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THREE-IN-A-DAY

White-winged Scoter, off Dunbarnie Links, Largo Bay (Mike Watson)

THIS HADN’T HAPPENED FOR ALMOST 40 YEARS! The last time I saw three new birds for the UK in one day was on 12 October 1985 - the Scilly autumn that was - both cuckoos and a grosbeak. OK that line-up will take some beating but today’s treble was still pretty exciting even though it was set up nicely in advance and wasn’t a spur of the moment one-day-only event, with all three quite long-staying, two megas and one much softer one.

Mark Varley and I met at Diedert’s place in Dunsop Bridge at 1am. Bowland has a clear night sky compared to the bright lights of the Ribble Valley! One Barn Owl on the way too. Then it was down to the serious business of getting to Scotland. Dunsop is almost exactly at the geographical centre of the UK but twitching from here is made more difficult by the winding road over the Trough of Bowland to the northbound M6. Despite the early start it’s always easier on the outbound isn’t it? Especially if you had a few hours sleep. There was a surprising number of trucks on the move in the middle of the night though.

We made quick progress to Lower Largo, by which time it was already ‘birding light’ and we could see the gathering of scoters 2km away to the east off Dunbarnie Links. Diedert got a text from Dan at 1am that there had been a sighting of the Stejneger’s Scoter at 8pm by John Nadin the previous evening. This hadn’t made it to the national news networks yesterday and we had been a bit nervous that there was no update since 7am the previous day. It felt further than 2km, Mark carrying two tripods and the 500. Fortunately one of the American White-winged Scoters was one of the closest birds off the pill boxes on the links in lovely early morning light. We were able to study it very nicely - the pink bill making it easy to pick out but the first thing that struck me wasn’t the bill colour, it was the large white Nike tick under its eye and the big-headed look. OK this wasn’t really the lifer that made us move today but it was good to catch up with one in the UK at long last. I’d been saving it. We could see some other interesting things about it, like how you can see daylight through the large nostril when it is side-on and that the nostril and bill bulge change shape as it breathes. What an awesome-looking creature! After much scanning of the widely-spread scoter flock, about 500 in all, we saw the second drake white-winger and were able to switch scopes quickly, seeing both within a couple of seconds.

Spot the white-winger! (MIke Watson)

We continued scanning the many Common and Velvet Scoters but there was nothing rarer among them than a breeding plumage Red-necked Grebe, some Red-throated Loons, Razorbills, Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers. We walked a little further along the links to keep the sun behind us but then Diedert got a message that the Stejneger’s was showing so it was back along to where the other birders had now gathered. Mike Hunter did a great job of picking it out. Surely we didn’t overlook it unless it had been sleeping or diving? It was instantly distinctive, with a long evenly sloping forehead like an eider and a much bigger nostril bulge. The light was much harsher now and all the birds appeared virtually black-and-white but nevertheless there it was, two down, one to go.

Stejneger’s Scoter - just check that head profile, even when only a handful of pixels! (Mike Watson)

Diedert Koppenol, thanks for doing the driving pal

Mark Varley and scoter watchers (Mike Watson)

Still the best scoter illustration, Ian Lewington’s awesome plate in Martin Garner’s ‘Birding Frontiers’

There was another lifer for both Diedert and Mark within just over an hour’s drive away, Ring-billed Gull in pretty Glen Turret. Was it still there as it hadn’t been reported for a few days. The answer was yes, probably. After three cuckoos, Grey Wagtail and Red Grouse this became a definite yes. In fact it had a mate, a Common Gull, in tow. The views were pretty awesome! A couple of ravens and a Peregrine were overhead. We hadn’t realised the significance of the glen we were in either, home to Scotland’s oldest whisky distillery no less. We had a good look there too!

Ring-billed and Common Gulls, there’s something happening here (Mike Watson)

There was still the small matter of a drake Hooded Merganser at Whinfell Tarn in Cumbria! We could stay awake long enough to get there on the way home to Lancashire. It was in the company of two Tufted Ducks at the peculiar little private lake. Unringed, right side of the country, good arrival date for reorientating American ducks etc. So there it was, three-in-a-day! Just don’t stay too long please.

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GREY-HEADED LAPWING AT LOW NEWTON - FIRST FOR BRITAIN

Mayday Mayday! Grey-headed Lapwing at Low Newton scrapes, Northumberland 1 May 2023.

‘There are some birds you just can’t say no to’ Ken Shaw. This was another. Mark Varley and I were very late to the party but happily the Bank Holiday roads were clear of traffic and we made good progress to Low Newton, where the Grey-headed Lapwing was still present by a small pool behind the avocet colony. Repeat avocet colony! There’s a sentence that would have been unthinkable when I first visited this lovely spot on the Northumberland coast on 16 May 1981. I see from my notebook that I saw two new birds here on that day – Little Gull and Common Stonechat. I couldn’t imagine what I would be watching here 42 years later! 8000km from home Grey-headed Lapwing is one of the most extreme vagrants that I’ve seen in the UK, and closest I’d seen before today was Kaziranga in Assam. It looked to be feeding in the damp grass between the two pools of Gary Woodburn, the finder’s scrape just behind the village. Patting the ground with its feet, like gulls do. It got some hassle from the avocets so I will be surprised if it settles here for long. As we watched it, Sand Martins skimmed the water’s surface, and a Yellow Wagtail was among the Pied Wagtails on the near edge of the pool. Shelduck, Gadwall and shoveler were also in residence, what a terrific little place! Some familiar faces included Adam Archer and Tony Barter on their day tour of the England. This morning they were watching Forster’s Tern on Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour!!! Lee Evans also rolled up before sunset. However, things are not all well in Northumberland, we couldn’t find a single chippy open in Seahouses after 8 o’clock and had to make do with a kebab instead. What is this country coming to?

Grey-headed Lapwing’s breeding range is actually to the east of Mongolia! Handbook of the Birds of the World (vol. 3) published by Lynx Editions

No. 15. Grey-headed Lapwing is a big lapwing! It does rather stand out! Handbook of the Birds of the World (vol. 3) published by Lynx Editions

My 1981 diary excerpt

Falling asleep at the scope! Adam Archer and Tony Barter’s UK day tour! No lifer too far!

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ROOF OF THE WORLD SANDGROUSE

Tibetan Sandgrouse on the Kalang Tar Tar 5330m ASL, southeast Ladakh, March 2023 (Mike Watson)

Tucked away in a far-flung corner of northwest India lies the newly created Union Territory of Ladakh. It is a winter mountain island, as all roads to it are blocked by snow until late into the spring and when you take off in Delhi you might as well be heading into outer space towards another planet. That’s how it feels to descend through the clouds and enter a world of endless snowy Himalayan peaks. Even the Indus Valley has an other-worldly feel to it, the barren high altitude mountain desert landscape, Leh’s spartan military air base and then the outdoor-gear-clad locals in the airport would not look out-of-place in Star Wars. Following the sacred River Indus upstream, eventually the jagged uplifted peaks give way to a more open landscape of rolling hills, deceptively high and it is sometimes easy to forget this when stepping out of the vehicle, until you breathe the thin air of course.

Tibetan Sandgrouse, shuffling across the barren mountain desert landscape foraging for tiny seeds (Mike Watson)

To a birder (and mammal enthusiast) everything with the word Tibetan in its name is interesting, and none more so than the sandgrouse. It is also one of the highest dwelling bird species, quite at home at more than 5000m ASL. This time we were lucky to see a flock of 42 birds at 5330m! They flew over, calling while we were watching a small group of Tibetan Gazelles on the Kalang Tar Tar, a very special high grassland on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, near the village of Hanle in southeast Ladakh. The weather changes quickly up in the clouds, one minute the sun is shining, and the next snowflakes fill the air. In winter there is not much evidence of grass, unless you look closely at the ground, but herbivores like the gazelles and sandgrouse still manage to eke out a living up here. In fact, Ladakh is probably the easiest place in the world to see the latter, there’s even no need to leave the vehicle unless you want to get closer. Foraging for tiny seeds, the sandgrouse shuffled across the high-altitude desert and were, as usual, remarkably confiding for birds of their family. A spiritual experience indeed.

Tibetan Sandgrouse - words of advice, always approach from downslope, this has worked for me so far (Mike Watson)

Another ‘road less-travelled’ on the Kalang Tar Tar (Mike Watson)

The Tibetan Plateau, where the deep blue sky is almost black (Mike Watson)

The rolling landscape of the Kalang Tar Tar, it is easy to forget you are up at over 5000m ASL here (Mike Watson)

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MAASAI MARA SERVAL

Serval, Pose Plains, Maasai Mara, August 2022

Card No. 15 in the Brooke Bond ‘African Wild Life’ series, first published in 1962 was the Serval. Illustrated and described by Charles F Tunnicliffe it is a truly beautiful animal. With legs, even more out of proportion than Cheetah, in fact the longest of any cat compared to its body size that give it a stilted appearance. It shares a finely spotted coat too, ‘at one time much in favour with native chiefs for mantles, and even today its fur is used for that purpose by the European furriers’ wrote Tunnicliffe 60 years ago. When photographing wildlife I am often thinking of an image that looks like one of his tea card paintings - I might just have what I was looking for!

We had a couple of Serval encounters on the recent Wild Images Maasai Mara tour. The first was in very harsh late morning light and very nice, but it was more of a watching experience as it hunted in a sea of grass, so typical of the Mara plains. As we waited for it to show in the open, more safari vehicles arrived and made viewing space tricky and backgrounds far from ideal, so we abandoned it. Our next meeting with the ‘Delicate Cat’ was late one afternoon at sunset, when we received a call from our lodge’s other vehicles that a Serval was not far away. This time we had it completely to ourselves for about half an hour, on the prowl in the long grass, striking various poses and crucially a few times without a mesh of grass stems across its face as so often is the way. The low light was actually really nice and the Canon R5 performed. FAB-U-LOUS!

Thanks to my awesome Maasai driver guide Tinka Jackson, without whose expert help these photos would not have been possible.

Brooke Bond Tea Card no. #15, African Wild Life 1962 by Charles F. Tunnicliffe

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