair Isle by weather which prevented flights (hell, eh, being trapped on Fair Isle in early June??) ended on Friday the 8th June. There was something of a liquid lunch culture at Bechtel on Fridays. This, combined with the fact that it was Nick’s birthday and the fact that we all got on very well meant that we did six pints of Guinness each (two rounds of three pints each – simples). This wouldn’t have been a problem but.............. .

A few days earlier the rather stupendous news of the Ancient Murrelet on Lundy had broken. Paul, fair play to him, had somehow chartered a fishing boat to take us to Lundy from Ilfracombe, and so after ‘work’ I was rushing home from the Bechtel offices in The Strand in Central London to get ready to drive to North Devon with Pete and Mike....... .

Or that was the plan. I’m not even sure we returned back to work that afternoon, but presumably we did, as I travelled home with my briefcase, and probably hadn’t taken that to the pub.

Anyway, I left the office and rushed to the tube station to take a Circle or District Line train from Embankment to Blackfriars, as ‘normal’. Except it wasn’t as ‘normal’..... . I rushed more than ‘normal’ (I had an appointment with a fantastic bird, a first for the Western Palaearctic!) and I was pissed. This was a fatal combination. For reasons that are unclear my route took me down the steps between The Strand and Victoria Embankment. Now, as I rushed I might well have still tripped anyway, but as I rushed whilst pissed, and then tripped, I fell headlong down the steps.... .

I put my left hand out to break my fall. This worked. Of sorts. My briefcase was in my right hand and was damaged as I, and it, crashed to the ground. There I lay, spread-eagled, suited and booted, and (still) pissed.... . This being London, no one offered any sort of help; I vaguely remember people stepping around me with evident disgust (no doubt thinking to themselves, “Oh, my God! He’s drunk”).

Anyway, I gathered myself and my briefcase up, and continued, nay (yep, you’ve got it) rushed to the tube station and caught a tube to Blackfriars, and from there a Thameslink train back to St. Albans. All in all, although my wrist hurt like fuck quite a lot I was of the opinion it could have been worse and anyway, I just had to get home so I could get my gear together and we could meet up and drive off to North Devon.

Now, I’m not sure at what stage our plans changed, but in these pre-mobile days, it may have been that I had a voicemail message or a call from Paul once I arrived home. Anyway, in summary, the twitch to Lundy was off, as the weather / shipping forecast wasn’t good and so the fishing boat wasn’t going to be going.

However, this meant that Plan B had instantly kicked in. A Tree Swallow (another first for the Western Palaearctic) had been identified at Porthellick on St. Mary’s on Wednesday the 6th June, and was still around. Hence we drove overnight to Penzance in south-west Cornwall rather than to Ilfracombe in north Devon. At the same time, birders from all over the UK were doing the same..... .

Me, with my very painful left wrist. Hence me not sleeping very well in the car, once we were in Penzance. Hence me not feeling very well on the Scillonian, during what was a pleasant enough crossing.

We’d met up with Paul and others in Penzance that morning; as suggested, he and many other birders had driven through the night to be there in time for the sailing of the Scillonian.

Feeling rough, I prepared as best as I could for the crossing. Sea-sickness pills always make me incredibly thirsty. I’m not sure I was up for a full cooked breakfast or whatever, but I did have a small carton of Ribena to combat the thirst. Who knows? Maybe I hadn’t imbibed much else (other than various pills!) since those six pints of Guinness. Anyway, later, whilst we were sea-watching from the decks of the Scillonian I began to feel queasy, and then very queasy and then...... .

I chundered over the handrail of the Scillonian, but there was nothing to throw up except various bodily liquids and Ribena. As a result, this purplish amorphous shape floated around in the air currents created by the movement of the ship. It hovered about like an apparition, as though it was deciding who to crash land on, before thankfully dissipating and drifting down to the sea below and behind the Scillonian. Too much detail, but it was very funny, or so I was told. Maybe you had to be there? Oh, wait! I was, at least in ......... .

Anyway, once the Scillonian had moored in Hugh Town we disembarked and yomped all the way to Porthellick like an invading (but very ill-disciplined, straggling) army.

Despite everything, we, and more to the point, I, got there, we got to Porthellick. We were met by the sight of a huge gallery of c.500 birders. And the star act. It was a fantastic performer, most memorably watched as it hawked for insects over Porthellick Bay, where I watched it from close to the monument to Sir Cloudesley Shovell... . The assembled birders obviously vied for suitable places from which to watch. As a result I watched at one stage from a location at which I was stood on Hottentot Fig that dominates the upper reaches of many sandy beaches in the Scillies.

..... when a passing local woman told me off for standing on the pretty flowers, I gave her VERY short shrift. (“What, you mean this invasive non-native plant???” FFS!!!).

Anyway, where was I? Aaaah, yes, the bird!!! It was like a House Martin x Swallow hybrid on steroids. It was a very bulky martin; the broad wings, the often fanned tail and the stocky body all combined to give the bird a distinctive jizz. The shape was almost reminiscent of Starling at times. It was both very rapid and very fluid in flight. The under-parts – the throat, breast, vent and under-tail coverts were a very brilliant white. The upper-parts (and also the under-side of the wings and tail) were generally blue black. However, the back, rump and head were suffused with a vivid blue-green. In certain lights the remiges and retrices looked greyer.

My notebook indicates that whilst on St. Marys I also saw an immature Night Heron which was also at Porthellick and a Ring-billed Gull which was on the Porthcressa Beach.

All I know is that having seen the bird I walked back towards Hugh Town and went to the hospital about my wrist (I got my priorities right, obviously). When, eventually, I saw a doctor he told me to rest my elbow on his desk and give him my hand, which I did. He vigorously waggled it around and pronounced that my wrist was just badly sprained. He advised me that if it was still causing me pain in a few weeks I should go to see my own doctor. I think he was sick of visiting birders and holidaymakers using the scarce resources of the hospital on St. Marys.........

Cutting a long story short, when, several weeks later, I did finally go to see my doctor he more or less instantly diagnosed a broken wrist. But I’d seen Tree Swallow...... .

Tree Swallow, Porthellick, St. Mary's,  Isles of Scilly, June 1990 (photograph credited to David Cotteridge).

Tree Swallow, Porthellick, St. Mary's,  Isles of Scilly, June 1990 (photograph credited to  Robin Chittenden).

Tree Swallow, Porthellick, St. Mary's,  Isles of Scilly, June 1990 (photograph credited to Robin Chittenden).

Glossy Ibis – Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, near Canterbury, Kent, 10^th November 1988

So. Alison Bunting and I decided to twitch the long-staying Glossy Ibis which regularly roosted at Stodmarsh.

We travelled from Dorset to Kent to do so on Thursday the 10th November 1988.

We arrived early. I only expected a brief fly-over view at dusk. I was concerned about it being very bad light at dusk, allowing only a very poor view, as it came in during an anticipated 16:00 to 16:40 ‘window’ after a long vigil.

So, when during our walk to the best viewing location we jammed into the bird at only 15:05 (also seeing Hen Harrier but not seeing Isabelline Shrike) I was very happy. As we worked our way back along the causeway flanked by reed-beds on both sides we were attracted to something happening by the presence of two Carrion Crows overhead. I suspected they had been mobbing it as it flew in off the rough pasture area to the south.

When we got on it, it was already dropping in to a lagoon surrounded by reed-beds. It was still reasonably good light (well not too bad!); certainly, we would have probably missed it otherwise. We watched as it dramatically, extrovertly ‘whiffled’ in to roost like a goose, before landing in full view on the edge of the reed-bed. Here it preened, stretched and moved about, giving excellent views.

The long thin neck, and relatively large rounded head and, obviously, a long down-curved bill were all evident in flight.

It was like a black egret in size and shape at rest, apart from the long down-curved bill, which was thick at the base, tapered and kinked.

Subsequently, at long time later I saw one south of Kinross in March 2014 and several together on Fair Isle in October 2017.

Lastly, I should perhaps just indicate that in the late 1980s Glossy Ibis was still a genuine 'rare', hence twitching the long-staying Stodmarsh bird from Dorset. Ignoring the 'many' records prior to 1957 when the Rarities Committee came into being, there had been just 40 records between 1958 and 1987, and there were just two records in 1988, including the Stodmarsh bird. Indeed, the 1988 Rare Birds in Great Britain report noted that the species "(Range is almost cosmopolitan, nearest breeders in the Balkans) Still a few odd ones appear in odd places; the severe decline in Europe has led to speculation that 'our' birds may be from the Nearctic".

However, despite droughts and climate change the species successfully re-colonised Iberia and numbers boomed, and it is believed that it is from here that most records in Great Britain now emanate.

Glossy Ibis, Stodmarsh, Kent, November 1988 (photograph credited to Tim Loseby).

 American Coot – Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, near Canterbury, Kent, 20^th April 1996

Yet another superb plus, during an unbelievable first few months of 1996. It – the news – broke on the night of Tuesday the 16th April, when I was out with Steve Boothroyd and the pipeline archaeologists, Susan and Bridget. Only after completing the weeks work, oh, and taking in the two Harlequins near Girvan, Ayrshire on the Wednesday, did I take the decision to go for it. Gilly had succumbed to the inevitable, and had offered me the prospect of a long-distance twitch to Kent. I was not enthused all the same, given the distances involved. My various schemes were all thwarted. Paul Pugh had commitments and to travel by any indirect means (with others) would reduce the already short length of the weekend, given the length of a journey to Kent and back.

I was, as a consequence, very indecisive about the whole deal. What to do?

After a couple of meetings on the Friday, I was faced with trying to do a meeting note under the pressure of knowing I really had to go. I cracked, as it was a very nice day, and headed off on what proved to be a perfectly reasonable, no hassle journey to St. Albans, taking just six hours from midday.

As the bird was fairly settled there seemed little urgency, so after a St. Albans night, Mike Thompson, Susie Pearson and I travelled to Stodmarsh, arriving at c.11:00. Greeted by moderate congestion and alternative car-parking arrangements, I was concerned about crowds. Mike had already twitched it earlier in the week, and so, compared to me, was very chilled.

Walking along the Lampen Wall we were confronted by a crowd of 50 or so looking at the bird as it did its’ thing at the junction of the ditches in the reedbed alongside. Always within 50 m and sometimes less than 10 m away it always gave stunning views, complete with nearby Bearded Tits. Strangest circumstances – first for Britain, so close, whilst a relaxed gallery took it in, chatted, purchased photographs, etc.. Oh, and seemingly, there was a Green-winged Teal on view as well, my first, but I have no recollection this whatsoever.

Overall like Coot in general appearance, but it was immediately obvious due to small bill as the (bald) plate was absent. Perhaps slightly smaller than Coot, and yes, the Moorhen x Coot analogy is good. The bill was a strange affair, with a fine, dark sub-terminal band, and a ‘blood blister’ at top of it. Its plumage was dark grey-black, apparent from off-white undertail covert patches.

As I say, all incredibly chilled for a 'first for' the UK. That said, in early 2014 I saw my second in the UK at Loch Flemington, Highland, and other than me, there was no one there, although by then there had been other Scottish records and the bird involved had been around for a good while.

As twitches of 'firsts for' Britain go, this has to be the most chilled ever, though admittedly it had been on constant show for a few days by the time I got there..... .

American Coot, Stodmarsh, Kent, April 1996 (photograph credited to unknown).